G8 seeks emerging donors' help on development

from the Japan Times

By KANA INAGAKI

Development-related ministers from the Group of Eight countries will meet in Tokyo this weekend as host Japan grapples to implement pledges to boost development aid with the help of high-profile emerging donors.

In addition to smoothing the conflicting interests of multiple donors in the fight against poverty, a key role for Japan this weekend will be to guide developing countries in adapting to climate change challenges.

The development ministerial meeting comes during a critical midpoint year when the international community faces closer scrutiny on the progress made or setbacks encountered toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This list of eight commitments made by world leaders in 2000 include a pledge to halve the number of people worldwide living in extreme poverty by 2015.

The G8 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.S. and Russia — will also need to move fast to live up to their 2005 vows to up aid by $50 billion in real terms and to double aid to Africa between 2004 and 2010.

As with last year's meeting of G8 development ministers in Germany, Japan will invite to its three outreach sessions eight countries outside the G8 — China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa — and various regional and international organizations, including the African Union, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.

Discussions will focus on this expansion of partnerships in development, climate change and the achievement of the Millennium goals in the runup to the main G8 summit at the Lake Toya resort in Hokkaido in early July, according to the Foreign Ministry.

"It's a very important thing nowadays how we can effectively coordinate with those new players in order to enhance the effectiveness as well as the impact of aid," a senior Foreign Ministry official said, acknowledging the role of emerging donors is "becoming bigger and bigger in the development world."

"The issue now is how we can best coordinate our efforts for the development of developing countries," because "new donors have sometimes different ideas and different ways of conduct," the official said, without elaborating.

Critics in established donor countries, including the U.S., Japan and European states, have lashed out at the development policies of new donors like China for lack of transparency and their scramble for natural resources in disregard of human rights concerns.

But in the face of growing budgetary constraints to official development assistance in lifting the poorest regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, out of poverty, experts say advanced nations cannot afford to reject cooperation from players providing new forms of active aid and investment.

"Africa's needs are far beyond what the traditional ODA donors have been able to provide," said Vivien Foster, a leading economist at the World Bank specializing in African development.

In fact, total ODA from the 23-member Development Assistance Committee, which includes the G7 (the G8 minus Russia), fell in 2006 for the first time since 1997 to $101.4 billion, down 4.5 percent from the previous year, according to the latest report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The U.S., the world's largest donor, cut its net ODA by more than 18 percent in real terms to $23.5 billion in 2006. Japan's foreign aid fell more than 9 percent in real terms to roughly $11.2 billion in the same year, the OECD said.

According to a recent report by an expert panel led by Takushoku University President Toshio Watanabe, Japan's ODA between fiscal 1997 and fiscal 2007 declined 38 percent.

Bernard Petit, deputy director general at the European Commission in charge of African development issues, called on Japan to work with the European Union to bring China on board with international development efforts.

"Our position is that confrontation with China is not the answer," Petit said. "We hope that if Japan has the same way of thinking . . . we can convince China to be in the framework of the rest of the international community" and "respect the agenda of aid effectiveness."

Obtaining cooperation from emerging donors — that have also become major emitters of greenhouse gases — is particularly pertinent in the face of the growing damage from global warming, which has battered the poorest regions with an alarming upsurge in natural disasters, including droughts and floods.

"Climate change has the potential to reverse the economic and social development gains that have been hard-earned by developing countries over the past decade and the progress toward the Millennium Development Goals," said Jamal Saghir, World Bank director of energy, transport and water.

Stripped of its top-donor status enjoyed in the early 1990s, Japan hopes to regain its voice both in the field of climate change and development through hosting a series of high-profile international meetings this year.

Government sources have said they are mulling a ¥250 billion five-year aid package for Africa to support the construction of port facilities and other infrastructure from fiscal 2008. But whether Japan can energize development efforts is uncertain, with the meeting coming at a volatile time when financial markets are roiling under the specter of a global credit crunch sparked by the U.S. mortgage meltdown.