Month/Year	Major Developments in Japanese Aid	Month/Year	International Developments in Aid
Oct. 2003	Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Foundation turn into an “Independent Administrative Institution.”	Oct. 2003	International Donors’ Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq is held in Madrid.
Dec. 2003	ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit Meeting is held in Tokyo (“Tokyo Declaration,” and “The Japan-ASEAN Plan of Action,” are announced).	2004	International Conference on Afghanistan is held in Berlin.
Feb. 2004	1st Japan Education Forum is held in Tokyo.
Apr. 2004	Ministerial Conference on Peace Consolidation and Economic Development of the Western Balkans is held in Tokyo.
Apr. 2004	JICA’s “Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations” are put into effect.
Aug. 2004	“Central Asia plus Japan” Dialogue/Foreign Ministers Meeting is held in Astana.
Nov. 2004	50th Anniversary of Japan’s International Cooperation Symposium co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN University, and JICA is held in Tokyo.
Nov. 2004	TICAD Asia-Africa Trade and Investment Conference (AATIC) is held in Tokyo.
Jan. 2005	US$500 million in grant aid, and the maximum possible assistance for the damages caused by the major earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia is announced.	2005	Mar. 2004
Jan. 2005	Release of “Initiative for Disaster Reduction through ODA” at the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction.
Feb. 2005	New Medium-Term Policy on ODA is formulated.
Mar. 2005	“Initiative on Gender and Development (GAD)” is announced (at 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women).
Mar. 2005	“Japan-US Strategic Development Alliance” agreed upon.
Apr. 2005	At the Japan-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is held in Beijing, both Japan and China came to a shared understanding regarding ending the provision of new yen loans by the start of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Apr. 2005	Announcement of doubling of ODA to Africa over the next three years and more than US$250 million in aid for disaster prevention and emergency restoration at the Asia-African Summit Meeting is held in Jakarta.
Apr. 2005	“Grant Aid for Increased Food Production” is renamed “Poor Farmer Assistance.”
Apr. 2005	“Cultural grant aid cooperation” and “Cultural heritage grant aid cooperation” consolidated and renamed “General grant aid cooperation.”
Jun. 2005	“Health and Development Initiative” is announced at the High Level Forum on the Health MDGs in Asia and the Pacific held in Tokyo.
Jun. 2005	Announcement of immediate contribution of US$500 million to Global Fund at the 5th Anniversary of the Framing of the Global Fund at the Kyushu/Okinawa G8 Summit Special Symposium held in Tokyo.
Jul. 2005	Plan to increase the amount of comprehensive assistance of Japan’s ODA by US$10 billion over the next five years (compared to 2004) is announced at 31st G8 Gleneagles Summit.
Aug. 2005	Tokyo Proclamation and Action Plan, the guidelines for Japan-Central America cooperation, are adopted at the 2nd Japan-Central America Summit Meeting held in Tokyo.
Nov. 2005	UNDP/Japan WID Fund’s 10th Anniversary Symposium is held in Tokyo.
Dec. 2005	Announcement of Japan’s Development Initiative prior to the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference is held in Hong Kong.
Dec. 2005	1st Meeting Concerning Overseas Economic Cooperation (due to be held a total of 10 times by October 2007).
Feb. 2006	3rd Japan Education Forum (JEF III) is held in Tokyo.
Feb. 2006	LDP Report on Overseas Economic Cooperation is submitted.
Feb. 2006	Report on Meeting Concerning Overseas Economic Cooperation is submitted.
Feb. 2006	TICAD Conference on the Consolidation of Peace is held in Addis Ababa.