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　■□ Summary report

　
Summary report on the international symposium,

　
“Can Japan’s ODA save the world’s poor?”

Japanese ODA Reform, New Directions in International Aid, and the View Point of the Poor
Dialogue among OECD/DAC, the Japanese Government, Major Donors, and Civil Society

　On 27/May/2006 (Saturday), TCSF and five other NGOs held an international symposium in Tokyo, Japan. This Symposium was organized to find out how much Japanese government’s ODA (Official Development Assistance) is contributing to poverty reduction, as agreed internationally at the UN Millennium Development Summit in 2000, and to consider what we have to do to improve this contribution.

The symposium attracted 185 participants including panelists, commentators, five African Ambassadors to Japan, officials from international agencies and government offices, and NGO staff. A live video of the symposium was simultaneously broadcast via the internet.

This is the summary report of the symposium.

[Venue/Organizers]

Date: 27/May/2006 (Saturday), 10:00-13:00

Venue: Conference hall, Institute for International Cooperation, Tokyo, Japan

Co-organizers: Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC), ODA Reform Network, TICAD Civil Society Forum (TCSF), Kansai NGO Council, Nagoya NGO Center
Sponsor: OECD Tokyo center

[Programme]

Opening Address, Representative of co-organizers, Mr. Yoshitaka Funato, JANIC Representative

Overview of Japanese ODA
　　“Concerning ODA reform”, Mr. Masaaki Ohashi, JANIC Deputy Representative
　　“Structural Issues of Japanese ODA”, Mr. Kiyotaka Takahashi, ODA Reform Network
　　“Comments on Japanese ODA”, Mr. Richard Manning, Chair of OECD/DAC
　　“Japanese ODA’s effort”, Mr. Kazuo Kodama, former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Japan

Poverty Reduction and Civil Society participation
　　United Kingdom, Mr. Adrian Davis, Country Representative in China, Department for International Development (DFID), UK
　　France, Mr. Pierre Jacquet, Chief Economist, : Agence française de développement, France
　　Netherlands, Mr. Rob de Vos, Deputy Director General for International Cooperation, MOFA, Netherlands

The NGO Viewpoint
　　Professor Minoru Obayashi, TCSF Representative

Comments by panel
　　Professor. Ryokichi Hirono, President, Committee to Aid Democracy for Peace Building
　　Mr. Michael Roeskau, Secretariat Director, OECD/DAC
　　Mr. Henri Rouille d'Orfeuil, Président, Coordination Solidarité Urgence et Développement, France
　　Dr. Stefan Profit, Economics Department, German Embassy in Tokyo

　[Summary of the Discussion]

<Regarding Japanese ODA>

▼Mr. Kiyotaka Takahashi, ODA Reform Network, identified issues of Japanese ODA’s status and structure from the view point of Japanese civil society. His presentation reflected current debates about Japanese ODA reform, which include concerns that the current system lacks the ability to contribute to eradicating the world’s poverty, and that for this reform is a critical opportunity to overcome this issue.

▼Mr. Richard Manning, Chair of OECD/DAC, pointed out that it is still important to widen the assistance to poverty prone countries, and confirmed the role of Japanese government toward setting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Paris Declaration on Aid Harmonization. He stressed that more harmonization by all donor countries is necessary.

Regarding the result of DAC Peer Review on Japanese ODA, he noted that the Peer Review pointed out that Japanese government should enhance analytical capacity to evaluate consistency among policies. This Peer Review also stressed that it is important for the Japanese government to enlighten the general public about the importance of development aid.

He stressed that poverty is multifaceted in nature, so the accountability of both donors and recipient countries should be strengthened especially in aid to Sub-Saharan Africa. He said that it is important for Japanese ODA to give more emphasis to social and environmental issues, although the Japanese government currently usually reserves higher contributions for infrastructure development.

Lastly Mr. Manning recommended that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan should give more autonomy to JICA in grant assistance.

▼Mr. Kodama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Japan, replied to Mr. Takahashi by saying that Japanese NGOs should encourage greater ownership by recipients in country. He emphasized that the Japanese government has supported the creation of the MDGs and other initiatives, as illustrated by Mr. Manning.

He pointed out that economic growth is necessary for poverty reduction especially investment to infrastructure and agriculture. This is particularly important in Sub-Saharan Africa, a view that is shared by NEPAD.

