Official Development Assistance (ODA)
Human Security
FAQs
Question
Why is it important to promote human security?
Answer
In today's world, problems such as poverty, environmental destruction, natural disasters, infectious diseases, terrorism, and sudden economic and financial crises are interrelated across borders, and have a serious impact on people's lives and livelihoods. The traditional nation-centered approach is becoming inadequate for addressing these kinds of international challenges. Rather, it is becoming necessary to focus on "human beings," and capture the relationships between a variety of actors and sectors in a cross-sectional and comprehensive manner. Human security is a concept that encourages sustainable, individual self-reliance and social development through protection and empowerment. It focuses on each and every human being and aims to protect people from the wide-ranging and serious threats to their lives, livelihoods, and dignity, in order for them to achieve the full potential that they each possess.
In this way, human security will achieve a truly affluent and sustainable society through human development and social development. Japan regards this kind of human security to be a suitable philosophy for international development, and is committed to promoting it. Action it has taken in this regard includes incorporating the concept into the basic policies of the Development Cooperation Charter, and making human security a pillar of its foreign policy.
Question
What is the Trust Fund for Human Security?
Answer
It is a trust fund that Japan established in the United Nations in March 1999, in response to a statement made by the then Prime Minister Obuchi in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 1998. It is currently operated by the United Nations Human Security Unit.
It supports projects that incorporate human security perspectives, in order to promote practical human security activities on the ground. Japan has contributed a cumulative amount of approximately 47.8 billion yen (approximately $436 million) to the trust fund to date. Through this, it has supported 257 concrete projects that were consistent with the principles of human security. These projects were conducted by UN-related organizations in approximately 99 countries and regions around the world. (As of December 2019)
In September 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the Common Understanding of Human Security
, and practical action based on the concept of human security is becoming increasingly important. Based on these ideas, Japan will continue to make use of the Trust Fund for Human Security.