of water supply and sewage system for five years from fiscal year 2003. In this regard, Japan has already attained most of the goal in only fiscal year 2003, by dispatching 47 experts to 17 countries as well as by providing training to approximately 600 trainees in 45 countries.

As for establishment and reinforcement of international partnership, Japan has been promoting collaboration with the United States under the United States-Japan initiative for cooperation on water, the "Clean Water for People" $ ^{*1} $ initiative. In this regard, JBIC and USAID have begun consultation to jointly formulate projects in the Philippines and two other countries, in terms of cooperation through combination of Japan's Loan Aid (Yen loans) and USAID's aid schemes. In April 2004, a meeting to monitor the progress of this collaboration was held in Tokyo, and the meeting confirmed the future direction of collaboration.

## (4) Agriculture

In light of the situation in developing countries where approximately 70% of the poor lives in rural areas and depends on agricultural production, agricultural/rural development is important for poverty reduction and achievement of sustainable development. The MDGs also set a goal aiming to halve the proportion of people living on less than 1 dollar a day by 2015. In addition, discussion was held at the Evian G8 Summit in June 2003 on the necessity of measures to cope with the present situation of severe famine, and a G8 Action Plan "Action Against Famine, Especially in Africa" $ ^{*2} $ was compiled. Due to this plan, the famine issue has continued to attract a high level of interest as one of the international agendas, and active contributions have been promoted toward prevention of famine. In terms of such famine issue, Japan provides food assistance to countries faced with food shortage as a short-term effort, and in parallel with that, it is carrying out medium and long-term activities to support developing countries' efforts (ownership) to improve food productivity from the viewpoint of elimination and prevention of causes of famine and other food problems. Japan's aid volume in the agricultural sector is at a high level from a global perspective. According to the OECD/DAC statistics, Japan's assistance volume in the agricultural sector in 2002 (calendar year) was the largest among DAC members, accounting for approximately 40% of the total assistance volume in the sector. In the African region where more than 200 million people are suffering from famine, Japan provided assistance worth approximately 334 billion yen (of which approximately 82 billion yen was for emergency food assistance) in the agricultural sector through bilateral assistance over 10 years after the holding of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in 1993.

As for disbursement in fiscal year 2003, Japan provided cooperation of approximately 38 billion yen if Grant Aid and Yen loans are combined. By region, for Grant Aid, Asia accounted for 66%, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia at 30%. For Yen loans, Japan provided support to Asia only.

In particular, Japan emphasizes medium and long-term bilateral assistance, which contributes not only to solving food problems but also to reducing poverty, and conducts such assistance through international organizations (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), World Food Programme (WFP), etc.). Specifically, Japan implements support in various forms, such as assistance for increased food production to provide funds for purchasing fertilizers, agricultural machinery, crop seeds, etc., support that contributes to establishment of irrigation facilities or improvement of distribution systems through Grant Aid or Yen loans, technical cooperation through acceptance of trainees and dispatch of experts and Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers to improve agricultural techniques, and support to small-scale, community-level activities by NGOs, etc. through the Grant Assistance-Grassroots/Human Security Projects (for Japan's

## $ ^{*} $ I: Clean Water for People

This is a partnership that Japan and the United States jointly announced at the WSSD in September 2002 with the aim of promoting collaboration in the water and sanitation sector in Africa and Asia to cope with the water issues around the world.

## $ ^{*} $ 2: Action Against Famine, Especially in Africa

This is an action plan compiled by the G8 at the Evian Summit to cope with the famine issue in Africa. In the plan, the G8 resolved to meet emergency food assistance needs, improve assessment capacities, warning systems and prevention mechanisms, increase aid effectiveness, and take longer term initiatives to address food insecurity.