Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2008
Next PageMain Text > Part III Official Development Assistance in FY2007 > Chapter 1 Japan's Official Development Assistance in Terms of Disbursement
Japan's net bilateral ODA disbursements1 in 2007 totaled approximately US$5,777.97 million (approximately ¥680.6 billion). Japan's contributions to international organizations totaled approximately US$1,900.80 million (approximately ¥223.9 billion)2 in 2007. These figures make for a 31% reduction to approximately US$7,678.76 million in 2007, compared with overall ODA disbursements in the previous fiscal year (approximately a 30.2% decrease compared to the previous year on a yen base, to approximately ¥904.6 billion).3
With regard to gross disbursements excluding received loan aid, bilateral ODA disbursements4 totaled approximately US$13,566.11 million (approximately ¥1,598.1 billion). This represented a decline by roughly 20.5% (approximately a 19.5% decrease on a yen base) on the previous year.
<Disbursement Analysis>
Japan's 2007 ODA net disbursements ranked fifth, behind the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, amongst the members of OECD-DAC5 member countries.6 The main causes for the decrease included contributions to international organizations and a shrink in debt relief. Contributions to international organizations decreased due to decreased lending to international institutions. Decrease of debt relief is explained mainly by a lack of massive debt relief in 2007 as Japan did for Nigeria in 2006, for instance.
A breakdown of 2007 ODA disbursements (net base) shows that bilateral ODA accounted for roughly 75.2% of overall disbursements, while ODA via international organizations accounted for approximately 24.8%. Bilateral ODA is to contribute for strengthening of the relationship between Japan and developing countries, as assistance is provided after discussions are held with these countries. Provision of ODA via international organizations carries the benefits of being able to utilize specialized knowledge, to ensure political neutrality, and to allow for assistance for countries and regions that are difficult to deliver to on a governmental level. Therefore, Japan flexibly distinguishes between bilateral assistance and assistance via international organizations, while instituting collaborations between these two means and ensuring the manner of assistance is adequate.
<Bilateral ODA Disbursement>
• Breakdown by method7
A breakdown of bilateral ODA indicates that disbursements calculated as grant aid totaled approximately US$3,413.91 million, amounting to roughly 44.5% of overall net ODA disbursements. Of this amount, debt relief accounted for US$1,941.35 million at roughly 25.3%; grant aid through international organizations accounted for around 5.1% at US$395.03 million; and funds provided by Japan for grant aid excluding other aforementioned categories accounted for about 14% at US$1,077.53 million.
Additionally, technical cooperation accounted for around 33.5% at roughly US$2,568.73 million; loan aid amounted to approximately -US$204.67 million;8 and loan aid excluding debt relief amounted to approximately US$160.85 million.
• Breakdown by region
When looking at bilateral ODA by region, Asia9 accounts for 28.3% at approximately US$1,633.58 million (approximately ¥192.4 billion). Africa accounts for 29.4% at US$1,700.53 million (approximately ¥200.3 billion) and the Middle East accounts for 16.4% at US$948.28 million (approximately ¥111.7 billion). Latin America accounts for 3.9% at US$225.60 million (approximately ¥266.6 billion); Oceania comprises 1.2% at US$70.29 million (approximately ¥8.3 billion); and Europe 0.8% at US$47.55 million (approximately ¥5.6 billion). Assistance covering multiple regions accounts for the rest, at about US$1,152.32 million (approximately ¥135.7 billion).
Looking at debt relief by region, Asia10 accounts for about US$10.78 million (approximately ¥1.3 billion), Africa for US$815.60 million (approximately ¥96.1 billion), and the Middle East for US$749.44 million (approximately ¥88.3 billion).
