it all added up to a very turbulent year earthquakes, floo ......as it rushed inland for as much as...

Confronting the worst moment

JANUARY 2012 JICA’S WORLD 3

Nineteen-year-old Japanese student Kento Okudarecalled in a newspaper interview: “As we were eatinglunch, there was a major shaking and suddenly thefloor fell. Everyone around me was saying things like‘It hurts’ as they fell downward. And then I realized Iwas in total darkness, with my right leg pinned bysomething so I couldn’t move.”

Rescuers had to amputate his leg to rescue him,

but he was luckier than 181 persons who were killed. Japan quickly dispatched a 66-strong team of res-

cue workers, doctors, nurses, structural assessmentexperts and logisticians to the scene. The task of find-ing and helping survivors continued slowly and asecond group of experts, including a psychiatristwho would work with Japanese victims, flew to thestricken city.

2 JICA’S WORLD JANUARY 2012

he earthquake struck during

the busiest part of the day in Christchurch, a pleasantcity of 340,000 people on New Zealand’s south islandnotable for its pristine waterways, rugged coastlineand as a logistical nerve center for Antarctic explo-ration.

As many as 14,000 earthquakes strike the South-ern Pacific country each year, many of them virtually

unnoticeable, but this 6.3 magnitude tremor on Tues-day, February 22, would turn out to be the secondworst natural disaster in New Zealand’s history.

The spire of the city’s cathedral, its most recog-nizable building, crashed to the ground while theearth shook. As they struggled to rescue survivors,police at the time reported “incredible carnage rightthroughout the city with bodies littering the streets.”

Earthquakes, Floods and Drought…It all added up to a very turbulent year

African Arab AmazonIndependence, Spring, Secret

An The An

JANUARY 2012 JICA’S WORLD 54 JICA’S WORLD JANUARY 2012

Because of its own vul-nerability to earthquakesand other natural disas-ters, Japan has developedsome of the world’s mostsophisticated responsemechanisms and since amodest beginning in thelate 1970s now regularlysends emergency suppliesand, when necessary,medical, rescue and logis-tical experts to many areasof the globe.

For many years thecountry’s major develop-ment organization, theJapan International Coop-eration Agency (JICA), hasalso helped vulnerablecountries to anticipate oreffectively combat an in-creasing number of naturaldisasters by developing

and installing early warning systems, build-ing protective sea walls against rising waters andsudden tidal swells, developing tremor-resistanthomes, hospitals and schools and educating or train-ing groups ranging from school children to key ad-ministrators, rescue officials, doctors and nurses.

An Unprecedented DisasterEven as New Zealand officials struggled

to revive Christchurch a more tragic disaster wasonly days away. On March 11 Japan itself was hit bypossibly the worst earthquake in its history, triggeringa crisis which Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the timedescribed as “the most difficult crisis for Japan” sinceWorld War II.

The 9.0 magnitude tremor occurred some 72 kilo-meters off the country’s northeast coastline at a rela-tively shallow depth of 32 kilometers and lasted forsix minutes. During that short period it triggered akiller tsunami which swept away entire towns andvillages with crests as high as 40 meters or 133 feet

as it rushed inland for as much as 10 kilometers. Around 20,000 persons were killed or were listed

as missing. The tremor, subsequently known as theGreat East Japan Earthquake, was so powerful iteven shifted the earth’s axis by 10-25 centimeters.

Both at home and abroad during 2011 these earth-quakes and other natural disasters struck withalarming frequency—U.N. statistics suggest that thenumber of serious weather-related natural disastershas doubled in 10 years to around 400 annually—

and JICA respondedto many of them.

Yet another earth-quake struck near the eastern Turkish city of Van inOctober killing several hundred people, and JICAsent emergency supplies which often include itemssuch as sleeping bags, blankets, generators, waterpurifiers, jerry cans and electrical equipment to helpsurvivors.

The worst drought in 60 years, complicated byyears of conflict in Somalia, hit the Horn of Africa

imperiling as many as 13 millionpeople. Tens of thousands of per-sons have already died in thesame area. JICA shipped suppliesto refugee centers and stepped upits efforts to help local communi-ties improve their own chancesof survival by improving such ba-sic infrastructure as water sup-plies.

