A Comparative Analysis of One Village One Product (OVOP) and its Replicability in International Development

This paper examines the replicability of the One Village One Product (OVOP) approach in a developing world by comparing three cases in Japan, Thailand, and Malawi. The OVOP is a regional development movement originated in Oita Prefecture, Japan. Its main concept is that local people find or develop products or services in their locality of which people can be proud and also which can be competitive at the national and global levels, while the government provides technical and institutional assistance and limited financial support. This paper first shows that, in contrast with its international image as a product specialisation method, one of the features of OVOP in Oita is its social development aspect, based on the Japanese experience of local endogenous development. The other two case studies illustrate that when being transferred to other countries, the OVOP principles are not directly copied in other cases, instead these are translated into other terms or added supplemental concepts. Finally this paper comparatively analyses the features of the three cases and indicates that considerable differences can be seen in the concept of community, strategy and instrument of product development, marketing, human resource development, and mechanism of collective learning. It is concluded that the differences are likely shaped by the procedure in which the approach is implemented, the particular context such as lack of rural finance, political will, and a density of targeted project, and the role and capacity of actors.