forts; recovery and reconstruction, on the other hand, require a great deal of time, effort, and financing. Prevention is, indeed, “better than a cure,” and so “a culture of conflict prevention” needs to be fostered throughout the international community.

Conflicts in developing countries result not only from ethnic or religious confrontation but also from poverty and economic disparity, as well as the failure of systems of governance to provide effective mechanisms for the reconciliation of conflicting interests. The use of development aid to alleviate these problems—or at least avoid further deterioration—can help prevent conflicts and avoid their recurrence.

Based on these perspectives, Japan seeks to alleviate poverty through assistance in the area of basic human needs—including medical services, education, and food—and in its use of technical cooperation to help developing countries improve their political, economic, social, and legal systems and boost administrative capacity. Ultimately, poverty must be overcome through industrial development leading to economic growth, and the development of infrastructure to support economic growth will thus continue to be an important priority. Japan places considerable importance on continuing efforts to prevent conflicts and avoid relapses through ODA and other tools by alleviating the factors that cause conflicts and by actively supporting measures to eliminate those factors.

## (2) Emergency Humanitarian Assistance

When an armed conflict unfortunately does occur, the priority is to provide emergency humanitarian assistance as quickly as possible to alleviate the distress of victims and refugees whose situation tends to deteriorate at an accelerating pace with the passage of time. In addition to bilateral cooperation, Japan provides emergency aid through such international humanitarian agencies as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In implementing emergency humanitarian assistance, the role of NGOs should be noted in addition to that of governments and international organizations. NGOs can be effective because of their ability to move quickly into trouble spots and respond flexibly and promptly to a wide range of needs. The active involvement of civil society, including NGOs, in these activities results in the diversification of aid entities and allows aid to be fine-tuned to meet specific needs. It also allows the mobilization of more personnel and funds for cooperation activities. In fiscal year 2000 Japan established “grants for supporting NGO emergency activities,” under which applications for funding are fast-tracked to allow NGOs to respond quickly to emergency situations. This mechanism has already been used, albeit in nonconflict situations, to support NGO operations in response to earthquakes in India and El Salvador in January 2001. In recent years, Japanese NGOs have become increasingly active in the provision of emergency humanitarian assistance. These activities are typical examples of the “visibility of Japanese aid.”

The September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States have forced large numbers of people to flee Afghanistan into Pakistan and other neighboring countries, where there were already around 3.5 million refugees. In the same month Japan announced that it would provide emergency economic assistance, including bilateral aid amounting to ¥4.7 billion, to Pakistan, of which ¥1.7 billion was slated for refugees from Afghanistan. In addition, Japan responded to a UN donor alert by announcing in October that it would contribute approximately 20% of the contributions sought by UN agencies and other international organizations.