Across the world, in the vaststretches of the Pacific Ocean, thetiny island of Tuvalu also suffereddrought and needed spare partsand other equipment to rehabili-tate water desalination plants tokeep its 11,000-strong populationsupplied with water.

In Central America El Sal-vador, Honduras and Nicaraguasuffered from the aftereffects of atropical depression which causedwidespread flooding and land-slides and JICA airlifted neededassistance from its regional ware-house in Miami.

Nations as far apart asNamibia and Sri Lanka receivedsupplies in the wake of similardevastating weather patterns.

A swathe of South and South-east Asian countries including Pakistan, Myanmar,Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, suffered fromheavy rains and subsequent flooding.

In addition to immediate assistance, JICA dis-patched two survey teams, equipment and expertsin water utilities, underground railway and airportmaintenance to the Thai capital of Bangkok to helpin the fight to preserve the city’s basic infrastructureas floodwaters lapped through many streets. JICAhad helped finance and construct much of the sameinfrastructure years earlier.

At home andabroad during

2011earthquakes

and othernatural

disasters struckwith alarming

frequency—and JICA

responded tomany of them.

Pakistan: earthquake reconstructionHaiti:helpinghand

Haiti: safe water

Sri Lanka:Trackingnaturaldisasters

A Very TurbulentYear

PREVENTION

RECONSTRUCTION

EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE

MA

SAK

O IM

AO

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Peru: seismographanticipates tremors

New Zealand: earthquake


he bulk of JICA’s practical

work is undertaken in developing countries acrossthe globe. But when the March 11 earthquake struck,the agency, along with many other Japanese institu-tions, plunged into rescue operations at home.

JICA’s Nihonmatsu center near the devastated re-gion, which is normally used to train young volun-teers going overseas, the so-called JOCVs, was quickly

turned into an evacuation center for hundreds ofhomeless. Another training center in Tokyo was usedby members of the U.N. Disaster Assessment Coor-dination (UNDAC) group.

JICA helped coordinate rescue efforts with otherorganizations such as NGOs; staff from its Tokyoheadquarters were sent to the region and many otherswent voluntarily. Former overseas volunteers usedthe skills they had honed abroad to become tempo-rary teachers, administrators and medical care work-ers in stricken communities. Millions of yen wereraised by voluntary contributions from the staff.

In an interview (see pages 10-11), Mrs. Ogata saidthe earthquake and its aftermath underscored a mes-sage she has been voicing for several years: that in

an era of globalization the world is in-creasingly interdependent and onlycloser cooperation between all parties—traditional donors, newly emergingdonor countries, governments, interna-tional and national organizations andlocal communities—can successfullytackle such mega crises as the recentearthquake and other major develop-ment issues.

“We are now in an interdependentworld and the prosperity and health ofeveryone can only be achieved throughcloser collaboration and cooperation,”she said. The crisis “reminds us that the

Japanese people are truly interdependent with peopleall over the world. We are all in this together.”

Coming TogetherThere were poignant incidents which

underlined how interrelated everything is becomingin this smaller, globalized world.

Kenji Sugawara, an assistant police inspector inTokyo, had been a member of the JDR team at theChristchurch earthquake until two weeks earlier. Hewas sitting an examination in anti-riot tactics in theJapanese capital when he felt “such a shaking as Ihave never experienced before. I felt this was veryserious.” Within five hours he was en route alongwith some 100 other colleagues to the scene of the


Philippines: JICA-African-Philippine triangularcooperation

Malawi: saving the landThe Thai crisis was just another example of how

interconnected the world has become. Though famedmore for its beaches and hospitality, Bangkok is alsoa key industrial hub for the manufacture of electronicequipment and the floods caused disruptions toworld supplies, as did the Japanese earthquake.

In May JICA even responded to requests fromthe United States for plastic sheetingand blankets to help victims of a spateof tornadoes which devastated southernparts of that country.

