Fieldwork

Today is the submission deadline for 1st draft of OFW2015/DFW2015 group reports.

Look forward to reading the drafts.

OFW2015 final presentation session was held at GSID on Oct.28, 2015. After one month preparation, four working groups made presentations about their reserach findings, conclusion and policy implications. The results of the presentations showed efforts paid by participants of each group.

One of the challenges for all participants is how to analyze the data they collected and make them into stories. After receiving comments and feedbacks from audiences and group advisors, we are sure they will submit very interesting reports by the end of November.

After a busy preparation, participants and advisors started their DFW fieldwork in Odai town, Mie Prefecture between Oct.21-23, 2015.

With the cooperation with Odai town, we are luckily to conduct our fieldwork in this beautiful place again. Topics of the fieldwork include value chain of wood products, users’ satisfaction with nursery schools and historical review of interaction between people and forest in Odai town.

During the three day fieldwork, our participants got opportunities to closely talk with stakeholders involved in the topics and issues they concerned. It is also a great opportunity for us to further understand the current issues of rural and social development of Japan.

Our speical thankness goes to Odai town government and staffs. Without their coordination and support, we could not make this fieldwork come true. Last but not the least, we would like to show our sincere gratitude to our respondents who kindly offered their help for our survey. Now participants are working on their analysis and report writing. A final presentation session will be held in Odai Town in the end of this academic year.

With a safe landing at the Central Japan International Airport on September 27, 2015, 25 participants and faculty members complished the OFW2015 fieldwork in Coron, Palawan Province, the Philippines and came back to Nagoya.

The OFW2015 fieldwork was conducted in Coron from September 13 to September 25, with collaboration from College of Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines, Los Banos. During the fieldwork, participants were divided into four groups and conducted their group works on specific topics, including economic development and tourism, governance and tourism, environmental education and tourism and the coexistence of culture and tourism.

As the first fieldwork in a foreign country, our participants were a little bit nervous at the beginning. But soon they got used to the flow and did finish their fieldwork with big success. By spending hours and hours for discussion about reserach plans and interview questions by groups before and during the fieldwork, our participants worked quite hard and reached their objectives and goals in the end of the fieldwork. As part of education program at GSID, we believe this experience will definitely benefit their understanding of the developing world and globle issues, future study and master thesis writing.

The accomplishment of OFW2015 fieldwork is due to a large numebr of generous people. Our speical gratitude goes to UPLB team. Without their continous and generous support and help from the every beginning, we could not make it happen with success. Also, we would like to show our sincere appreciation to LGU of Coron, people of Coron involved in our fieldwork. Look forward to the forthcoming final presentation and report of OFW2015. Also, we really appreciate our students’ cooperation and team spirits. We are so proud of them for their great achievemnet in this year lasting program!

Look forward to the forthcoming final presentation and report of OFW2015.

In the last preliminary seminar of OFW2015, we were delighted to invite Mr. Toshihiro Ueda from Rise Asia (NGO). Mr. Ueda shared his experience of participating various activities in international cooperation in the Philippines since the late 1980s, particularly in NGO sector. His talk was very touching and helpful for participants to reconsider the purposes and targets for international cooperation.

Our gratitute also goes to Mr. Motoni Mizutani for his excellent interpretation for this seminar!

On July 29, four groups of OFW2015 program made presentations about their resesearch plans for fieldwork in September. After preparing for three months, each team explained their reasons, focus and methods for their fieldwork. Based on comments and questions received from audiences, our participants will further improve their plans and get ready for the forthcoming fieldwork.

Prof. Umemura, on July 22, offered us an introductary lecture about Project Cycle Management (PCM). The lecture included history of PCM, conceptual framework, characteristics of PCM and procedure of PCM.

The lecture provided a good opportunity for our participants to reconsidered their research questions of each working group by a logical thinking.

On July 15, Prof. Okada and Prof. Liu shared their research experiences and observation of previous OFW with participants of OFW preliminary seminar. Based on personal experiences, two speakers talked about how to deal with hypothesis, how to balance priority and keep flexible, ethical issues, how to balance roles as researcher and participant in fieldwork, practical skills for fieldwork…

We hope the talk was helpful for participants’ preparation for the forthcoming fieldwork in September.

“Today’s visit to Odai town is very helpful for us to further understand the situation of Odai town and our design of our survey in October…” This is an exciting feedback from one of DFW2015 participants after the pilot survey in Odai town on July 10, 2015.

Different from previous years, in order to provide participants an opportunity to know the field before they start their fieldwork, DFW committee arranged this visit for DFW2015.

Participants not only got a chance to practice their skills of conducting interview and collecting information but also observe the real situation of Odai town by themselves.

We hope this arrangement was helpful for them to further prepare their research plan and design.

On July 3, we were pleased to invite Dr. Hitoshi Kikuchi from Meitesu Hospital Vaccinations Center to give participants of OFW2015 a lecture about infectious disease in the world and preventation. Dr. Kikuchi told us a lot of knowledge about disease and the preventation, particularly for the fieldwork in the developing countries. His detailed explanation was quite helpful for our preparation for OFW2015 fieldwork in the Philippines.