Japan Faces up to Its Global Responsiblities
Posted by jonathanfryer on Thursday, 21st June, 2007
Sadako Ogata, President of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) addressed a meeting put on by the Overseas Development Institute this lunchtime, in the Grimond Room at Portcullis House, Westminster, with Malcolm Bruce, MP, in the chair. Her theme was ‘Japan 2008′, as Japan will be presiding over the G8 next year and Tokyo will also host the fourth eponymous conference on development assistance. This provides a good opportunity for stock-taking. In 2000, Japan was the world’s number one donor to developing countries by volume, but subsequently has slipped to third place, behind the USA and Britain. Mrs Ogata — who was for many years the high-profile head of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR — now has to try to reverse that trend, as well as overseeing the merger of JICA with her country’s international loans agency.
She spoke of her determination to shift JICA’s focus more towards Africa and to favour community development, as opposed to some of the failed top-down models of the past. I asked her whether JICA had the Japanese public behind it on these matters, being well aware that the Japanese aid budget was cut largely because of public (and business sector) reluctance to be generous overseas while Japan was going through an economic recession. Her reply indicated that she will target young people in particular, through programmes in schools and through volunteering. Interestingly, she is especially keen to encourage Japanese school teachers to do work in developing countries for a couple of years, which would not only help raise education standards in the recipient countries, but also make them a formidable tool in development education when they return home.
Tony Blair, to his credit, used Britain’s chairmanship of the G8 to highlight the plight of Africa, even if some NGOs and critics such as Bob Geldof question how genuine the G8’s commitment has been. Now it up to Japan to pick up the baton, with Prime Minister Abe being chivied on by Mrs Ogata from the sidelines.
Link: www.jica.go.jp/english
