visible accomplishments to win the understanding of taxpayers. However, it is a major issue for Japan how to strike a balance between such domestic requirements and the necessity of aid coordination. Japan should not merely follow the international trend but clearly demonstrate its own aid strategy and ideas and also participate and lead actively in setting international goals and improving methods of assistance. In addition, the promotion of South-South cooperation, to which Japan has actively contributed, can be cited as another example of collaboration with the international community. The revised ODA Charter also states, "Japan will actively promote South-South cooperation in partnership with more advanced developing countries in Asia and other regions." South-South cooperation, conducted by more advanced developing countries for other developing countries using their own human resources and experience in development, enables those advanced developing countries in relatively similar conditions in terms of their social, cultural and economic situations as well as development stages to assist other developing countries effectively and efficiently. Since 1975, Japan has implemented assistance through South-South cooperation and thus leads the world in this field.

Fifth, there is an issue of assurance of fairness of assistance by using the guidelines for environmental and social considerations. In formulating and implementing ODA policy, it is necessary to give consideration so that the benefits of ODA can be spread fairly to the people of recipient countries, including local residents. For this purpose, in implementing assistance, it is also necessary to pay sufficient attention to the impact of Japan's ODA projects on the local environment and communities, taking into account the conditions of the socially vulnerable, such as children, the disabled and the elderly, as well as the gap between rich and poor and the regional gap in recipient countries. Moreover, the perspective of gender equality in development is important to achieve balanced and sustainable development in developing countries. Therefore, it is essential to promote equal participation of men and women and their equal benefit from development. The revised ODA Charter positions these ideas as one of the "Basic Policies," which are critical for implementing assistance effectively.

Until now, Japan has checked in advance the measures taken by developing countries in line with various guidelines for environmental and social considerations, and has to continue and strengthen the consideration given to environmental and social impacts in line with the guidelines.

In order to implement the assistance effectively, it is also necessary to give sufficient consideration to the perspective of gender equality in ODA. In line with the revised ODA

Evaluation mission in on-site inspection (Evaluation of Environmental Sector Cooperation in Senegal)

Charter, Japan continues to work further on improving the status of women as well as aiming at fair and effective economic cooperation with emphasis on the perspective of gender equality, while strengthening collaboration among persons concerned in Japan and abroad. In addition, Japan also pays attention to the point that the social and economic development would be promoted through empowerment (capacity-building) of women including girls.

Finally, it is also necessary to mention the importance of ODA evaluation again. The Japanese government believes that evaluation is essential for effective and efficient implementation of ODA. The importance of the evaluation was also pointed out in discussions on ODA reforms within Japan as well as at international conferences concerning development assistance, and the Government of Japan has made efforts to enhance it. The revised ODA Charter also advocates further enhancement of evaluation. At present, ODA evaluation is conducted through collaboration between related government ministries and agencies and implementing agencies such as JICA and JBIC. Moreover, intellectuals or other third parties widely conduct third-party evaluation on request and the government itself also conducts policy evaluation. Furthermore, joint evaluation has recently been carried out in cooperation with international organizations, other donors and recipient governments. It is, as a matter of course, necessary to conduct evaluation in collaboration with other donors and international organizations as assistance itself started to be implemented in collaboration with them, and such a trend is expected to expand in the future. Japan should continue to promote such joint evaluation actively and focus on the establishment of systems thereof and the study of evaluation methods.

The results of evaluation can only be significant when utilized fully in planning and implementing ODA. Though they are now fed back not only to the Japanese side but also to the persons concerned in recipient countries, it is necessary to