13th March 2005

Keynote speaker: 　Mr. Matsumoto, 　Group Director, Partnership Promotion Group, JICA Tokyo

1. JICA's Grassroots Technical Cooperation The Japanese Government has various assistance programs to meet diverse needs of developing countries through Official Development Assistance (ODA). In international cooperation, the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or local governments has become more important both in Japan and developing countries, therefore, JICA Partnership Program (hereinafter referred to as "JPP") was introduced in 2002 as a new scheme of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the executing agency for technical cooperation of the Government of Japan. JPP is technical cooperation program implemented by JICA to contribute to the social and economic development of developing countries at the grass-roots level in collaboration with partners in Japan, such as NGOs, universities, local governments and public interest corporations. The target countries shall be those which have approved the acceptance of the JPP as well as those where JICA Overseas Offices and JICA/JOCV Offices are located. Dispatch of persons from Japan and/or acceptance of persons from the recipient country for training in Japan are major components of JPP. Projects that focus primarily on the provision of equipment or the construction of buildings and facilities will not be supported by JICA as JPP. The entrustment of the main activities to another organization is not permitted in principle in JPP. Minor activities that require specific expertise may be entrusted to an individual or to another organization (including local NGOs). Only NGOs, universities, local governments, public interest corporations and NPOs based in Japan shall submit proposals to JICA. Local NGOs in recipient countries may engage in the operation of individual projects by cooperating with the above-mentioned Japanese organizations. International NGOs that have a branch office in Japan may submit proposals through the branch office in Japan. Individual projects will be implemented for a maximum of three (3) years. The specific length of each project will be decided based on the characteristics and goals of the project. (1) From Project Proposal to Pre-approval*1 Partners may submit a proposal to or consult with the nearest JICA Domestic Office*2 on the project they wish to carry out. The JICA Domestic Office reviews the proposal through consultation with JICA Headquarters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, a JICA Overseas Office or a JICA/JOCV Office, a Japanese Embassy, and/or experts. A JICA Overseas Office or a JICA/JOCV Office, and/or a Japanese Embassy may consult or exchange information with the recipient country's government and counterpart organizations. JICA Headquarters select pre-approved programs from the proposals based on a review by JICA Domestic Office. See Fig. 1: "Flow Chart of the JICA Partnership Program and Role of the Recipient Country." (2) From Official Approval to Implementation Official approval from the recipient country is required in order to implement the project. The most effective and efficient procedures will be undertaken by both JICA and the recipient country to obtain this official approval. The current procedures are as follows: a. Written notification from a JICA Overseas Office or a JICA/JOCV Office, or a Japanese Embassy to the responsible organization of the recipient country's government. b. Signing of minutes between a JICA Overseas Office or a JICA/JOCV Office and the responsible organization of the recipient country or a responsible ministry. c. Exchange of verbal notes that establish an international agreement. The JICA Domestic Office and the Partners conclude a contract for entrusting the operations to launch the project after the official approval of the project. (3) Monitoring and Evaluation During project implementation, Partners and/or counterparts in the recipient country manage the project, and JICA monitors it through reports or visits to the site. The project will be evaluated through reports and/or an open seminar after completion of the project. 2. About the Promotion Team for Grassroots Technical Cooperation JICA aims to widen its cooperation to people it has not had any relationship with before through the Promotion Team for Grassroots Technical Cooperation (PTGTC). The team has been in operation for the past four to five years now. It has a two-step approach: First, gathering proposals from people involved, and second, moving toward their implementation. Moreover, both JICA and the NGO cooperate with each other toward resolution of issues of concern. Although JICA TOKYO implements about ten new proposals for Grassroots Technical Cooperation every year, most of them focus on Asian countries. The proposals for African countries are either for Kenya (proposed by CanDo) or for South Africa (proposed by JVC). ３．Differences between the grassroots technical cooperation and original activities of JICA The term, "grassroots," means activities with people or society at local level instead of the political center. Therefore, the first step of the strategy is to have direct contact with local people to clarify issues from participatory approaches and then to identify operations in a reliable manner. About 40 grassroots technical cooperation projects have been implemented in three years. It is necessary to judge each NGO's proposal. The degree of grassroots is key in the judgment. Elements to judge an activity: (1) How far does the activity involve non-governmental people in the field? (2) Does the activity have voluntarism? Does it seek profit, money, and material interest? (3) The standard for judgment is that the more local people are involved in an activity, the higher the degree of its grassroots character. Most of applicants for grassroots' technical cooperation are from NGOs. As JICA's mission is to provide technical assistance, we would like to ask JICA to advise ways of transferring technique or know-how. ４．Patterns of Grassroots Technical Cooperation Five examples: education in Kenya, education in Nepal, girl's education in Cambodia, poverty reduction through activities such as vocational training, nutrition education, or micro finance, in Union of Myanmar, and healthcare education in East Timor. Examples of insufficiency: Plans for environment -> It is insufficient to tell the degree of grassroots or the know-how. Plans focusing on African countries -> Many plans are focusing on Asian countries and only a few on African countries. Plans relating to HIV/AIDS (What should we do for HIV/AIDS prevention education as grassroots activities? (We do not think creating advertisements or distributing condoms are effective approaches). Plans for population issues including family planning ->the number of plans are few in comparison to Europe and America. JICA has had a population planning project.