Community Capacity and Rural Development -2-

 This book is a second edition of our reading material for JICA training programs. We have been conducting training programs on community capacity and rural development at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) since 2006. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) entrusts us with trainees who are engaging in development issues in their countries, focusing on government officials, provincial governors, municipal mayors and representatives of associations. There have been 48 programs including participants from 67 countries thus far as fiscal year 2013. Our training programs begin with an introduction of the concept of community capacity and rural development highlighting Community-Based One Village, One Product (OVOP) and Decentralized Hands-on (DHO) Exhibition approaches.

This book is a compilation of literatures edited for our trainings, selected existing articles, and revised papers, as necessary. Some content newly added in order to provide reading materials that coordinate with our trainings. This is, therefore, an accumulation of our knowledge on rural development and community capacity, focusing on mainly Japanese cases. Our goal with our trainings and this book is to create an environment where rural development takes place through connecting concept and practice.