Editor’s Note

The Cabinet reached a decision on the new Development Cooperation Charter in June 2023. As in the previous Charter, it sets forth contents about evaluations. The importance of evaluations and improvements, appropriate evaluation, and feedback are brought up in the section on “Further Enhancement of Strategic Approaches” under “Three Evolved Approaches for Effective and Strategic Development Cooperation.” Furthermore, the section on “Reinforcement of Implementation Architecture and Foundation” touches on disclosing information on the implementation status and evaluation of development cooperation to the public widely, promptly, and with sufficient transparency.

With regard to ODA evaluations under the new Charter, we have launched initiatives for improvement based on the recommendations set out in the“Review of Japan’s ODA Evaluations from FY 2015 to FY 2021” implemented last fiscal year. As introduced in the column on page 8, verification items such as inclusiveness and effective cooperation and solidarity with various entities have been added to the ODA Evaluation Handbook, which evaluation teams refer to when conducting MOFA’s ODA evaluations, in order to enhance evaluations from the perspectives set out in the Charter.

The COVID-19 that raged across the world over the past few years has finally subsided, and the movement of people is becoming active once again. It also became possible to travel to the field to conduct surveys for ODA evaluations for the first time in three years in Laos, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Cuba last fiscal year. Please refer to the column “Japanese Cooperation on the Roads in Havana: Scenes in the Field Through the Eyes of the Evaluation Team” describing the survey carried out in Cuba, which gives a realistic sense of events that took place in the field. In FY2023 as well, we plan to dispatch evaluation teams to five countries—Thailand, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, and Uganda. I look forward to further enriching the evaluation reports with information that can only be obtained by travelling to the field in person.

It goes without saying that evaluations should be conducted objectively neutrally. It is therefore important to point out any issues that can only be observed from a third-party perspective, and to apply this to making improvements thereafter. At the same time, I feel that it is vital to communicate, through evaluations, the positive impact of Japan’s ODA, and the role that ODA plays in bringing peace and prosperity to partner countries and to the international community, as well as in creating a favorable international environment for Japan. I think that this is also one of the important roles of evaluation.

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