Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2007
Next PageMain Text > Part II ODA ODA Record for FY2006 > Chapter 2 Details about Japan's Official Development Assistance > Section 6. Formulation and Implementation of Aid Policy > 1. System for Formulation and Implementation of Aid Policy > (1) Formulation of Coherent Aid Policy
1. System for Formulation and Implementation of Aid Policy
(1) Formulation of Coherent Aid Policy
In Japan, the Cabinet Office and the 12 ministries and agencies1 are involved in providing development assistance. When implementing aid, it is important that all three departments of strategy, planning and implementation closely coordinate with each other, and assistance that is provided either directly by the various ministries or through international organizations must be designed and executed coherently so that Japan's aid has strategic value and yields the maximum results.
In FY2006, Japan's system of implementing international cooperation changed significantly. In the realm of strategy, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Council was established in the Cabinet in April. Consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Council conducts timely and substantive reviews of important matters concerning overseas economic cooperation. Until today, the conference has conducted reviews of topics including Asia, Africa, China, Iraq, India, and Afghanistan and resources, energy, and the environment, and has met a total of 11 times.2
In the planning realm, the structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has changed. In August, the International Cooperation Bureau was established, creating a system for the comprehensive planning and formulation of assistance programs through bilateral assistance and international organizations. In addition, the International Cooperation Planning Headquarters was established under the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which the International Cooperation Bureau and regional bureaus have consultations, and plan and formulate effective assistance policy. As one example of this work, the Headquarter is to formulate priority objectives and regional priority issues for international cooperation for each fiscal year. It then implements assistance focusing on priority concerns involving international cooperation, which in FY2007 included: (1) addressing environmental and climate change issues; (2) realizing economic growth of developing countries and furthering economic prosperity in Japan; (3) settling democratization and assisting market-oriented economic reform; (4) peacebuilding and the fight against
terrorism; and (5) ensuring human security.
See Part I, Chapter 1, Section 1 for specific details
Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Osamu Uno (left) at the Fourth Meeting of the Advisory Council on International Cooperation
In collaboration with related government ministries and agencies, moreover, MOFA undertakes the central role in coordinating development assistance for the government as a whole. In March 2007, MOFA established the Advisory Council on International Cooperation, inviting representatives from various domestic fields with specialized knowledge and experience of international cooperation (e.g. scholars, the fourth estate, industry circles, and NGOs).3 This conference receives inquiries4 from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and conducts wide-ranging discussions in order to reflect the views of experts with knowledge of international cooperation in policy. As of the end of November 2007, the conference had met five times, and is scheduled to submit a mid-term report by the end of 2007. In addition to these activities, MOFA has established sector-specific taskforces in order to appropriately address sector-specific issues. For example, the taskforce concerning health is conducting positive activities in collaboration with related international agencies and related government ministries and agencies in order to strengthen efforts in the health sector.
See Section 2 for the healthcare taskforce
In the implementation realm, JICA will implement all technical cooperation, grant aid, and loan aid in an integrated manner. Under the Act for partial amendments to the Act on the Incorporated Administrative Agency Japan International Cooperation Agency established in November, Loan Aid function of JBIC and grant aids of MOFA will be transferred to the new JICA, which is scheduled to be inaugurated on October 1, 2008. This move promises to foster further linkages between the three aid instruments.