Multilateral and Bilateral Cooperation in Health Sector by Japan\u27s Official Development Assistance

Japan\u27s Official Development Assistance (ODA) began in 1954, when it joined the Colombo Plan, established in 1950 with the aim of assisting the socioeconomic development of Asian countries. With tremendous economic development as time elapsed, Japan expanded and increased its ODA each year. At present, Japan is the top donor in the world in terms of net disbursements. There is World Health Organization (WHO) as a chief multilateral donor organization in the health sector, to which Japan bears approximately 12% of its total budget. This is the second largest amount of the contribution next to the USA. The prioritized activities by WHO include promotion of primary health care, action programme on essential drugs, AIDS control, tabacco issue, special programme for research and training in tropical diseases, global polio eradication initiative, humanitarian/emergency relief, and the comprehensive plan with main emphases of lowering infant mortality rate. A major portion of bilateral cooperation is implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). JICA is responsible for contributiing to the economic and social development of developing countries and to promote international cooperation which includes governmental based technical cooperation, promotion of grant-aid programme, dispatch of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, overseas emigration and dispatch of Japan Disaster Relief team. As main and comprehensive approach to promoting technology transfer, JICA implements the project type cooperation programme. In the health sector, the fields of project type cooperation comprise: 1) clinical activity or hospital administration; 2) medical research or health service laboratory; 3) public health improvement including communicable disease control; 4) health manpower development; 5) production and quality control of vaccines and 6) population control and family planning, more than half of which are associated with the grant-aid assistance for the construction of physical facilities and the provision of major equipment and machinery. In addition, other programmes and methodologies implemented by JICA are explained, and the discipline and the priorities in the execution of the Japan\u27s ODA are discussed