Megumi Muto

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Deputy Director General

Southeast Asia and Pacific Department

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Ph.D. in Development Economics (’09)

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Please tell us about your career path so far. What is your area of specialization and how did you come to work in this area?

Since completing undergraduate, I have been working on development finance at three institutions: The Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Synergy among strategic planning, project/program management and quality research has been my comparative strength.

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When I went into the job market, OECF was looking for someone who could handle both macroeconomics and Spanish to work on structural adjustment programs in Latin America. I guess I was the only one who could offer both, as I grew up in El Salvador during primary school.

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You are currently working at JICA’s headquarters in Tokyo as Deputy Director General of the Southeast Asia and Pacific Department. Please tell us about your main responsibilities and duties.

Signing of Memorandum of Agreement, Technical Cooperation Project for Capacity Development of Public-Private Partnership Project Formulation, PPP Center, Manila, 18 June 2014 (courtesy of PPPC)

I am responsible for the JICA development assistance portfolio in the Philippines, East Timor and the Pacific. I do strategic planning, project/program development for these portfolio based on evidence through research. That includes assessing the status quo, identifying the most significant bottlenecks for development, search for solutions, package financial/technical assistance, and to be held accountable for the development impact ex-post. I intend to serve well the finance and the planning ministers of the partner country, positioning us as an important partner for their economic planning and resource mobilization along with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

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What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work? And what have been the most interesting or rewarding aspects of your career thus far?

We try to think not in terms of what we can offer but in terms of what our partner countries aspire. To offer the solution that goes a long way, we do not necessarily stick to proven approaches but also reach out to the current very best in the world. To forge alliance with the best in the world, in turn, we need to define JICA’s competitive edge well. This iterative process of strategic thinking and application to real projects/programs has been both exciting and challenging. Day to day decision making entail economics, law, finance/accounting, statistics, political science, humanities, sound common sense and humour.

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It seems you have been a strong advocate of multi-faceted empirical research as underpinning of Japan’s ODA program. Could you please elaborate on this?

Offering high value added in our development assistance projects/programs require good assessment of the status quo and identification of the bottleneck through research based on evidence. Otherwise you are off the context and end up in supply driven assistance that does not result in development impact. Research underpins quality work by connecting strategic planning and real world application with strong rationale and consistency.

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As a DDG, do you still have time to conduct research? Please tell us about your past and current research interests.

Starting a new set of activities always involves heavy research at the beginning. Working on the energy regulatory framework in the Philippines required in depth understanding of energy mix modelling and regulatory economics. We built an energy mix projection tool while we held many study sessions with the regulators and academe both from the Philippines and Japan. It was only after that careful problem identification process that we moved onto a technical assistance on regulatory issues. My current interests include regulatory economics, PPP (public private partnership) in infrastructure and disaster risk finance. I am not a good researcher, but practitioner/manager maximizing the power of research in real applications. For this, I was asked by the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences to lecture on real world application of research.

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How do you maintain a balance between your work and the rest of your life? And what is your favourite thing to do when you are not working?

I do not worry about balancing work and life, rather, try out things that bring inner fulfillment and stretch my limits. Going to Aikido classes and cooking with my son are always refreshing.

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If you could give one piece of advice to anyone considering studying at GRIPS what would it be?

GRIPS is recommended for students who wish to go in depth into a few selected disciplines, as compared to policy schools where students are exposed to multi -disciplinary approaches for informed decision making. I can say this since I went to both types of institutions (MPA from Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University).

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How would you like to maintain involved with the School? What do you expect from GRIPS as an alumnus?

As a place to continue learning and research. I once asked for permission to sit at the back of classes offered on Saturday. It would be ideal if we are allowed in the library to browse through academic journals and continue research. [editor’s note: alumni already have access to our library]

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Do you have any suggestions on how to further utilize the GRIPS alumni

network?

The alumni network in Manila is active and they have been helping me a lot both mentally and workwise.

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