Unintended beneficiaries: assessing inequities in Japan’s ODA-funded farm-to-market road project through community capitals and social network analysis

This study utilized a mixed methods approach to analyze the dynamic relationships among agrarian reform project beneficiaries (ARBs) and other stakeholders involved in an Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) project in Agdangan, Quezon Province, Philippines. It focused on various dimensions of community capital—political, financial, natural, cultural, human, and social—which play an integral role in community development and serve as predictors of the distribution of the FMR’s impacts. Methodologically, the study employed ethnography, document analysis of government reports, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys conducted between November 2020 and December 2021 among ARBs and other local stakeholders. The research revealed that unintended beneficiaries, such as landowners and traders, often received disproportionate benefits compared to ARBs, the intended recipients. This disparity highlighted broader issues related to political patronage, bureaucratic inefficiencies, inconsistent project management systems, and inequitable impact distribution.