On 19th January 2006, the 66th Regular GII/IDI meeting took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) with eight representatives from MOFA and around twenty from member NGOs.

Topics under discussion included the new name for the GII/IDI meeting, fiscal 2006 ODA budget, export of generic medicines, including those for HIV/AIDS, under the WTO Agreement on TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and the possibility of NGO-MOFA cooperation in raising awareness of ODA.

NGOs also reminded MOFA of their willingness to promote ODA/NGO partnership under the Health and Development Initiative.

NGOs asked MOFA a series of questions about the ODA budget for MOFA that amounted to 473.3 billion yen, a 3 percent decrease from fiscal 2005.

Click here for details of the fiscal 2006 ODA budget.

MOFA emphasized that three new areas of Grant Aids (Cooperation on Counter-Terrorism and Security Enhancement, Disaster Prevention and Reconstruction, and Community Empowerment) had been created.

Grant Aid for Community Empowerment is intended to improve ODA efficiency and focuses, 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.

NGOs will pay close attention to this Grant Aid, and further information on this will be given in JOICFP eNews as it becomes available.

The NGO group also enquired as to how cuts to various multilateral organizations had been determined. MOFA explained that low implementation rates of the previous year's budget led to a commensurate cut in later funding, and policies as well as priorities of the Japanese government also were determining factors.

Both MOFA and NGOs agreed that an ODA increase is desirable and the general public's support for ODA is necessary to achieve this. NGOs will explore the possibilities of further strengthening MOFA-NGO cooperation.