Managing International Cooperation for Organizational Capacity Development: Setting a Conceptual Foundation for Case Study Research and its Utilization

Capacity development has been the core of JICA’s technical cooperation, especially after 2000s. The issue has been repeatedly debated among the professional institutions including such as UNDP, JICA and so forth. However, even now, there are not so much articles analyzing the issue from the perspective of management science though some arguments called for the conduct of theory-guided, systematic research about episodes of support for organizations in partner countries. The paper argues and proposes the necessity of a conceptual settings for a case study research and its utilization for systematic learning from the standpoint of management science, particularly public management. It illustrates the conceptual framework by using the knowledge of on-going E-JUST case study. The paper also explore the further steps for strengthening the capacity for organizational development. It proposed “triathlon” approach, namely, conducting the case study research, engagement of professional practitioners through organizational learning and professional development, and vocabulary clarification and integration. Considering the fact that organizational capacity development projects are ex ante novel and ex post unique, the idea of “design references” and “design precedents” are presented for development practitioners to work as “designers” and to create novel solutions in the future.