(5) Partnership with Other Countries and International Organizations
A. Partnership with Other Countries
Japan promotes coordination with other donors on a wide range of development issues. In 2019, Japan conducted dialogues and exchanges of views with the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, the EU, and others. In addition, among these major donors, based on the commitment at the summit level, specific cooperation and collaboration are promoted in third countries in the Indo-Pacific and other regions including Africa in various fields, such as infrastructure development to strengthen connectivity, maritime security, and disaster risk reduction, and ODA is an important part of this. In order to effectively utilize Japan’s ODA and work on development issues with the international community as a whole, cooperation and collaboration with other donors remain important, and Japan will actively promote these efforts.
Members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the so-called traditional donor countries, have been taking a leading role in carrying out development cooperation thus far. Nonetheless, emerging donor countries such as China, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Turkey have also started to provide assistance for developing countries, and to gain significant influence in recent years on the development issues. Japan, having experienced the transition from an aid recipient to a leading donor, has been striving to promote the effectiveness of emerging donors’ development cooperation to developing countries (South-South cooperation), by providing assistance to emerging countries, in collaboration with those and other countries, particularly by means of Triangular Cooperation. Particularly in regard to China, in October 2018, the Government of Japan announced the termination of Japan’s provision of new ODA to China while also announcing that Japan and China will promote a new dimension of cooperation as equal partners. In response to this, the Japan-China International Development Cooperation Policy Consultation was held in May 2019, and there was an exchange of information concerning matters such as each country’s international development cooperation policies, organizational structure, supervision and evaluation, and experiences of cooperation with other countries and international organizations. As China increases its presence as an aid provider, the Government of Japan believes that it is important for China’s assistance to be provided transparently in line with international standards and initiatives, and is utilizing the opportunity of these dialogues to encourage the Government of China.
B. Partnership for the G7 and G20 Development Issues
Then State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abe (second from the right in the front row) attending the photograph session for the G7 Development Ministers’ Meeting and the G7 Joint Education and International Development Ministerial Meeting (July 2019)
On July 4 and 5, 2019, the G7 Development Ministers’ Meeting and the G7 Joint Education and International Development Ministerial Meeting were held in Paris, France. In addition to ministers from the G7 countries and various countries in the EU and Africa, representatives from international organizations and others participated in the meetings. At the G7 Development Ministers’ Meeting, there were discussions on various issues in the development field including financing for sustainable development, crisis prevention and tackling fragilities, and cooperation between G7 and Sahel countries for issues in Sahel countries. During the G7 Joint Education and International Development Ministerial Meeting, there were discussions on technical and vocational education and training (TVET), girls’ education, and the education situation in the Sahel region. Then State Minister for Foreign Affairs ABE Toshiko and then Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology SHIBAYAMA Masahiko attended from Japan, and introduced the outcomes of the G20 Osaka Summit held in June 2019 and Japan’s initiatives such as those presented at TICAD7 held in August 2019.
Moreover, the G20 Development Working Group, which has been held annually since its establishment was agreed upon at the G20 Toronto Summit (Canada) in 2010, conducts discussions on development issues. In 2019 under the Japanese Presidency, the G20 Development Working Group discussed 1. Quality infrastructure for Connectivity Enhancement towards Sustainable Development, 2. Human Capital Investment (Education), 3. The 2030 Agenda (SDGs), and 4. Accountability, as priority topics, and formulated outcome documents concerning each topic.
C. Partnership with International Organizations
Amidst the growing need in recent years for the international community to make unified efforts to address global issues, such as poverty, climate change, disaster risk reduction, and health issues, Japan is cooperating with international organizations.
In order to address various development issues, Japan holds a strategic dialogue with the UNDP every year to advance Japan-UNDP cooperation. In 2019, the strategic dialogue was organized in November to exchange views on regional initiatives and thematic issues.
One example of a specific Japan-UNDP cooperation includes cooperation for disaster risk reduction, and a project is being implemented to formulate tsunami evacuation plans and conduct tsunami evacuation drills for countries with a high risk of tsunamis in the Asia-Pacific region. Based on World Tsunami Awareness Day (November 5), which was established under the leadership of Japan at the United Nations General Assembly in December 2015, this project supports raising awareness of tsunami disaster risk reduction as well as disaster prevention capacity development and strengthening of institutions by various countries from local, practical perspectives. It aims for citizens including children in communities in the regions that are vulnerable to tsunamis to prepare for tsunamis and learn what actions they should take if a natural disaster occurs.
As of April 2019, evacuation drills have been implemented in a total of 115 schools in all 18 target countries, and approximately 61,000 people have participated in the drills. Furthermore, the participants not only take part in the actual disaster drill, but also participate from the planning stages including deciding evacuation routes, nominating people in charge of giving instructions and doing headcounts, and preparing for emergency measures presuming that there are injured people, thus building capacity for countries to implement their own evacuation drills without any support in the future.
Going forward, we aim to scale up and systematize evacuation drills that can be implemented by recipient countries on their own, while Phase 2 has begun from December 2018 targeting the countries with a high risk of tsunamis and high needs for evacuation drills particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
With a view to bringing development cooperation up to date taking into account the 2030 Agenda, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) implements various initiatives including strengthening collaboration with diverse actors such as emerging countries and the private sector. In particular, discussions are underway on the revision of measurement methods for the appropriate assessment of each country’s ODA disbursements, approaches to utilize ODA for mobilization of development finance from the private sector, and approaches to statistically capture a wide range of development finance beyond ODA, including from the private sector and emerging donor countries (see “ODA Topics” for details on the changes to the ODA calculation system). Furthermore, discussions were conducted on the humanitarian, development and peace nexus as well as the elimination of sexual exploitation, abuse, and sexual harassment in development cooperation and humanitarian assistance, resulting in the adoption of the DAC recommendations on these issues in 2019.
In 2019-2020, the DAC peer review of Japan’s development cooperation is being conducted for the first time in six years. Through this process, the DAC members review each other’s development cooperation policies, systems, budgets, and more. Japan has been responding to its current peer review by sharing the strong points of Japan’s development cooperation, and with the view to learning about better approaches to development cooperation.
In 2016, Japan returned to the OECD Development Centre, the independent organization within the OECD that conducts studies and research on development issues of developing countries. In addition to OECD member countries, non-member countries including emerging and developing countries also participate in the Centre, and it has an important role as a forum for policy dialogues on development in various regions. In 2019, Japan and the Centre co-organized a seminar on triangular cooperation and a High-Level Policy Dialogue with Africa, as an advanced PR effort for TICAD7. During TICAD7, the Centre and the African Union Commission co-hosted the “High Level Policy Dialogue: A Curtain Raiser of Africa’s Development Dynamics: Achieving Productive Transformation”. In this way, Japan and the Centre have been collaborating closely, and Japan will continue to strengthen relations with the Centre.