Sixty Years of Japan's ODA | August 2014

August 2014

Sixty Years of Japan's ODA

PRIME MINISTER'S DIARY
Prime Minister Abe visits New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea
Prime Minister Abe visits Mexico, The Caribbean and South America

COVER STORY
Sixty Years of Japan's ODA

FEATURES

Sixty Years of Japanese ODA

This year marks sixty years of Japanese official development assistance (ODA). Kimihiro Ishikane, Director-General, International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke about the history of Japanese ODA, the bonds it has forged between Japan and other countries, and what direction it should take in the future.

PDF(493KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Supporting Female Palestinian Refugees in Jordan

Maki Niioka, a specialist working in Jordan's Palestinian refugee camps with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), recalls being stunned to meet people that "didn't even know they were refugees" because they were born in Jordan. Refugees total nearly a third of Jordan's population, she notes, and recently the numbers are increasing as refugees fleeing Syria add to the strain on the kingdom's capacity and resources.

PDF(1,187KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Life Guide
Japan's Maternal and Child Health Handbook Benefits the World

Japanese people take the existence of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook (hereinafter referred to as the "MCH Handbook") for granted. In 1948, after the Second World War, the Ministry of Welfare (present Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) started issuing this handbook to protect the welfare of children in Japan. The handbook has been introduced to countries such as Indonesia, Palestine and Vietnam since 1992 through an initiative to implement technical assistance via JICA's Maternal and Child Health Project. Miyako Shinohara, who is a marketing officer of the nonprofit organization HANDS. Which has been supporting JICA's for implementing MCH Handbook with its extensive experience and expertise, described their activities.

PDF(854KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Ring of Protection
Japanese Breakwaters Protected Capital from Large Tsunami

Situated in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sri Lanka, the Republic of the Maldives is a small tropical nation made up of about twelve hundred coral islands with a population of around three hundred thousand. The general population inhabits no more than two hundred of these islands; the rest are uninhabited except for eighty-seven used as tourist resorts for foreigners.

PDF(3,686KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Building Peace on Mindanao in the Philippines

Japan has been supporting the peace process in Mindanao between the MILF and the Philippine government by participating in the International Contact Group and the International Monitoring Team (IMT). Japan is also providing assistance for the peace process via socioeconomic development through its own support system known as the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development (J-BIRD). This is the first time Japan has gotten involved in the peace-building process before a peace agreement.

PDF(624KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Legal Development Assistance for Cambodia to Maintain Peace for Citizens

In Cambodia, educated people at every level of society were subject to genocide by the Pol Pot regime, which held power from the second half of the 1970s. In the legal field, too, where fewer than ten lawyers and judicial officers are said to have survived the Pol Pot regime, a massive number of personnel and with them the rule of law itself, which until then had been based on the French legal system were lost.

PDF(1,182KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Creating the Future of Social Business
The Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project

The Ajinomoto Group is known worldwide for its seasonings and amino acid products. Now, capitalizing on its research knowledge and expertise in food science and amino acid nutrition it has accumulated since its founding, Ajinomoto is working together with international organizations such as JICA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote a new social business dedicated to solving the serious problems of malnutrition in developing countries. Dr. Yasuhiko Toride of Ajinomoto Co. Inc.'s R&D Planning Department spoke about the Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project, which is contributing to children's growth and health by improving the nutritional balance of infant food.

PDF(997KB) | HTML English | Japanese

Japan's ODA Successes
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Perspectives

Located in Kenya in East Africa, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) has produced a great number of exceptionally talented individuals and serves as but one example of the successful results of Japan's ODA in developing human resources. Based on a request from the Kenyan government, the Japanese government, through JICA, provided support for this endeavor for over twenty years, since the beginning of the project in 1977 to establish a university. It provides a valuable perspective on Japan's ODA based on JKUAT's past, present and future.

PDF(1,543KB) | HTML English | Japanese