| (i) | Export Credits | |
| (ii) | Direct Investments | |
| (iii) | Bilateral securities investment | |
| (iv) | Financing of International Organizations | |
| (v) | The Role of non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Government Support Measures |
(1) The Role of NGOs
Public participation is a vital component of the provision of economic and technical cooperation for developing countries. In particular, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that carry out development cooperation activities at the grass-roots level play a critical role in advancing international cooperation through participation by the general populace.
The activities of NGOs have several distinctive characteristics, including the following.
(i) NGOs undertake carefully tailored, grass-roots humanitarian projects, albeit small in scale, which are closely aligned with the interests of the local community.
(ii) They are able to respond swiftly and flexibly to emergency situations arising from events such as natural disasters or food crises.
(iii) NGOs can relatively easily participate in new approaches to development by stimulating self-reliant efforts of the people of developing countries, assisting moves toward greater autonomy, or tackling experimental assistance programs to invigorate the local community.
(iv) Through assistance activities undertaken at the individual citizen level, NGOs enhance understanding among the populace about international cooperation with developing countries, and help to boost mutual understanding between the peoples of different nations.
Assistance by NGOs can be expected to play a complementary role with that of ODA, in which emphasis is placed on large-scale projects, facilitating the advancement of more effective economic cooperation.
(2) Government Support Measures for NGOs
Japanese NGOs tend to have relatively short histories and inadequate financial foundations. Many were established to engage in Indochinese refugee relief activities and African famine relief activities in the late 1970s. Analysis of per capita contributions to NGOs for selected countries reveals figures of about $9.4 per head for the United States, $12.8 for Germany, and $10.1 for Canada, while the corresponding figure for Japan is only $1.8. Further support by the population is thus desirable. For its part, the government established direct assistance schemes for NGOs in fiscal 1989, instituting the Project Subsidy Scheme for Japanese NGOs, and the Small-Scale Grant Aid Scheme to assist development projects implemented by NGOs based in Japan or overseas.
(3) The NGO Project Subsidy Scheme
The NGO Project Subsidy Scheme commenced in FY1989 with a budget of ¥110 million, which doubled in size to ¥220 million in FY1990, and thereafter grew at rates exceeding 20% per annum. In FY1997, the Scheme's budget rose again by 20% to ¥1,200 million.
In FY1996, subsidies worth a total of ¥809 million were granted to 215 projects proposed by 128 NGOs. Analyzed by project type, medical care projects accounted for the greatest proportion, 26% of the total, while a regional analysis reveals that 53.4% of subsidy funds went to projects in Asia, most notably the Philippines, Cambodia, and Thailand.