東京大学公共政策大学院 | GraSPP / Graduate School of Public Policy

The Global Public Policy Network (GPPN) annual conference was hosted by Sciences Po’s School of Public Affairs in Paris on 21-23 February 2024.

The theme for the 2024 Conference was “Policy proposals to reduce the impact of climate change on vulnerable population and territory” – Studies have shown that climate change has serious consequences on social aspects. We know that the most vulnerable populations are the first victims of it and that the climate crisis is responsible for worsening social inequalities. Regional inequalities, inequalities in access to resources and climate refugees are direct effects of climate change. How can public policies limit the impact of climate change on societies? – Students were invited to propose creative solutions for policymakers and governments under this topic.

31 selected teams and 92 students from eight GPPN member schools had the opportunity to present their innovative public policy proposals to a jury comprised of deans and professors. From GraSPP, 12 students of 3 groups, who successfully passed through the internal pre-selection conducted as part of “A2 Case Study: GraSPP Policy Challenge”, took part in the conference. 2 teams successfully proceeded to the final round of the competition on Day 2.

Emily Julia Fursa, Mei Mitsui (1st year MPP/IP), Vania Putri Andriani, Yuta Sato (1st year STIG / Graduate School of Frontier Sciences) won the Best Prize (tied with Munk School, University of Toronto) by introducing an innovative solution called PAIR, installing an underground rainwater harvesting system to tackle the issue of access to clean water in a village in North Jakarta.

This is indeed a remarkable result for our school that we won the first prize again and our deepest congratulations and a big round of applause goes to the winning team!

©Lucile Meunier

“Presenting at the 2024 GPPN Conference in Paris and meeting with students from across the different public policy schools was an incredibly rewarding experience—we feel very grateful for this opportunity. We are delighted to have built on GraSPP’s success from last year’s GPPN Conference and would like to express our sincere thanks to the GraSPP faculty, students, and conference delegates for their valuable support. We are inspired by the amount of creativity and vigour showcased by our peers in tackling the pressing issue of climate change and protecting vulnerable communities. Every presentation reminded us of the diversity of climate issues and the urgency of a localized policy design that prioritizes at-risk populations.
Our team is leaving France with the anticipation of a brighter and more inclusive future—we cannot wait to see the projects and ideas put forward by the new teams at the 2025 GPPN Conference.“ – Team, PAIR

The teams had been receiving continued guidance from their GPC supervisors, Prof. Roberto Orsi, Prof. Jun Arima, Prof. Makiko Matsuo, Prof. Hisashi Yoshikawa, Prof. Kazuyo Hanai and Prof. Hiroshi Suzuki. Prof. Roberto Orsi, who also attended the conference with the students, describes as follows:

“I am glad to report that a delegation of 12 GraSPP students headed by Dean Iida participated in the 2024 GPPN conference hosted by Sciences Po in Paris. While this is an annual event in which GraSPP presence is very established, this time was an extremely positive experience for many reasons. We were delighted by the warm hospitality of our colleagues from Sciences Po, with an impeccable organization of the conference. As the conference revolves around students competing for the best public policy project, our three groups competed with 27 others from seven Schools from all over the world, always a remarkable learning occasion for all students but also for the attending faculty.
I am indeed happy to see that GraSPP is competing with some of the most outstanding public policy schools in the world, with no sense of inferiority, and an equal footing. Indeed not only two of GraSPP groups were selected for the final round (only SIPA, a much larger school with significantly more resources, had two finalists), but our project PAIR won the competition in ex aequo with the Munk School in Toronto! This is by no means a small achievement, which has been built on several months of preparations, effort and dedication by the students, who demonstrated a high degree of professionalism, maturity, and intellectual awareness.
Even more broadly, GraSPP victory (the second consecutive success with GPPN) is only possible because of the strong community which our School has been becoming, with the contribution of all students who actively engage in the GPC, the faculty involved, and the indispensable work of the administrative staff. Thank you to everyone for your effort and congratulations to the winners of this year’s GPPN conference!”

©Lucile Meunier

The conference is also a great opportunity for the deans and faculty members to meet and discuss various topics of the role of public policy schools and the possibilities of expanding future collaborations among the network.

“This was a great accomplishment following our victory in last year’s competition. As the Dean, I am very proud of our students and would like to thank all the students who participated in the competition for their hard work and dedication.” – Dean Keisuke Iida

©Lucile Meunier

Last but not least, our very special thanks go to our wonderful TAs for GPC, Moe Furukado and Kavian Ramesh Pillai, who won the competition at last year’s GPPN Conference in Sao Paulo. Their enormous support and impeccable guidance throughout this whole journey (with lots of ups and downs, of course) contributed to making this happen for sure!

Also, the delegations extended their trip to Brussels and Paris to visit several international organisations and institutions including OECD, IEA, AFD and Bruegel.