JICA - ASEAN Regional Cooperation Meeting (JARCOM) Case study Partners Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA Advanced ASEAN Countries CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) ASEAN Secretariat

JICA - ASEAN Regional Cooperation Meeting (JARCOM) Case study Background JICA-ASEAN Regional Cooperation Meeting (JARCOM) is a needs- oriented project formulation support mechanism to promote South-South Cooperation among its member countries under the technical cooperation framework of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It facilitates an annual process of needs-resources identification and matching, project formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

ObjectivesInnovation JICA - ASEAN Regional Cooperation Meeting (JARCOM) Case study To minimize the socio - economic development gaps between ASEAN member countries for rapid integration of newly admitted members in the group. To reduce the number of parallel initiatives for bilateral assistance under the Third Country Training Programme of JICA. Development assistance to the Southern economies (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - CMLV) was provided by the economies from within the South (advanced ASEAN countries), with due facilitation from the North (Japan). Needs of Southern economies, were identified through pre-proposal consultations with the governments from the CLMV countries. A pre-announcement of resource availability was made for recipient countries for optimum matching of needs and resources. All the partner countries were engaged in performance monitoring on an annual basis.

ResultsApplicability As a result of the initiatives over a period of 8-9 years, a strong manpower base was created for initiating economic development programmes across CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam). This provided the capacity for reducing development gaps between the advanced ASEAN members and the CLMV countries. Also, in the process some of the recipient members themselves have evolved as provider countries. In some instances, local authorities were benefited in managing challenges they face at the operational end. Triangular cooperation works best when the partner countries have similar levels of commitment and may be more effective if regional institutions play a key facilitating role. JICA - ASEAN Regional Cooperation Meeting (JARCOM) Case study