fundamental factor. Nonetheless, as the number of donors has increased, an excessive burden has been placed on recipient countries. To the greatest extent possible, donors need to provide aid in a coordinated manner in line with the priorities of recipient countries' development strategies and thereby reduce the burden on recipient countries. Awareness concerning the need to improve aid effectiveness has increased, and in Paris in 2005 the “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (Paris Declaration)” was adopted. The Paris Declaration is equipped with five principles necessary to enhance the quality of aid (1. ownership, 2. alignment, 3. harmonisation, 4. managing for results, and 5. mutual accountability), as well as monitoring indicators and 56 commitments to be adhered to/by donors and developing governments. In 2008, the international community held a meeting, the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-3) in Accra, Ghana (Accra High Level Forum), as an interim evaluation of efforts based on the Paris Declaration. It also adopted an action plan through 2010 (AAA: Accra Agenda for Action). Japan contributes to the international commitment to enhancing aid effectiveness, responding to the new environment of aid and improving the methods of implementing assistance, although applying a single set of principles to all countries is difficult as different developing countries face different situations individually.

At local sites of developing countries, groups specialized in respective issues such as health and education have been often formulated to implement assistance in the form of programs in line with the developing strategies of respective fields and participated in by various entities. In response to these trends, Japan has participated in programs of 40 fields in 18 countries. The above effort includes program-based approaches for educational development in Bangladesh and for agricultural development in Tanzania.

While efforts for aid collaboration are being stepped up, Japan has been allocating coordinators for economic cooperation since FY2006 in African countries, where aid coordination is active: Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Sudan, and Mozambique. The coordinators amass relevant information, exchange opinions, and present views on Japan's development assistance among foreign governments, implementing agencies, and NGOs. In FY2007, Japan began to dispatch the coordinators to Zambia, Madagascar, Senegal, and Kenya.

### 2. Collaboration with New Donor Countries

The international community in the past carried out aid generally on the initiative among members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Recent years have however seen remarkable trends by non-DAC member countries, such as countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Russia, China, and Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. These new donors have enhanced their presence in the international community, having shifted from aid recipients to aid providers. In order to enhance the development achievement of donors as a whole, it is very important for traditional donor countries including Japan to collaborate with new donors, sharing past aid experiences when necessary and cooperating with each other.

Japan finds it vital to enhance partnership with these new donors in various aspects such as (1) information exchange concerning aid policies and policy dialogue, (2) sharing of experiences in and support for implementing aid (for example, enhancing abilities to organize statistics; evaluate/monitor and consider the environment, society, and debt sustainability), and (3) strengthening of South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation.

For example, with China, Japan held their first bilateral dialogue on third-country assistance in FY2007 with the theme of the sharing of information on aid policies and possibilities of cooperation between Japan and China for external aid. As a trend in FY2008, Japan and China confirmed, at the time of their bilateral summit held when President Hu Jintao visited Japan in May, that the two countries would continue working-level dialogue on third country assistance.

Regarding the Republic of Korea (ROK), the former Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), in charge of the ROK’s official loan aid, advanced the Joint Initiative by Development Banks for Sustainable Urban Development, the Joint Statement by Development Finance Institutions for Sustainable Debt Management, and other subjects. In FY2008, Japan and the ROK held the Aid Policy Consultation in June, in response to the agreement made at their bilateral summit in April to hold closer dialogue on the theme of development. At the consultation, the two countries discussed cooperation aimed at getting the viewpoints of Asia that emphasize growth reflected in the activities of DAC, on the premise that the ROK is to be admitted into the DAC in 2010. The two countries also