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 > 2. Increasing Public Participation > (1) Broad Participation by Japanese Citizens from All Walks of Life
2. Increasing Public Participation
(1) Broad Participation by Japanese Citizens from All Walks of Life
In view of the fact that ODA is mainly financed by taxes, sustaining ODA requires efforts to gain public understanding and support from Japanese citizens toward ODA by promoting public relations and development education. At the same time, it is important to expand human resources engaging in international cooperation by further promoting public participatory cooperation activities, thereby encouraging the Japanese people to acquire a better understanding of international cooperation.
To expand the participation of the Japanese public from this viewpoint, institutionalization has been promoted to allow public involvement in the formulation and implementation of aid activities at various levels. For example, drafts of Country Assistance Programs are put up on MOFA website for public comments to gather views from a wide spectrum.
<Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer and Senior Volunteer>
To encourage participation of Japanese citizens from all walks of life in development assistance, there are programs like the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and Senior Volunteers.
The JOCV is a citizen-participation instrument which dispatches young people between the ages of 20 and 39 for a period of about two years to work with the people of developing countries, while also lending assistance to the social and economic development of the country. JOCV has a long history, having marked its 40th anniversary in 2005, and is one form of visibility of Japanese aid that has been highly praised overseas. By FY2006, a total of 29,889 JOCV members had been dispatched overseas. As of June 2007, the cumulative total of dispatched members surpassed 30,000.
The corresponding project for seniors is a public participatory project under which the Government supports the activities of senior citizens between ages 40 to 69 who possess a wide range of skills and abundant experience and wish to contribute to the development of developing countries on a volunteer basis. Launched as "Senior Cooperation Experts" in FY1990, it was renamed "Senior Volunteer" in FY1996, being positioned as the volunteer project serving as the senior version of JOCV. By FY2006, a total of 3,030 senior volunteers had been dispatched to 56 countries.
JICA Reform Plan (Phase 2) has diversified the forms of participation in JOCV and Senior Volunteer, such as a system for on-job participation by teachers and short-term dispatches of members (less than one year), with a view to further increasing public participation.
See Column 1 for details on JOCV
Column 13. Senior Volunteers
<Programs for Promoting Citizens' Participation>
The Government's programs for promoting citizens' participation include the annual International Cooperation Festival held in Tokyo's Hibiya Park in commemoration of International Cooperation Day, October 6 (from FY2005 the name of this festival changed to "Global Festa JAPAN"), "Let's talk about International Cooperation," the ODA On-Demand-Delivery Lecture, and the ODA Citizen Monitoring Program launched in FY1999.
See Section 6, for details of "Let's talk about International Cooperation"and ODA On-Demand-Delivery Lecture