In the foregoing paragraphs, philosophy, principles and policies were reviewed. This philosophy, and the principles and policies, take on true significance only when aid projects are carried out effectively and efficiently. In recent years, the public took an interest in the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of Japan's ODA. In response, the Japanese government began to tackle these problems with an attitude of readiness to improve the ODA systems where necessary.

Specifically, extra efforts to strengthen dialogues with recipient countries were made with a view to sharpening the focus of Japan's aid policy and conducting preliminary surveys to meet the particular needs of each recipient country. Especially in the case of preliminary surveys, we sometimes find potential aid projects and formulate them in cooperation with recipient countries, since there are some countries whose ability to identify and devise the best possible project on their own is limited or because recipient countries prefer development projects to environmental projects. The requests of recipient countries are not simply accepted. Instead, they are selected to identify projects which we believe proper for the recipient country through extensive preliminary surveys and dialogue with that country.

To make aid responsive to the needs of the recipient country, due care is exercised to check whether a proposed project meets requirements for the preservation of the environment, and whether the measures incorporated into the project for women in development (WID) are adequate. At the same time, measures are taken to ensure the effectiveness of international tenders, organic linkage with other aid schemes, and dynamic implementation of disaster relief and grant aid for grass-roots projects.

In addition, emphasis is placed on ex-post evaluation projects and follow-up measures. And in an effort to conduct neutral and objective judgement, third-party evaluations by knowledgeable persons and experts (Japanese as well as non-Japanese), joint evaluations with other donor countries, and evaluations by aid administrators of recipient countries are conducted, in addition to those undertaken by the aid administration agencies of the Japanese government. While Japan has now become the top donor of the world in terms of amounts, it can hardly be said that Japan has adequate ODA personnel compared with other donor countries. Given the world's expectations for the role to be played by Japan's ODA, it is necessary to further increase the number of its ODA functionaries.