The government of Maldives and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Thursday signed the grant aid agreement for the project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS).
The agreement was signed between Maldives' Minister of Higher Education Ibrahim Hassan and JICA Maldives' Resident Representative Mitsuyoshi Kawasaki.
Valued at 128 million Japanese Yen (approximately USD 1.2 million), the JDS project entails the provision of six fully funded scholarships for Maldivian students to attain Master’s Degrees in Social Science at top universities in Japan.
Commencing from April 2021, the programme will continue for four years and benefit a total of 24 Maldivian students.
The Exchange of Notes on JDS was signed on August 5, 2020, between Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid and Ambassador of Japan to Maldives Keiko Yanai.
The scholarships are intended to support human resource development by targeting capable young civil servants who will be expected to participate in policy formulation and the implementation of socioeconomic development policies in the future. Recipients of the scholarships are also expected to make contributions to enhancing bilateral ties between Maldives and Japan.
Overall, the JDS project has been implemented in 15 countries since 1999, with Maldives becoming a recent partner.
Along with JDS, JICA also offers the SDG Global Leadership Programme to Maldives for Master/PhD. The participants selected for the SDG Global Leadership Programme for the Japanese Fiscal year 2020, Ahmed Falah and Aminath Fizna from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), paid a courtesy call on Ambassador Yanai on Wednesday.
JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Programmes (KCCP) also offers short-term programs for civil servants in different sectors. Till date, over 1,100 participants have been accepted across different sectors under KCCP.
Moreover, JICA has been extending JICA’s Volunteer programme (JOCV) to the Maldives since the early 1980s, with more than 360 JOCVs working in the island nation to date.
Presently, JOCVs in Maldives are working in the fields of Primary Education and Physical Education.
JICA reiterated its commitment to contributing to the socio-economic development of Maldives by supporting human resource development.
Sign In
