Alumni: ASADA Yoshinori_UN Employee(JPO)

(Business scene at UNDP (remote work with a time difference of 13 hours from Japan))

UN Employee(JPO)
Dispatch Destination: AY2011 Grameen Bank (Shakti) (Bangladesh)

Recent Situation

After graduating from Hiroshima University’s Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), I worked as a researcher at the Japanese Embassy in Laos, which gave me the opportunity to learn how bilateral international cooperation is formed. After that, I worked as a researcher in JICA's Laos office, which enabled me to work on international cooperation a little more on-site. Based on my experience working in the field of international cooperation in developing countries, I now have the opportunity to work for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which supports the establishment of more effective international cooperation frameworks for developing countries as a whole and from a more global perspective.

Thoughts on the G.ecbo Program

As I have mentioned before, I was scared and anxious to step out of my comfort place when applying for G.ecbo, and to be honest, I was reluctant to apply at first. However, I managed to apply because one of the potential internship sites was Bangladesh, where I had stayed for work before entering IDEC. Bangladesh was a country that had a strong impact on me, making me want to study more about the field of development and contribute to the development of developing countries in some way. I remember that the desire to reconfirm my motivation in Bangladesh turned my fear and anxiety into an exciting and positive feeling. It was a very small piece of emotional struggle, but it allowed me to join G.ecbo, and that in turn led to a specific career for me. In retrospect, I had similar emotional conflicts when I was at the crossroads of my career in Laos and when I applied to the United Nations, and I think I tried to look at each of them with an excited and positive attitude in light of my own motivation. Perhaps it was G.ecbo that helped me learn how to turn the anxiety I felt when taking on a challenge into something positive and enjoyable.

My experience at JICA

As was the case at the Embassy of Japan in Laos, at JICA's Laos office I learned about various schemes of Japan's international cooperation, and was able to engage in the actual flow of each scheme, from project formation to coordination during implementation and evaluation after completion. In particular, I was struck by the fact that international cooperation must be closely coordinated with partner governments in order to meet the needs of partner countries, and also with other development partners in the field, in order to maximize aid effectiveness. In Laos, the government took the initiative in establishing a framework for aid coordination with the round-table process, within which various development actors worked together to provide assistance. I was able to experience the process of considering how to tackle the development issues in Laos by placing myself in the framework of the project and coordinating with the government and other organizations, which has greatly helped me in my current work at UNDP.

(At a round-table meeting in Laos, 2019)


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