Anh7

In 2005 in his report “In Larger Freedom,” Kofi Annan urged donors to de-link aid from their geopolitical agendas. Aid should be focused on countries which need scarce external concessional resources to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

According to the most recent OECD/DAC Data, over 54.5 % of Japan’s ODA went to Middle Income Countries in ’04-’05: 21% of Japanese ODA went to China and Iraq. In 2005, less than 20% went to the least developed countries and less than 11% to Africa, the region most in need of concessional funding to meet the Millennium Goals. However at the Gleneagles G8 Summit in 2005, Japan pledged to double the amount of its aid going to this region over the following three years.

Japanese ODA seems dominated by its foreign policy and, as a result, there is little practical focus on poverty reduction or the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The OECD suggests that Japan could usefully clarify its policy on how it intends to focus on poor countries or the poor populations within countries. Japan’s Medium-Term ODA Policy Framework largely equates poverty reduction with economic growth, mentioning measures to promote enterprises and improve the investment climate. Further, only a small portion of Japanese resources in the social sector is directed towards the basic social services that will be key to achieving the MDGs: only 1.2 % of bilateral ODA goes to basic education and health. Japan’s allocation to social sectors tends to be directed to tertiary levels, such as universities, research institutions, urban water systems or hospitals. In addition, a large part of Japan’s ODA continues to be provided in the form of technical assistance, and this often means expensive expatriate technical advisors.