It was one of the busiest periods inthe history of Japanese natural disasterassistance, a role which began withthe dispatch of a small medical teamto help Cambodian victims in the late1970s.

In 1987 this ad hoc help was for-malized with the adoption of the JapanDisaster Relief Team Law (JDR Law)

officially enshrining the commitment by Japan toassist victims of catastrophes wherever they occur.

JICA acts as the secretariat to the JDR networkof official and civilian Japanese agencies, expertsand volunteers, which is able to provide rescue, med-ical, logistical and other assistance, often withinhours of a natural disaster.

Independent of that JDR role, JICA itself directlydispatches emergency supplies to crisis areaswhen requested to do so by governments.

With masterly understatement, JICA Pres-ident Mrs. Sadako Ogata described 2011 as “avery trying year.”

But while natural disasters captured manyheadlines, JICA continued its work via technicalassistance, grant aid and yen loans, in a myriadof other development projects across the globe.

Mrs. Ogata described the so-called ArabSpring which swept through Tunisia and Egyptearly in the year as a ‘potentially massive’event and said JICA had moved quickly tohelp new governments in areas such as edu-cation and electoral reform.

In the heart of the Middle East the agencycontinued a project in the Jordan Valley region em-bracing Israel, Jordan and Palestine. Named the

Corridor of Peace the project aims to enhance agri-culture, build an agro-business venture and improvebasic infrastructure, leading not only to improvedliving standards for local communities but also fos-tering greater cooperation and understanding in thepolitically fragile region.

The agency expanded its operations in Iraq withthe opening an office in the capital, Baghdad.

One of the success stories in Africa in 2011 wasthe independence of South Sudan in July from thelarger Republic of the Sudan following decades ofconflict between northern and southern populations.JICA was one of the first international developmentagencies to work on a large scale in the area andplanned to expand its activities going into the newyear.

Afghanistan was one of JICA’s largest ongoingoperations but continued security problems hamperedefforts to possibly expand operations there. Mrs.Ogata called the activities of several dozen staff insuch difficult circumstances ‘heroic.’ Bolstering on-the-ground activities, 500 key Afghanistan personnelfrom various disciplines began a series of trainingcourses in Japan late in the year which eventuallywill greatly strengthen the available pool of manpowerresources.

Japan and Latin America have long enjoyed closerelations since large-scale Japanese emigration beganmore than 100 years ago. Today, some 1.7 millionethnic Japanese live in South America, principallyBrazil.

JICA has supported those overseas communitiesbut its wider activities include programs to addresspockets of poverty and economic inequality wherethey exist, the eradication of debilitating diseasesuch as chagas and the promotion of agriculture andindustrial development.

Other unusual projects include a program in Ar-gentina to examine the world’s ozone layer and adangerous tear in that layer known as the ‘ozonehole’; projects to help unlock how the Amazon riverbasin, the world’s most important eco-system, actuallyworks; and other work in tracing the effects of dis-appearing glaciers in the Andes mountains. JICAhas undertaken similar glacier work in the Himalayas.

Egypt: inauguration of a new university


JICA volunteers andother workers assist inthe wake of the March 11earthquake and tsunami

Earthquake Aftermath

Mrs. Ogata saidthe earthquake

and itsaftermath

underscored amessage she

has been voicingfor several

years: that in anera of

globalizationthe world isincreasingly

interdependent.

JICA has begunto examine

‘lessonslearned’ from

the earthquake-tsunami and

how best thoselessons can be

applied tofuture disaster-

relatedprojects.


and other volunteers dideverything from administra-tive chores, to planning eventsfor both children and evac-uees to taking part in nightpatrols in the area each hour.

He planned to return toAfrica following this work andvowed that the things he hadlearned both in Niger and inJapan would both be incor-porated into his future work.

As the emphasis shiftedfrom emergency rescue tolonger term relief, JICA re-cruited other former volun-teers from the Middle Eastand Africa to help in nursing,child care, and physical andoccupational therapy.

