Interview with President of Japans New International Cooperation Agency – the wolds biggest bilateral donor agency
TOKYO, 20 October 2008: As President of Japans new International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and one of her countrys longest-serving and most revered public figures, Sadako Ogata is giving her newly-merged aid agency a simple strategy with three S-principles: scaling up, speeding up, and spreading out.
A former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and one of the worlds preeminent authorities on humanitarian assistance and development, Ogata said that new JICAs driving vision is “inclusive and dynamic development,” and that her three s-s are the operational directives for getting there.
Merger
The new JICA, which now mobilizes an annual budget of 10 billion US dollar (ca. 54 milliarder DKR) and operations in some 155 countries, merges the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which primarily manages technical assistance, with the development finance wing of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which handles grants and concessional loan assistance.
A Bank staffer and observer of Japanese politics for decades said, “this was the merger nobody thought was possible – and to have pulled it off, despite the strength of the entrenched interests against her, means Sadako Ogata is the consummate political deal-maker and visionary for development.”
– Well, I did not set out to get an organization that was big, that was never my objective, Ogata said, adding:
– But when the government was re-organizing and privatizing the banks and was wondering where to put JBIC, it was just sensible to link its grants and “soft” loans with our traditional JICA expertise and technical assistance – with the overall objective of achieving greater impact on the ground.
Get Going Quickly
And that is where the fast lane comes in.
At a special Annual Meetings seminar to mark the inauguration of new JICA, the Finance Minister for Madagascar, Ivohasina Razafimahefa, congratulated Ogata for her remarks, and then asked whether new JICA will spend less time “making its projects perfect, ” before getting them implemented.
– I get the impression that JICA is slow to get going, but once engaged, they are fully committed, but can you go a little quicker, the minister asks.
Ogata smiled and turned to her fellow panelists and the audience and replied:
– I hope this does not make me too radical, but doing projects perfectly is the antithesis of moving quickly. My sense is do not wait, skip a few bureaucratic hurdles is you have to, and as long as we keep a sharp eye out for corruption, the faster we move, the sooner we get the development benefits to people who need them. We are not in the business of perfection.
Speed and immediacy are in her blood.
As high commissioner for refugees from 1991 to 2000, Ogata was often in the field with people in harms way, whether in the Great Lakes region of Africa or in countries elsewhere battling starvation.
Outspoken Advocate
Getting help quickly to people in need and emphasizing close grass-roots cooperation were hallmarks of her tenure at UNHCR. In 1995, she flew to Washington as the inaugural speaker for then-president Jim Wolfensohns newly-minted World Bank Presidential Fellow lecture series, and relayed a blunt message.
– I said the Bank was neglecting its reconstruction mission and I was just so frustrated with it. Refugee and humanitarian work is more high speed, dealing directly with peoples lives.
– We knew that once the immediate critical situation was over, we had to pass it on to longer-term development agencies, but they were very slow. They wanted everything properly arranged, have a decent government with which they could make agreements with and so on, and then finally start moving. I had to be blunt, Ogata said.
Bob Zoellick and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who co-hosted the JICA event at the Bank,
saluted Ogatas development leadership and called for a much closer global and country-based partnership with the aid agency.
Human Security
Ogata stressed that the concept of “human security” greatly influences Japans approach to development assistance, and forms “the cornerstone of my agencys policy”.
She helped develop the concept as a co-chair of the UN Commission on Human Security, along with Nobel Laureate economist, Amartya Sen. Ogata says it has evolved over recent years to mean that people become more secure when their communities are empowered through education, health management, and provision of social safety net measures.
Ogata said she wanted to know more about the World Banks Human Development Networks experience with social safety nets after catching sight of the new Social Protection report, “For Protection and Promotion: The Design and Implementation of Effective Social Nets”.
Role Model
As Ogata gathered her papers at the end of her conversation with worldbank.org, and headed off for a busy afternoon of ministerial meetings, a young Japanese Bank staffer asked to have her photo with Mrs. Ogata.
– We see Mrs. Ogata as the woman who has it all, the young woman says, describing her as a role model for other young Japanese women who like herself, want to pursue careers while also respecting cultural family traditions.
– Her husband supports her, she had children, and still had a major career in Japan and the world, and she did it as a woman, noted she.
If popular opinion has its way, Ogata may not be allowed to relinquish her role model status any time soon.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
