Emergency Grant Aid for the Electoral Process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

September 22, 2006

On September 22 (Fri), the Government of Japan decided to extend emergency grant aid of 1.5 million dollars (about 166.5 million yen) to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that is supporting to organize elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to support country's election process. Japan's assistance will be used for such election activities by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of DRC and the UNDP such as the facilitation of election campaigns, civic education for the elections, voting, ballot counting, tallying votes, and announcing the results of the elections.
DRC was in conflict and under the political unrest that embroiled its neighbors in the central regions of Africa (the Great Lakes region) for a long time. Since the national referendum on a draft constitution held in December 2005, however, DRC has been conducting presidential elections, elections for the national assembly (the lower house), the upper house, and local assembly members, which are the first attempts for democratization since its independence. The Government of Japan extended emergency grant aid of about 7.57 million dollars (about 830 million yen) to DRC for its election process in February 2005. However, because of the delayed schedule of the electoral process and other factors, DRC is facing a shortfall of about 46 million dollars. Without sufficient funds, the whole electoral process may fail. Under such circumstances, taking into account the critical importance of the elections that will complete the democratizing process of DRC and also the additional assistance contributed by other countries, Japan has decided to extend this emergency grant aid. With this aid, Japan's cumulative assistance for DRC's electoral process comes to a total of about 9.07 million dollars (about 1,007 million yen).
Emphasizing "consolidation of peace" in Africa as a key pillar of its cooperation policy for Africa, Japan has been supporting Africa's efforts for peace and stability, including by holding the TICAD Conference on Consolidation of Peace in February this year, and DRC is one of the important target countries for such assistance. Japan's assistance this time is expected to contribute to the democratization and stability of DRC and thus to bring about peace and stability in the Great Lakes region and thus Africa as a whole. In order to contribute further to the consolidation of peace in Africa, the Government of Japan has decided to extend this emergency grant aid.

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