## Summary

In Part II, Chapter I reports the overview of Japan's ODA disbursements in 2003 on the basis of DAC statistics, and Chapter 2 gives an explanation of the status of the implementation of ODA projects in fiscal year 2003 in line with the ODA Charter.

Japan's ODA disbursement in 2003 (calendar year) decreased by 4.3% from the previous year to 8,879.66 million dollars. Among DAC countries, Japan continued to be the second largest donor following the United States.

In August 2003, the government revised the ODA Charter for the first time in 11 years based on changes in the domestic and international circumstances in order to utilize ODA flexibly and strategically and to increase the efficiency thereof. Japan's ODA is now developing in line with the revised ODA Charter. The charter stated that the status of the implementation of the charter would be reported in the White Paper on Official Development Assistance. In response to this, the ODA White Paper 2004 reports ODA disbursement in fiscal year 2003 in line with the composition of the ODA Charter.

The ODA White Paper 2004 reports various types of efforts toward steady implementation of ODA reforms as the status of the implementation of the ODA Charter. Specifically, Japan continues to make a variety of reform efforts such as "strengthening of a country-specific approach" through formulation of Country Assistance Programs and activities by Country-based ODA Task Forces, "evaluation and revision of the Medium-Term Policy on ODA" aimed at verifying past efforts and using the results as a reference for formulating a new medium-term policy, "revision of JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations" aimed at further strengthening environmental and social considerations that are advocated in the ODA Charter, "formulation of a Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid" aimed at showing the perspectives and procedures of project assessment relating to grant aid, and "structural reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" for a shift from organization by scheme to a system of organization by region.

The perspective of "human security" was incorporated into the basic policies of the revised ODA Charter, and Japan has been making active efforts to diffuse and put into practice the philosophy thereof. In recent years, peace-building was also newly incorporated into the priority issues. Japan has played an active role in peace-building and actively supports reconstruction assistance and other activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. In addition, Japan will continue to make active efforts for other priority issues, specifically, poverty reduction, sustainable growth, and addressing global issues.

As for activities by region, Japan has been promoting specific activities, for example, holding summit-level meetings in fiscal year 2003, such as the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit Meeting, TICAD III, and Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), within the country, and expressing its support for relevant countries.

Moreover, in the process of formulating and implementing ODA policy, Japan has been making efforts to ensure the unity and coherence of the government as a whole, strengthen collaboration with aid-related entities in Japan and overseas, including NGOs, strengthen policy consultation with developing countries, increase public participation, and enhance evaluation, in line with the ODA Charter.