sustainable development of developing countries. To make sure that the Government of Japan will make appropriate decisions relating to the adoption of requested projects in line with such basic policy, the revised guidelines also provide that JICA will make proposals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to the policy of cooperation projects that it implements.

Japan has come to give further environmental and social considerations when implementing ODA projects on the basis of the revised JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations and the JBIC Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social Considerations, which has been fully in force since October 2003.

## Formulation of Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid

The Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid aims at presenting view points and procedures for assessment, which should be conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in implementing grant aid, for appropriate implementation of projects with considerations given to environment and society, from the phase of identifying and formulating projects and in each process of implementation and monitoring after implementation.

As for the guidelines for environmental and social considerations, the JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations were revised and have been in force since April 2004 as mentioned above. On the basis of such movement and from the viewpoint of implementation of the ODA Charter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to formulate the Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid, which contains specific methods of applying the JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations.

In formulating the guideline, the government draft was disclosed on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website in April 2004 to invite opinions from the general public. The contents of the guideline reflect the opinions thus invited.

The Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid has been applied on a trial basis since August 2004. Subsequently, the guideline will be fully applied after necessary revisions are made based on the opinions obtained from related persons and the general public during the trial period.

## Structural Reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On the basis of the results of ODA reforms so far, the revised ODA Charter clearly indicated the coherent formulation of ODA policy, collaboration among related government ministries and agencies, collaboration between government and implementing agencies, strengthening of policy consultation with developing countries, strengthening of the functions of field missions in the policy-making process and in implementation, and partnership and collaboration with the international community, in relation to the system for formulating and implementing assistance policy. Hereby, Japan will ensure that the government in its entirety implements ODA in a unified and coherent manner and will also implement broadly-supported effective ODA through collaboration with aid-related entities in Japan, recipient countries and other foreign countries and increase of public participation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the final report on structural reform in March 2003: "In order to implement governmental ODA policies strategically and effectively, the Economic Cooperation Bureau, which plays a central part in Japan's ODA policy, will reform the operational framework from scheme-formulated division to regional-valued division. Japan's ODA policies are compiled with 'Country Assistance Programs' which are planned in accordance with the actual conditions of each of the recipient countries." Accordingly, in August 2004, the Economic Cooperation Bureau newly established the Second Country Assistance Planning Division, and came to adopt two Country Assistance Planning divisions. The First Country Assistance Planning Division deals with Asia and Oceania issues and the Second Country Assistance Planning Division deals with issues in Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and Europe (including Central Asia and the Caucasus). As a result, through strengthening Japan's ODA policies with 'Country Assistance Programs' as their core, it is expected, in the aspect of policy formulation, to formulate strategic country assistance policy based on the comprehensive and precise understanding of the development policies and assistance needs of developing countries. In the aspect of implementation, a firmer collaboration among various sector assistance programs is expected.

Along with such shift to the system of two country assistance planning divisions, the Aid Planning Division was established as a division that basically takes over the administration work of the Research and Programming Division and the Multilateral Cooperation Division. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to strengthen the formulation and transmission overseas of comprehensive assistance policy based on international trends in aid as well as sector-specific assistance policies in terms of water/sanitation, the environment, infectious diseases, etc. by consolidating and integrating the administrative work of the Research and Programming