Also he pointed out that Japanese government is progressively participating in aid harmonization initiatives, especially in Tanzania.

<Regarding Poverty Reduction efforts and Civil Society’s participation by ODA>

After hearing about Japanese ODA, panelists from a number of European countries presented information about their countries’ ODA reform efforts, poverty reduction and civil society engagement.

▼Mr. Davis from the United Kingdom provided an overview of the UK’s philosophy on ODA, noting that ODA must be poverty reduction focused by law, and that the UK government is making collective efforts to achieve the goal of poverty reduction, etc.

He pointed out some of the main features of UK government’s ODA policy, including a strong commitment to aid harmonization, ongoing improvement to aid effectiveness, and advocacy activity towards mainstreaming budget support.

He noted that the UK’s aid budget has increased three fold in recent years and that aid has been untied. At the same time aid issues are enjoying higher political commitment and attention and the awareness of general public on aid and development issues has been improving.

He said that DFID recognizes the important role of civil society, which means that partnerships among government, private sector and civil society are regarded as indispensable.

Mr. Davis introduced the DFID’s flexible funding scheme, the “Partnership Programme Agreement”, which was invented through the dialogue with civil society, and through which DFID provides financial support to civil society.

He explained that DFID is seeking to support collaboration amongst governments, the private sector and civil society and is recognizing the special role of civil society in developing countries of improving the accountability of governments, facilitating good policy and good governance, and contributing to conflict prevention.

▼Mr. Jacquet, Agence française de développement of France, said that French government has a strong commitment in achieving MDGs and focuses on (1) result oriented management, (2) enhancing ownership of aid recipients, (3) aid harmonization and (4) Africa. He also noted that French government is introducing “Innovative Financial Mechanisms” such as taxation on air tickets in cooperation with French civil society, in part because future levels of financial resources for poverty reduction remain uncertain.

He noted the idea of “Global Public Goods” as a basic philosophy for combating world poverty and global challenges such as climate change.

Mr. Jacquet said that French government is considering establishing partnerships with NGOs in order to improve aid effectiveness in terms of relationship with civil society. He indicated that the French government believes it is important to collaborate with NGOs to improve accountability, transparency and share experiences.

▼Mr. Rob de Vos, from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argued that good governance is indispensable to increasing aid effectiveness and that merely increasing quantity of aid may be wasteful. He said that the G8 countries should aim to increase the quality of aid and noted that geopolitical reasons have driven non-poverty focused aid in the past.

He said there is no single model for aid allocation, and that flexibility is important. He pointed out that civil society in the south plays an important role in supporting good governance in southern countries. He argued that coalitions amongst civil societies from the north and south, and between civil society and government, are indispensable.

Mr. de Vos presented that 20% of all Dutch aids goes to civil society and that the ratio is increasing.

<The Viewpoint of Poor People>

Lastly from the panelists, Professor Obayashi, TCSF Representative, pointed out that Japanese ODA reform and international discussions on aid lack the viewpoint of “poor people”. He said that the poor are usually treated as “the object to be helped” but argued that poor people should be central players.

He raised the issue that the idea of ownership, which is used by Japanese government and other donors to indicate the recipient government, should also include the ownership of poor people and their participation in decision making or evaluations.

<Comments from Representatives and Audience>

During the last half session of the symposium, there were precious comments from Professor Hirono, President of ADP, who has long working experience with international agencies, Mr. Roeskau, Secretariat Director of OECD/DAC, Mr. d'Orfeuil from Coordination Solidarité Urgence et Développement, and Dr. Profit from the German Embassy in Tokyo.

▼Professor Hirono pointed out that good governance is important and that civil society should be strengthened to support this.

▼Mr. Roeskau said that Japan alone cannot save the world’s poor but that the role of major donors such as Japan is indispensable. He indicated that aid monitoring in developing countries plays an important role in improving aid effectiveness.

▼Mr. d'Orfeuil proposed that NGOs should be seen more as partners, and that the relationship should not be viewed as adversarial.

▼Dr. Profit said that through German ODA more attention was being given to poverty reduction and human rights issues which relate to civil society, and that the budget for these activities has been increasing, including support to civil society.

▼The South African Ambassador pointed out that capacity building for civil society is very important, and that because of the ownership issues previously discussed, partnership with civil society is equally important.