development. From 1990 through March 2002 JICA formulated a series of guidelines for 20 sectors, including agriculture, mining and manufacturing, and marine products industries. In April 2002 JBIC combined the environmental guidelines for ODA and other official flows (OOF) and published a newly formatted “JBIC Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social Considerations.” JBIC made an effort to ensure a high level of transparency in the process of formulating its guidelines, soliciting comments from the general public as well as from a broad selection of experts, NGOs, private businesses, Diet members, and relevant ministries and agencies. The new guidelines emphasize the participation of stakeholders, such as residents affected by a project, and require the participation of them in the implementation of the project, starting from the planning stage. The concerns that JBIC must address are not limited to environmental issues but also include such social concerns as the relocation of residents and consideration for women and indigenous peoples. The new guidelines require JBIC to actively disclose such information as project categories formulated prior to financing decisions and the findings of studies into environmental and social impact. Thus, the new guidelines are more encompassing than the previous ones.

## (3) Improving the Evaluation System

In order to ensure that ODA is implemented fairly and properly, it is necessary to further improve the system of assessment. In February 2001 the “ODA Evaluation Study Group” $ ^{22} $ submitted a report to then Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, which presented the following recommendations: (1) the introduction of policy-level evaluations and the expansion of program-level evaluations (by establishing indices and monitoring methods); (2) improving the evaluation feedback system (by establishing “the Evaluation Feedback Committee” to ensure that evaluation findings lead to actual improvements); (3) training and effectively utilizing evaluation personnel (such as by exchanging personnel with international organizations and other donor nations and establishing an “Evaluation Human Resources Database”); (4) ensuring consistency in ex-ante, midterm, and ex-post evaluations (including the preparation of ex-ante evaluation charts); and (5) promoting greater collaboration among the government ministries and agencies that deal with ODA (by setting up “the Inter-Ministerial Liason Meeting on ODA Evaluation” as a regular forum for discussion and exchange of views with the participation of NGOs, scholars, and other experts).

In view of these recommendations, the Japanese government has made an effort to expand evaluation to the level of the ODA program and policy which are superordinate to individual projects as well as to achieve consistency from the ex-ante stage through the midterm and ex-post stages. In addition to publishing ex-post evaluations as in the past, since fiscal year 2001 JICA and JBIC have begun preparing and publishing “Ex-ante Project Evaluation Sheets” for project-type technical cooperation, grant assistance, and yen loans, listing the findings of ex-ante surveys, a description of the necessity of projects, its aims, details, and its goals. In order to more properly provide feedback to those drafting policy,