JICA USA Newsletter September/October 2012 The JICA USA Newsletter is a bi-monthly publication which seeks to provide information on JICA’s activities in Washington, DC and around the world. If you are interested in receiving this electronic newsletter, please contact [email protected] to be added to our mailing list. In this issue: • JICA brings perspectives from the field to the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Tokyo • Brookings, AFD, and JICA discuss inclusive growth after the Arab Spring • Japan pitches its ideas for the Post-2015 Development Agenda • JICA promotes strategic partnerships to address global hunger and malnutrition • Latest JICA’s World focuses on assistance to India and Myanmar • Message from Chief Representative Nakazawa: The U.S. presidential election and development aid JICA brings perspectives from the field to the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Tokyo By Mariko Schmitz, Program Officer When the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings opened on October 9 in Tokyo, the main objective was to advise global leaders on financial vulnerability. The top concern was the ability of the European Union to address its sovereign debt crisis, which remains a large threat to global economic stability. As anticipated, the outcome documents revisited the major international development events of the last 18 months, namely democracy and employment in the Middle East, infrastructure development and food security in Africa, and disaster risk management. Rather than developing new solutions, these meetings provided a platform for world financial leaders to show progress on decreasing sovereign risk, encouraging equitable growth, creating jobs, and improving global health. JICA President Tanaka participated in several seminars at the IMF-WB Japan, as host of the meetings, and JICA, as its major ODA Annual Meetings. implementing agency, contributed practical, intellectual, and organizational resources to the planning, discussion, and success of the events. Over the course of the conference, JICA President Akihiko Tanaka discussed development strategies with top leaders of developing countries and donor organizations and spoke on several panels to address issues such as investments in health and African infrastructure. 1 While much has been accomplished in fighting infectious diseases and improving maternal and child health globally, it is clear that more work needs to be done. In the plenary session which was dedicated to securing financial resources for global health, Dr. Tanaka argued that more funds are needed to achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals. However, he asked that these investments be managed with greater efficiency. By strengthening health systems, investing in pharmaceutical research, and developing sustainable financing mechanisms, Dr. Tanaka suggested that the international community could amplify the impacts of their investments and expand access to basic health services for underserved populations. He stated that these were the necessary steps to make further progress on the global health agenda. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a major challenge to economic growth is the low level of power- generating infrastructure. In 10 years, the cost of new investments and maintenance will double to approximately 93 billion USD. To highlight Africa’s major near-term needs, JICA and the World Bank co-organized an official seminar on "Energy Infrastructure Development in Africa" at the Annual Meetings. After opening remarks by Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, Yokohama Mayor Ayako Hayashi, and World Bank Vice President for Africa Makhtar Diop, the floor opened to a discussion between panelists who represented regional commissions, development partner institutions, and the private sector. World Bank Africa Vice President Makhtar Diop said that a comprehensive approach with multiple stakeholders is needed to close Africa’s energy infrastructure gap. As part of the panel, Dr. Tanaka commented that JICA can, in addition to exporting technology and capital funding, help catalyze private sector investment. He said that this topic will be high on the agenda at next year’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) in Yokohama, Japan. Throughout the Annual Meetings, JICA cosponsored various events. In addition to the program seminars described above, JICA representatives also shared their views on a range of topics, including the post-MDGs framework, the Arab Spring, green growth, food security in the ASEAN region, and cooperation with Islamic finance. On the sidelines of the conference, JICA also signed new yen loan agreements with the Philippines, Iraq, Peru, Zambia, and Botswana. 2 Brookings, AFD, and JICA discuss inclusive growth after the Arab Spring By Kei Sakamoto, Deputy Assistant Director, Middle East Division 1, Middle East and Europe Department, JICA JICA and the Brookings Institution are currently undertaking a three-year joint research project on how to achieve inclusive growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) after the Arab Spring. Last year’s popular uprisings and political upheavals in the MENA region demonstrated that a new approach for development is required. In particular, the “quality” of macro-economic growth, not only the “quantity,” deserves more attention. In this context, JICA and Brookings’s research project sets out to examine the background and causes of the Arab Spring and to provide policy recommendations to international donors and policymakers to encourage balanced development in the region. For the first year, three important themes – voice and good governance, education, and economic opportunities for youth – have been the main focus of the project. In total, JICA and Brookings will produce five papers on these topics, and they will be published in early 2013. I was dispatched to the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development Program as a Visiting Fellow for three months to support the research project and to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations. At JICA, my portfolio covers operations in Egypt, Yemen, and Libya. As part of the project, I am contributing a working paper on efforts to introduce transparency and participation into economic planning and policymaking in Egypt. Preliminary results of the joint research were shared at a In Egypt, JICA is supporting the seminar on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Annual construction of the ‘Grand Egyptian Meetings in Tokyo on October 15. The event was co- Museum’ next to the Giza Pyramids. It is also assisting the government with organized by JICA, the Brookings Institution, and the electoral administration and Agence Francaise de Developpment (AFD), and it was development policy planning. attended by over 150 participants from diplomatic delegations, academia, private companies and civil society. The seminar included two roundtables. The first focused on outcomes of the Arab Spring and the second focused on how bilateral donors could adapt and implement strategies to encourage job creation and social justice in the Middle East. JICA President Akihiko Tanaka, AFD CEO Dov Zerah, and Brookings Senior Fellow Homi Kharas all spoke at the event. In Dr. Tanaka’s remarks, he stated, “Our assistance to the region’s new democracies should be concentrated in areas that have not been supported enough, such as public sector reform and improvement of the investment environment.” 3 For JICA specifically, Dr. Tanaka said, “Regionally, we plan to support employment creation and balanced development by building the capacity of local governments. And in the long run, we also intend to support the promotion of tourism and the development of small and medium sized businesses.” The seminar provided an opportunity for participants to exchange views and recommendations on how to support the democratic and economic transition in the MENA region. As Dr. Tanaka noted in his remarks, “We need more skillful approaches to encourage inclusive development in this part of the world.” Related Links: Preliminary results of the joint JICA-Brookings research project JICA’s activities in the Middle East 4 Japan pitches its ideas for the Post-2015 Development Agenda By Vanessa Arness, Program Officer 2015 is the deadline for achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But the question remains, what will come after the MDGs? Back in July, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed 26 members to a High-Level Panel to develop recommendations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In addition to academics, civil society, and private sector representatives, the illustrious group is comprised of current and former heads of state, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, as well as former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former German President Horst Kohler. The High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda held their first meeting on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly week in New York. Prior to the panel’s first meeting, the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN organized an “Open Dialogue” in order to encourage discussion among panel members and other players, including NGOs, research institutes, private foundations, and youth groups. The goal of the meeting was to include a diverse set of actors and to provide a range of views to inform the panel’s deliberations. Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba chaired the “Open Dialogue”