Editor’s Note

The Annual Report on Japan’s ODA Evaluation 2022 has been published earlier than in previous years. This year, we have invited Professor YAMAYA Kiyoshi from Doshisha University, who has provided support toward our ODA evaluations for many years, to contribute an article to the Report, and he has graciously penned a column about the changes to the Annual Report on Japan’s ODA Evaluation over the past 30 years. This is a unique retrospection on the history of ODA evaluations based on a study of the “forms” that the Annual Report has taken over the years, which highlights the fact that ODA evaluations have changed in ways that correspond to the needs of the times. Today, after having gone through these changes, we are putting effort into communicating information about ODA evaluations in an easy-to-understand and concise manner to all readers of the Report.

In this year’s edition, we have also strived to enrich the contents about the follow-ups to the evaluation results. Various recommendations are made in each evaluation report based on the evaluation results. The relevant MOFA departments and diplomatic missions overseas, as well as JICA, take these recommendations, and upon careful examination and reviews, put effort into improving policies and projects thereafter. By introducing such initiatives alongside the evaluation results, we aim to further deepen understanding of ODA.

Discussions are now ongoing toward the revision of the Development Cooperation Charter. The process for the revision of this Charter is similar to evaluations in a broad sense that it reviews Japan’s ODA and the circumstances surrounding ODA after 2015, and considers the direction that ODA should take in the future. Furthermore, in order for “ODA evaluations” to contribute to this process, a review of ODA evaluations that have been conducted under the current Charter is ongoing by a third-party evaluation team from the perspective of the Development Cooperation Charter. The consistency of ODA policies and ODA implementation with the Charter and the status of achievement are being reviewed. Under the new Charter, which will be updated to correspond to the changing times, we will continue to steadily conduct ODA evaluations to improve ODA management and ensure accountability to the public.

NISHINO Yasuko
Director, ODA Evaluation Division, Minister’s Secretariat
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan