Global Alumni Networks: The Inclusion of Fellow Experts from Developing Countries in Epistemic Communities

Abstract

One significant and often overlooked outcome of technical assistance and overseas capacity development programmes is the inclusion of experts from developing countries in epistemic communities. The main argument of this article is that the formal network structure offered to alumni of Japanese technical assistance and capacity development programmes has provided experts from developing countries access to epistemic communities since the early 1960s. This exploration of an alternative way of understanding capacity development programmes shows how alumni have made the networks global by using the Japanese network structure responding to the multilateral United Nations Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance framework, which enables South–South and South–North connections.