2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Can governance facilitate poor countries to achieve sustainable development goals? Exploring governance pathways for poverty reduction and environmental sustainability
| Project/Area Number |
16F16775
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| Research Institution | Keio University |
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Principal Investigator |
蟹江 憲史 慶應義塾大学, 政策・メディア研究科(藤沢), 教授 (90326463)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SUNAM RAMESH 慶應義塾大学, 環境情報学部, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-11-07 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | Poverty reduction / SDGs / MDGs / sustainability / governance / migration |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
A Postdoctoral Research Fellow (hereafter the Fellow) joined the UNU-IAS in late October 2016. Since then, the fellow has progressed very well in undertaking the proposed research. The research title is: Can governance facilitate poor countries to achieve sustainable development goals? Exploring governance pathways for poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.
For the FY2016 (October 2016 to March 2017), the fellow had planned three major tasks: 1) to undertake a literature review and develop research framework, 2) to design field research including the checklist for expert interviews, and 3) to establish contacts with the partner organizations and researchers from the study countries. The fellow has accomplished these tasks. In addition, the fellow also completed preliminary fieldwork in Nepal. He actively participated in a workshop on ‘Sustainable Development Goals, Natural Resource Accounts and Policy Indicators for Asia’ held in Bangkok, Thailand between 14-15 December 2016. In terms of publication, the fellow published an opinion piece about evidence-based policy making and social inclusion policy. He has drafted a journal article to be submitted to a top-ranking journal for the peer review soon.
Overall, the FY2016 has been very fruitful for laying out a strong foundation for the proposed research.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In the FY1, the fellow accomplished all tasks as planned. He reviewed the relevant literature, designed field research including the preparation of checklist for interviews, and established contacts with the partner organizations and researchers from the study countries. In addition, the fellow also delivered a presentation at the UNU-IAS to share his research proposal and fieldwork plan. He received positive feedback from the participants. Then, the fellow undertook a scoping field visit in Nepal, established contacts with relevant organizations including the UNDP, and collected documents for the review. As noted earlier, he attended a workshop on Sustainable Development Goals, in Bangkok. In addition, he published an opinion piece and draft an article. Given these, the fellow feels that he has achieved more than expected.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The fellow plans to complete important research tasks in this fiscal year (FY2017). Important tasks include generating data through fieldwork which involves expert interviews in the study countries, an analysis of country-specific documents and the interview data, and drafting of journal articles. In addition, the fellow will present papers at the international conferences (such as DSA2017: Sustainability interrogated: societies, growth, and social justice) to share the key findings of the research and gain feedback from scholars within Japan and outside.
In this fiscal year, the fellow will travel to Nepal and Ethiopia for conducting expert interviews with senior policy makers and key representatives from the UN agencies, donor organizations and I/NGOs for understanding how different governance features play out to generate specific poverty and sustainability outcomes. In Ethiopia, the fellow will be assisted by a research assistant (RA) to perform three tasks: to liaise with potential interview participants, to source relevant documents/reports, and to act as an interpreter during the interview process. In Nepal, RA will perform the first two tasks.
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