development, and teacher training.

-Japan will pay special attention to supporting basic education for girls.

-Active efforts will be made to utilize the resources of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and to promote cooperation with NGOs in the education of local communities, as well as to promote community participation in the implementation of assistance projects.

-Efforts will be made to ensure that assistance for basic education contributes to the improvement of job training and worker capacities in response to local needs and conditions.

## (2) Health and Medical Care

Poverty and a lack of development directly affect people's health in developing countries. Past development efforts have resulted in the improvement of health indicators in developing countries. For instance, Japan has actively contributed to the WHO program for eradicating polio from the West Pacific region. Thanks to such efforts, polio has almost vanished from the West Pacific region and has declined dramatically on a worldwide scale. $ ^{*9} $ However, nearly 12 million children under the age of five continue to die every year from preventable diseases. In order to respond to the many remaining challenges, it is essential that "primary health care" be made available to the greatest number of people possible. Humankind is also being threatened by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and various parasitic diseases. It is necessary for Japan to collaborate with WHO and with other donor countries and organizations in the fight against these epidemics.

The Development Partnership Strategy identifies as one of its goals the promotion of health care medical services for reproductive health, including the reduction of infant mortality and mortality rates in pregnancy and during delivery.

In light of the above, Japan will provide the following forms of support.

-Japan will continue to provide both hardware-oriented assistance and advisory assistance to core institutions of the medical and health care systems of developing countries.

-Japan will emphasize primary health care and will provide assistance for the creation of health and medical systems geared toward providing basic health care services to the largest possible number of people.

-Japan will make maximum use of its own past experiences to assist the governments of developing countries in policy formulation and improved capacity building and will promote improved health and medical policies through policy dialogues.

-To effect sustainable cooperation, Japan will actively pursue community participation and collaboration with NGOs.

-In view of the fact that economic crises most seriously affect the vulnerable members of society and their health, Japan will endeavor to prevent the erosion of past achievements in the area of health care.

## (3) Women in Development (WID)/Gender in Developing Countries

Of the 1.3 billion people living in conditions of poverty throughout the world, 70% are women. Similarly, women are placed in disadvantageous positions in terms of education, employment, and health. Assistance for women is an important factor in achieving balanced and sustainable economic development in developing countries, as is the balanced participation of men and women in assistance projects and the distribution of the benefits derived from such projects. In 1995, Japan announced its "Initiative on WID" for assigning special importance to education, health, and the social and economic participation of women in the implementation of assistance projects.

In light of the above, Japan will provide the following forms of support.

-Japan will provide active assistance for the health and education of women, family planning, micro-financing for promoting the economic independence of women, job training, and the improvement of the work environment. Moreover, Japan will assist developing countries in improving policy formulation capabilities in these fields.

-Japan will endeavor to utilize monitoring and evaluate results pertaining to gender, while paying due attention to the impact of the participation of male and female community members in assistance projects on gender.

### 2. Support for Economic and Social Infrastructure

The maintenance of sustainable economic development constitutes an essential requirement in promoting social development and poverty alleviation programs in developing countries and for working towards the achievement of the goals specified in the Development Partnership Strategy. Over the years, Japan has used its Yen loans to actively support the development of the social and economic infrastructures that underpin the process of economic growth. In this way, Japan has made a major contribution to building the foundation for economic development, particularly in the Asian region. $ ^{*10} $ It must be borne in mind that, while the development of social and economic infrastructure requires adequate volumes of