Part Two: Report by Article

The ratio of women among Japanese staff in the United Nations Secretariat shifted from 57.5% at the end of June 1997 to 57.3% at the end of 2001.

Also, the number of women Japanese staff engaged in professional posts in major international organizations including the United Nations was 180 in 1994, but the number increased to 283 in 2001. As for Japanese women working actively in senior management positions, as of the end of April 2002, there are Director of Bureau for Field Coordination (BFC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Deputy Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Furthermore, a Japanese woman was elected to be an ad litem judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the United Nations General Assembly in June 2001. This was the first time that Japanese woman was elected as an international judge.

There have been eight Japanese women ambassadors since the first woman ambassador was appointed for the first time in 1980. As of 15 April 2002, two Japanese women were serving as ambassadors, one as Ambassador to Uzbekistan and the other as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Delegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament, which was equivalent to about 1.8% of the total number of Japanese ambassadors.

As of 15 April 2002, 1,071 women staff were working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan and overseas establishments) and their ratio among the total staff was approximately 19%. The number of women staff of overseas establishments was 403, accounting for about 13% of the total staff of overseas establishments.

Seven female SDF personnel were dispatched to a PKO mission for the first time in the SDF contingent for peace-keeping operations (PKO) in East Timor in April 2002 to engage in sanitation, communication and other activities.

The Government specifies the concept of active participation of women in development in the Official Development Assistance Charter, which was adopted by the Cabinet in 1992 and also launched the Initiative on Women in Development (WID) at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing Conference) to present the measures to be taken in the WID area. The Initiative puts emphasis on assistance to the following three areas: education, health, and participation in economic and social activities in order to facilitate empowerment of women and gender equality in development assistance.

Furthermore, the Government formulated the "Medium-term Policy on Official Development Assistance" in 1999, which covers gender as one of the priority issues in the support for poverty reduction and social development. The Government also expresses in the Medium-term Policy that it actively promotes assistance to women in the health and education sectors, and the economic independence of women, and endeavors to utilize monitoring and evaluation results regarding gender.

The Medium-term Policy also states that of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty throughout the world, 70% are women and that many women are placed in a vulnerable position in terms of education, employment and health. In addition, it places emphasis on the perspective of assistance for women in developing countries, considering the need to promote the equal participation of men and women in development as well as the distribution of the benefits derived from it in achieving balanced and sustainable economic development. Specifically, Japan is actively providing assistance to health and education for women ("Girl's Education Program in Guatemala"), family planning ("Maternal and Child Health Improvement Project in Brazil," and the "Project for Improving the Health of Mothers and Children in Indonesia" and other projects), micro-financing for promoting the economic independence of women (yen loan to "Grameen Bank in Bangladesh" and "Training on Enhancing Women's Economic Participation in Rural Area Through Scaling-up of Micro Enterprises to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises"), job training (grant aid and dispatch of experts to the "Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Women's Center in the Philippine"), and the improvement of the work environment (the dispatch of experts for the implementation of the "Greenery Promotion Plan," the "Karey-Gorou Green Promotion Cooperation Project" and other projects). Furthermore, the Government assists developing countries in improving policy formulation capabilities in these fields ("Project on Strengthening Sulawesi Rural Community Development to Support Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Indonesia")

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the executing agency for technical cooperation, has been considering gender perspectives in the final evaluation of each project since the establishment of the Aid Study Committee by Sector (WID) in 1990. Thematic evaluation has been conducted for the purpose of drawing lessons to incorporate gender perspectives more effectively into its projects in the future. With regard to projects in Sri Lanka which cover five areas (agriculture and rural development, industry-technical training, health and medical improvement, education and poverty alleviation), the research was conducted to identify the degree to which the gender issue is considered and its effectiveness, as well as ex-post facto evaluation to investigate the degree to which the gender issue is considered by other aid agencies in implementing their projects.

In order to achieve the goals set forth by the Dakar Framework for Action, Japan is providing the following support.

i) Japan contributes to the dissemination of literacy education in the Asia-pacific region by funds-in-trust to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

ii) Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) actively cooperates to disseminate education for women through the establishment of the "Literacy Resource Centres for Girls and Women (LRC)," development of literacy materials and so on.

iii) In order to contribute to the formation of a gender-equal society on an international level, the National Women's Education Center, an independent administrative institution, has implemented the "International Training Course on Processing Women's Information" and the "Seminar on the Promotion of Education for Girls and Women" for overseas governmental organizations concerned with women's education and leaders of NGOs since FY2001.

The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications contributes accrued interest on "postal savings for international voluntary aid" accounts to NGO aid programs in developing countries and areas. Part of these contributions are used to assist women's independence by conducting training classes to help them acquire professional skills and holding seminars designed to improve their literacy, sanitation, nutrition and etc.

As one of its projects, the "Center for the Advancement of Working Women" dispatches and invites people concerned with women's labour issues to and from developing countries to promote exchanges among those people. The Center has also conducted "Women Labour Exchange Project," where information is exchanged on measures and know-how of both countries for specific themes such as information technology (IT), to promote international exchanges of women and deepen mutual understanding.

The International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan was held in Japan in January 2002. The Co-chairs' Summary of Conclusions states that women's rights and gender issues should be fully reflected in the reconstruction process and the "empowerment of women" was highlighted as a key priority area for Japan's assistance to Afghanistan. Responding to these developments, the "Advisory Council on Assistance to Women in Afghanistan," as a council organized by the Chief Cabinet Secretary has been held since February 2002. The Council conducts research on the current situation of women in Afghanistan and deliberates the ways of assistance, taking the needs of women into consideration.