Japans Entwicklungspolitik auf dem Prüfstand : Wegmarkierungen und Weichenstellungen

Japans Development Policy at the Crossroads

Japan’s development policy has for several years been under strong pressure to demonstrate its effectiveness, its long-term impact, and its transparency. This pressure has led to a considerable decline of the ODA-budget during recent years. Furthermore the OECD has critizised the not yet sufficient orientation of Japanese Official Development Assistance at the prevailing principle of poverty reduction in particular, and at the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in general.
The global orientation of Japan’s development policy is, in addition, weaker than its function as a policy instrument for Japanese foreign policy. The concept of human security, however, makes an instrumentalisation of ODA by security policy impossible. Against this background the consistency of development policy will be considerably strengthened by the integration of financial and technical assistance, even in institutional terms. This could be a first step towards improving the coherence of Japanese North-South-policy and towards sharpening the profile of Japanese development policy in the future.