Supporting Developing Countries through the U.N.

Published in Yomiuri
(Japan) on 24 September 2010
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Lynn Allmon. Edited by Amy Wong.
The fight against poverty in developing countries such as Africa is still underway. Developed nations such as Japan, America and those in Europe have continuously sought a concrete plan for strengthening support for developing countries.

Aimed at things such as poverty reduction, the United Nations Millennium Summit adopted a declaration that called on developed countries to “grant more generous development assistance, especially to countries that are genuinely making an effort to apply their resources to poverty reduction.”

It is probably natural for Prime Minister Kan, U.S. President Obama and about 140 heads of state to share a sense of impending crisis given present conditions.

The Millennium Development Goals included eight spheres of achievement to be worked on between 1990 and 2015, including reducing by half the amount of the impoverished people who live on only $1.25 a day and aiming for the spread of the completion of elementary education.

The significance of the coordination of advanced nations to explicitly lay out target values for supporting developing nations is huge. Reducing developing countries’ poverty and making society more stable will, as a result, contribute to world peace and security.

However, the time frame for the achievement of these goals is drawing to a close in five years, and progress is not swift. The financial crisis and the deterioration of developed countries’ financial affairs are feared to mean the slowing down of the pace of support for developing countries.

The population living in poverty was reduced from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005, and then it seemed like the “reduction by half” goal could be implemented. But, in the center of Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, the problem of poverty is still serious. Developed countries should relentlessly react to the present situation and rise up with all their strength to achieve these various goals.

The realms of health and education are especially, and conspicuously, lagging in support. The death rates of infants and nursing mothers are high, and approximately 72 million children did not receive schooling.

Prime Minister Kan spoke at the summit and declared that for the sake of the enrichment of mother and child health and the elevation of educational standards, from now on for five years Japan will donate $8.5 billion (720 billion yen) as new support measures.

It is possible to say that support was whittled down to these two fields because Japan is capitalizing on its experience in the postwar period. Arranging a concrete amount of support can also be valued highly.

The problem, however, is that Japan keeps curtailing its official development assistance (ODA) budget.

Japan’s ODA budget has been reduced to half of its 1997 peak. Formerly, it was the world’s number one contributor, but now it has fallen to number five. It also couldn’t meet its publicly announced international commitment of increasing ODA spending to $10 billion by 2009.

Through this, international trust in Japan has fluctuated, and Japan’s influential voice and presence are also liable to decline.

ODA is a necessary diplomacy tool. Along with pledging new implementation of sound support measures, the prime minister should hasten to increase the ODA amount.


途上国支援 国連開発目標の着実な達成を(9月24日付・読売社説)

 アフリカなど発展途上国の貧困との戦いは、道半ばである。日米欧などの先進国は引き続き、途上国支援強化の具体策が求められよう。

 貧困削減などに向け、2000年に定めた国連ミレニアム開発目標(MDGs)に関する首脳会合(サミット)は、「現状では目標達成は困難であり、先進国の政府開発援助(ODA)の拡大が必要」との文書を採択し、閉幕した。

 菅首相やオバマ米大統領ら約140か国の首脳が、現状に危機感を共有したのは当然だろう。

 MDGsは、1990年比で15年までに、〈1〉1日1・25ドル未満で暮らす貧困人口を半減する〈2〉初等教育の完全普及を図る――など8分野の目標を設定したものだ。

 先進国が連携し、途上国支援の数値目標を明示した意義は大きかった。途上国の貧困を減らし、社会を安定させることは、結果的に世界の平和や安全に寄与することにもなるからだ。

 しかし、目標期限が5年後に迫りながら、進捗(しんちょく)ははかばかしくない。金融危機や先進国の財政悪化で、支援ペースが鈍化したのが主因とみられる。

 貧困人口は90年の18億人から05年に14億人に減り、この半減目標は実現できそうだ。だが、サハラ以南のアフリカを中心に、貧困問題は依然深刻である。先進国は現状を厳しく受け止め、諸目標の達成に全力を挙げねばならない。

 とくに支援の遅れが目立つのが保健と教育分野だ。乳幼児と妊産婦の死亡率は高く、約7200万人の子供が未就学という。

 菅首相は、サミットで演説し、母子保健の充実や教育水準の向上のため、今後5年間で85億ドル(約7200億円)を拠出する新たな支援策を表明した。

 日本の戦後の経験を生かし、両分野に絞った援助内容といえる。具体的な支援額を約束したことも評価できよう。

 だが、問題は、日本がODA予算を削減し続けていることだ。

 日本のODA予算はピークだった97年度から半減した。かつては世界1位の拠出国だったが、現在は5位に転落している。「09年までの5年間でODAを100億ドル増やす」という国際公約も達成できなかった。

 これでは、日本に対する国際社会の信頼は揺らぎ、発言力や存在感も低下しかねない。

 ODAは外交の重要なツールである。首相は新しい支援策の着実な実現を期すとともに、ODAの増額を急ぐべきだろう。
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