operation (APEC) forum meeting, leaders confirmed that human resources development would continue to be a core priority in the years to come.

To keep pace with the rapid changes brought about by globalization, developing and developed countries need to work together to build both tangible and intangible human networks and establish cooperative relationships that provide prompt access to and the sharing of necessary information and support. Dramatic advances in information and communications technology have facilitated such networking. In a growing number of cases, ICT is being applied with considerable effectiveness to actively promote human resources development.

The following is an overview of efforts in these areas. Aspects covered include basic education, which is crucial to human resources development, the nurturing of human resources and the provision of expertise to assist in adapting to a globalizing world, and the promotion of wide-area cooperation and South-South cooperation towards the networking of these efforts.

## (I) Basic Education

Japan sees human resources development as the key to national development. This view is based on Japan’s own experience and its experience of development cooperation in East Asia. Support for basic education is one of the “priority issues and sectors” cited in the Medium-Term Policy on ODA. The Dakar Framework for Action, which was adopted at the World Education Forum in April 2000, identifies universal access to basic education and the provision of quality education as shared priorities for unified efforts by the international community. The Group of Eight nations (G8) affirmed their commitment towards the achievement of the goals set down in the Dakar Framework at the Genoa Summit in 2001.

In providing support in the area of basic education, it is vital from the point of beneficiary-oriented view to focus on empowerment—upgrading skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic that allow people in developing countries to function properly in their societies. Another priority is to raise awareness among parents and educators of the importance of education to regional development in order to ensure children’s attendance in school. It is also crucial to provide fine-tuned support that matches local needs. NGOs, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program, and the Senior Volunteer program have all made valuable contributions as providers of finely tuned field support in developing countries. It is also important to recognize that the achievement of “education for all” will require total community participation in education, including not only children but also parents, young people, and adults.

It should be noted that science and mathematics in the basic education curricula play a crucial role in nurturing business administrators, technical personnel, and other human resources needed in sectors that are crucial to national and economic development, including agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; ICT and other manufacturing industries; and the financial sector, which is indispensable to a successful transition to a market-based economic system.

## (2) Nurturing of Human Resources and Provision of Expertise

In order to integrate with and benefit from a world economy that is being transformed by an accelerating process of globalization, developing countries, including transition countries, need to build market-oriented domestic economic systems, formulate and implement policies that enable liberalization of trade and investment,