On 22nd September, the 64th Regular GII/IDI meeting was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Eight MOFA officials and 20 NGO representatives attended.

MOFA first delivered a report on the 2005 UN Summit, focusing on the speeches made by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura.

MOFA highlighted the fact that both Koizumi and Machimura had spoken about Japan's commitment to addressing developmental issues. Machimura also said that Japan intended to increase its ODA by US$10 billion in aggregate over the next five years, that it would double ODA to Africa in the next three years, and hold TICAD IV (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) in 2008.

In addition, Machimura referred to announcements already made that Japan would increase its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with the provision of US$500 million in the coming years, and US$5 billion over the next five years to the Health and Development Initiative (HDI).

In response to NGO questions as to why the topic of reproductive health (RH) had not been included in speeches by representatives of the Japanese government, MOFA replied that it had considered the NGO petition letter submitted in August, but due to time constraints for the speeches many areas, including RH, had not been specifically mentioned.

MOFA also referred that prior to the summit, it had issued a report regarding Japanese contributions to the MDGs.

ODA draft budget request for FY 2006

MOFA next spoke about the proposed ODA draft budget request for fiscal year 2006. In total, ODA is drafted to increase by 11.9% to \546.3 billion, focusing on

1) Japan's contribution to the MDGs,

2) Strengthening assistance to Africa,

3) ODA efficiency.

Several areas, including the proposed four new grant aid areas, are expected to see an increase of funding.

Click here for details of the draft budget proposal.

NGOs questioned whether the increase in ODA would be actual rather than, for example, debt relief or reduction, and favored trading conditions.

MOFA replied that it would aim for the stated increase of US$10 billion over five years, responding to the development assistance needs of the international community, through yen loans and grants, as well as debt relief if it was proven to be effective.

NGOs suggested that they could work together with ODA in a new community empowerment scheme that focused, in addition to social infrastructure such as hospitals and bridges, on the development of whole communities as a package in a cross-sectoral manner utilizing local resources.