The
features of the 1st issue are:
1) TCSF invited African NGOs, who have worked closely
with grassroots people in Africa, to conduct the evaluation on Japan’s policy in
their countries to include the African people’s voices in the evaluation
results;
2) The White Paper chose “equitable benefits
distribution to the poor” as a key evaluation criterion and has checked if the
socio-economic growth and projects provided any negative impacts to the poor and
the vulnerable in Africa; and
3) Japanese experts from various areas including
donor agencies, universities, academic institutes, consulting firms, media and
NGOs, and students collaborated in the production of the TCSF White Paper, so
that it might provide more logical and practical outputs based on their
expertise and experience.
The components of the 1st issue include: 1)
overview of the White Paper; 2) trends in donors’ assistance to Africa; 3)
achievements of Japan’s policy and ODA projects; 4) evaluation results by the
African NGOs (Senegal and Kenya); 5) evaluation by TCSF; and 6) conclusion and
recommendations.
Conclusion and recommendations of the 1st issue are
as below:
[Conclusion]
1) Japanese government’s perception of the African
people tends to emphasize their negative aspects too much and to ignore their
hopes and potentials;
2) Despite the fact that Japan repeatedly refers to
the importance and the necessity of development assistance to Africa for poverty
reduction, human security and humanitarianism, Africa is mentioned as one of
“the other regions” and has remained being given the secondary importance in
Japan’s policy;
3) It is highly evaluated that Japan has led the
TICAD process for 10 years after the TICAD I in 1993; however, neither of
African or Japanese citizens, in general, have not well recognized the
conferences or the efforts of the Japanese government;.
4) There are only limited areas of Japan’s ODA that
Japanese NGOs can take part in, though the Japanese government has tried to
improve this situation. Compared to aid provided by other major donors in the
world, Japan’s ODA is still not NGO-friendly due to its complicated procedures
and regulations;
5) The efforts which the Japanese government made
to promote civil participation in ODA policy-making process are highly
evaluated: for example, on the occasion of planning Japan’s ODA principles in
2003. There still needs to expand opportunities for Japanese citizens to
participate in policy making and in networking with the African
citizens;
6) The analysis revealed that Japan did not
necessarily allocate its ODA to more highly-needed countries, showing its
limited equity consideration; and
7) Japan’s policy to Africa has targeted high-rank
bureaucrats and administrators in general as the beneficiaries of capacity
building at national and local administrations. Through this, only indirect
impacts on the poor and equity are expected, while direct approaches to the
African poor and the civil society are limited.
To overcome poverty and inequity, an institutional
framework needs to be created in ways that the Japanese government and donor
agencies reflect the voices of African and Japanese citizens and make optimum
use of monitoring and participation by civil society in ODA and other
international cooperation projects. For the enhancement of Japan’s policy to
Africa, the TCSF White Paper recommends the followings:
[Recommendations]
1) Japan should clearly express its political
intentions to set human development and empowerment of African people as the
primary goal of Japan’s policy to Africa. For this purpose, Japan
should:
§ facilitate networking and communication among
civil societies in Japan and Africa at the grassroots level;
§ increase the budget of the ODA to the African
counties for poverty reduction and equity improvement;
§ reform its ODA schemes to prioritize human
development on the recipient side rather than changing of procedures and
schedules on the donor side; and,
§ increase the ODA budget delivered directly to
the poor rather than the one provided indirectly via the government agencies of
recipient countries.
2) Japan should take more comprehensive aid approach
to African people and civil society. For this purpose, Japan
should;
§ strengthen comprehensive strategies including
the fields of trade, investment and debts besides socio-economic
development;
§ promote technical assistance to Africa in
international negotiations; and,
§ strengthen Japan’s assistance in good
governance and democracy.
3) Japan should facilitate participations of civil
society in policy making and ODA reform process, by the following
means:
§ to realize the “civil” conditionality set by
civil society, under which governments of donor countries and recipient
countries have consultations with people and civil society;
§ to endorse people who are end users and
beneficiaries of the ODA projects as decision-making authority in any aid
reform; and,
§ to create a mechanism in which Japan’s ODA to
Africa can improve its transparency and accountability to Japanese and African
civil societies.
4) Japan should regard the civil societies of
African countries as equal aid partners as the recipient governments.
Specifically, Japan should:
§ create the institutional framework in which
African and Japanese civil societies can participate in decision-making of
Japan’s policy to Africa;
§ assist institutional capacity building of
African and Japanese civil societies; and
§ strengthen partnership and collaborations with
African and Japanese NGOs in the implementation of Japan’s development
projects.
5) TICAD “for the Poor” in Africa should be
realized. For this, TICAD should:
§ provide a forum for human development of
people and civil society in Africa;
§ provide a forum for dialogues on Japan’s
mid-term policy towards Africa;
§ be supported both by African and Japanese
civil societies. Japan should develop the joint sponsorship with AU in addition
to the UN agencies, and facilitate participations by civil societies of Africa
and Japan.
§ facilitate south-south cooperation among civil
societies of Africa and Japan.
