Akio TAKAYANAGI
Policy Advisor, Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC)
Professor, Department of Global and Intercultural Studies, Ferris University
Biography
Ph.D. (International Relations, Hitotsubashi University). Worked at JANIC as a research officer in 1990-93. Formerly an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Kitakyushu University, before taking the current position. He has studied the role of NGOs/CSOs in international development and their partnership with ODA agencies. He is the author of NGOs in Canada (Akashi Shoten, 2001), Global Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (Houritsu Bunka Sha, 2014), co-editor of Learning the SDGs (Houritsu Bunka Sha, 2018), and has written for the reports of the Reality of Aid network, which is an international non-government initiative focusing exclusively on analysis and advocacy for poverty eradication policies and practices in the international aid regime. Recently, Akio has been active in the DAC-CSO Reference Group which facilitates and coordinates CSO engagement with the OECD-DAC (Development Assistance Committee).
Expectations for THINK Lobby
I have been involved in various activities of global and regional civil society networks for over 30 years. I have had opportunities to work together with research and policy teams of CSOs or CSOs whose major work is research. I have felt that the enabling environment for policy research works of civil society has not been favorable, and in such a situation, independent civil society think tanks are necessary.
I hope to work on topics such as aid policy, civil society-government partnerships, SDGs implementation (and possibly post-SDGs in the near future), civic space and more broadly on human rights and democracy.
