The African Business Education Initiative for Youth (the ABE Initiative) is a large-scale Japanese scholarship program which has provided educational opportunities to more than 2000 gifted African students since 2014 with the objective of strengthening business links between Africa and Japan and developing skilled human resources in Africa. With African countries experiencing rapid growth and renewed interest from the private sector in Japan in African investment, the program is increasingly critical to the success of both Japan and its African partners. Despite this, the ABE Initiative and its impacts have attracted little academic interest, with most of the existing literature focusing on western-led programs. This exploratory study makes use of a three-phase mixed methods approach, combining large-scale survey data of former participants with in-depth case study data of former participants and qualitative interviews of program facilitators and in-field program coordinators. The study aims to assess the long-term contributions of the ABE Initiative to human resource development, socioeconomic development, and Japan’s soft power in Africa, determining the mutual benefits to both the Japanese and African sides in addition to any limitations which can be addressed to improve the program further. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the broader literature on international aid scholarship programs by sharing Japanese practices, and it will allow policymakers and coordinators to make informed decisions on the ABE Initiative and similar scholarship programs in the future as the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development approaches in 2025.

Authors:
James Kaizuka, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Mr James Kaizuka is a Research Fellow at ICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute in Japan

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