future shift of price system of rice to the market price system.

Individual evaluation is also conducted on grant aid projects and technical cooperation projects. In an mid-term evaluation of the Cebu Socio-Economic Empowerment and Development Project (Cebu-SEED) in the Philippines, verification was conducted on the consistency between the project objectives and the policy of the recipient country, the progress in accomplishing the objectives, and self-sustainability. The results of the evaluation revealed that the objectives of the project had been generally achieved, but it was recommended that experience and know-how obtained through pilot projects be applied to other projects in order to consolidate these achievements. Upon this recommendation, the Japanese government has been implementing projects with a consideration on its applicability to other projects. The Japanese government is also actively providing related information through publications and PR videos of the provincial government.

As described above, the Japanese government conducts various types of evaluations from policy evaluations to project evaluations, and gives feedback of the evaluation results to ODA implementing agencies in an effort to further improve ODA. The government also publicizes the evaluation results through the websites of the government and implementing agencies in order to fulfill public accountability.

## (2) Ensuring Appropriate Procedures

Development activities without due consideration for environment preservation and social ramifications might be effective in the short run. From a medium and long-term perspective, however, such activities would hinder social and economic development of the country concerned. This is contrary to the idea of sustainable development, which Japan has been long supporting.

In pursuit of sustainable development, Japan has been making efforts to prevent or minimize negative effects caused by Japanese ODA projects on the environment or local communities. For this purpose, the Japanese government checks whether implementing agencies have taken appropriate measures to prevent or minimize social damage such as the involuntary relocation of local residents and the violation of the right of indigenous people to land or resources as well as damage to the environment. Moreover, efforts have been made to further simplify and speed up the procurement procedures because it is important to ensure appropriate and effective procurement of equipment, materials, and consulting services in terms of quality and price for effective and efficient implementation of ODA projects (for further information on procurement, see "(3) Prevention of fraud and corruption" in this section).

Furthermore, before starting a project in a recipient country, Japan has made it a rule to check the measures taken by the country in accordance with various environmental guidelines. In recent years, Japan has been making efforts to further enhance those guidelines. Regarding loan aid projects, the JBIC Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social Considerations were created and publicized in April 2002, which is designed to take into consideration social aspects such as relocation of local residents and the rights of women and indigenous people as well as the environmental aspect. The Guidelines reflect a wide range of opinions obtained in a public consultation meeting held to listen to experts, NGO staff, and other people concerned. It fully took effect on October 1, 2003.

Regarding technical cooperation projects, the JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations were revised in March 2004 based on a wide range of opinions of external experts, NGO staff, and other people concerned. The Guidelines took effect in April 2004. With regard to grant aid projects, the Guideline of Project Assessment for Japan's Grant Aid was created in April 2004 in line with the JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations (for further information, see Part II, Chapter 2, Section 1).

Japan will continue and further increase its efforts to check the negative effects of Japanese ODA on the environment and the society and also check the measures taken to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of ODA projects.

## (3) Prevention of Fraud and Corruption

Japanese ODA is designed to develop the ODA recipient countries socially as well as economically, and is partly funded by tax money of Japanese people. Therefore, the funds provided as ODA must be used only for that purpose and must not be used for any fraudulent purpose or cause corruption in the recipient countries.

Regarding loan aid projects, a list of candidate projects (Long List) is prepared and publicized at the stage of selecting projects. Meetings of the Committee for Proper Implementation of Grant Aid are held regarding grant aid projects. A Yen loan candidate list has been prepared and publicized for six countries (Vietnam, Tunisia, Morocco, China, India, and Indonesia). Candidate projects on the list do not necessarily receive a Yen loan. It is simply a list of candidate projects scheduled for years to come. After the preparation of the list, official requests for Yen loans may be made on a yearly basis.