Section 2 Measures for Each of the Priority Issues

The four priority issues of poverty reduction, sustainable growth, approaches to global issues, and peacebuilding are listed in the ODA Charter. This section will introduce Japan’s recent approaches to these issues.

1. Poverty Reduction

(1) Education

Education plays an important role in socio-economic development for poverty reduction. It also enables individuals to develop their own talents and capabilities, as well as to live with dignity. Education fosters understanding towards other people and of different cultures, and forms the foundation of peace. However, approximately 72 million children are unable to attend school worldwide, 54% of which are girls. The total number of adults who do not possess the minimum literacy ability is roughly 759 million people, of which approximately two-thirds are women (Note 7). The international community aims at realizing ”Education for All (EFA)” to improve this situation.

<Japan’s Efforts>

Emphasizing ”nation building” and ”human resource development,” Japan provides developing countries with wide ranging educational supports, including basic education, higher education, and technical and vocational education and training. Japan announced the ”Basic Education for Growth Initiative (BEGIN)” in 2002, based on which it provides assistance that combines both ”hard” and ”soft” aspects, such as building schools and teacher training, with the emphasis on ensuring opportunities for education, raising its quality, and improving management as priorities.

There is also the ”Fast Track Initiative (FTI),” a global framework to achieve universal primary education by 2015. As the G8 chair, Japan served as an FTI co-chair and member of its Steering Committee from January 2008, and was deeply involved in FTI debates and reform efforts. Japanese contribution to FTI-related trust funds totaled US$4.8 million from FY2007 to FY2009.

In April 2008, Japan delivered a message at the International Symposium on Self-Reliance and Sustainability of EFA (Note 8), which stressed further improvement in basic education in both quality and quantity, strengthened support for diverse educational stages beyond basic education, coordination between education and other fields, and participatory efforts that involve all people concerned in and outside Japan.

Specific initiatives during the five years from 2008 announced by Japan include: construction of about 1,000 schools (roughly 5,500 classrooms) in Africa; capacity development of about 300,000 science and mathematics teachers worldwide (including about 100,000 for Africa); and expanded initiatives for the improvement of school management for 10,000 schools in Africa. These initiatives are steadily implemented. Furthermore, in the field of literacy, Japan carries out literacy education for approximately 300,000 people in Afghanistan. It provides grant assistance of roughly ¥1.5 billion, implemented through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2008 for a period of four years, and thereby promotes literacy education in the country.

In recent years, Japan has been supporting human resource development in developing countries through various measures such as promoting the transnational networking of institutes of higher education and joint research projects among neighboring regions and countries. Japan also accepts international students to Japanese institutes of higher education based on the ”Plan to Accept 300,000 International Students.” Japan implements International Cooperation Initiative projects, which are designed to use Japanese universities’ knowledge (their research achievements and strong capacity to train experts) to improve the quality of international cooperation. Major activities under the initiative include formulating and publicizing useful teaching materials and guidelines based on the expertise possessed by Japanese educational academies. Moreover, Japan encourages in-service teachers to go overseas as Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) under the Special Participation System for In-Service Teachers (Note 9). The in-service teachers dispatched to developing countries contribute to the development of education and the society in the field, and make use of their experience in domestic educational activities. Furthermore, in 2010, Japan established its new Education Cooperation Policy for the 2011– 2015 period — the deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Notes:

(7) Source: UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010, 2010.

(8) A symposium that was jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hiroshima University, and Waseda University as part of the Education for All working level meetings and related meetings held in Tokyo from April 21 to 25, 2008.

(9) The system is designed to encourage participation of in-service teachers. For example, teachers who are recommended by MEXT to JICA are exempt from the preliminary technical test, and the period of dispatch is set at two years (usually two years and three months), beginning in April and ending in March, to match the regular Japanese school year.

Main Text | Statictics and Reference Materials | Keyword | Columns | Charts