Circular LessonsM a s a t o W a t a n a b e ,

vice president of JICA’s general affairs, described theJapanese earthquake experience and the subsequentlessons learned as part of a circular transfer of knowl-edge which will help both developing countries andadvanced nations such as Japan in the future.

“The lessons we learned during our own (WorldWar II) postwar construction we passed on to devel-oping countries,” he said. “Now, we have to use theknowledge and experience which we have gained byworking in these same countries for reconstructionof the Tohoku (northeastern Japan) region. Andthen we will use that experience as further examplesto be applied in developing countries again. We arebecoming mutually dependent.”

As Japan struggled to recover from the tragedy itreceived messages of sympathy and practical assistancefrom around the world. Buddhist monasteries inBhutan held lamplight vigils. Peru declared a nationalday of mourning. Saudi Arabia donated practicalpetroleum products. Some foreign nationals whohad undergone disaster instruction in earlier JICAtraining programs offered their practical support.

Such an outpouring of support had a profoundimpact on politicians and the general public in Japan.

Because of domestic economic and financial prob-lems Official Development Assistance (ODA) hadbeen dropping for several years. In the immediatewake of the earthquake there were further rumblings

that Japan needed toconcentrate on rebuild-ing its own infrastruc-ture, further imperilingforeign aid.

But the overseas sym-pathy seemingly helpedto change the minds ofmany on the importanceof helping other coun-tries even as Japan facedits own crisis, and at

year’s end Mrs. Ogata said she felt the drop in ODA“has bottomed out now.”

The agency, one of the world’s largest developmentorganizations, said it would vigorously continue afull range of activities.

At home, JICA’s major domestic project is helpingto administer reputedly the world’s largest trainingprogram in which around 12,000 participants areinvited to Japan annually and the program continuedthrough the crisis with only minor hitches. Some ofthe estimated 1,300 courses on offer are related tohelping to anticipate future natural disasters orhandle their aftermath.

JICA and other Japanese enterprises began to ex-amine ‘lessons learned’ from the earthquake-tsunami and how best those lessons could be appliedto future disaster-related projects.

In the last 10 years alone JICA has implementeda series of such programs costing 41.57 billion yen in132 countries with the help of 1,697 experts. Grantaid projects totaling a further 33.3 billion yen wereimplemented in 23 countries including procurementof weather radar, construction of emergency evacuationshelters and rehabilitation of basic infrastructuresuch as schools, hospitals and water supply facilities.

Japanese engineering and consulting companiessaid they could use the experiences gained whileworking with JICA during disasters such as the 2004Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2005 earthquake inPakistan in which tens of thousands of persons werekilled to help rebuild Japanese communities.

One international meeting co-hosted by JICA inTokyo emphasized that in the wake of the Japaneseearthquake the world had reached a major water-shed when it was now time to develop effective meas-ures to deal with future natural catastrophes.

It urged the convening of a special plenary sessionof the U.N. to discuss preparedness and mitigationactions in future crises; that the World Bank and theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment (OECD) should approve measures to mini-mize the effects of mega disasters and establish pro-cedures for rapid recovery; and that regionalcooperation must be strengthened.

In May, then Foreign Minister Takeaki Mat-sumoto told a meeting in the Senegal capital ofDakar that Japan “will highlight assistance on disas-ter risk management for Africa, utilizing valuablelessons learned through the (March 11) disaster.Japan and Africa are alike in that both face the furyand rages of nature.”


latest disaster in his own backyard—Japan’s massiveearthquake.

For several weeks he walked through destroyedneighborhoods helping to locate and rescue tens ofthousands of stranded persons, and his team thenprovided them with on-the-spot emergency help sushas food and sleeping bags.

Yasushi Nakajima, a vice manager of the emer-

gency room at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Hi-roo Hospital, had returned from NewZealand only few days earlier when he setout for the earthquake area in the earlymorning hours.

“What can we really do here?” he askedhimself as he saw the scale of the devas-tation and felt totally overwhelmed. Inthe event, he put to good use some of thelessons he had learned in New Zealandand an earlier earthquake in Sichuan,China, particularly the importance ofclose cooperation with local authorities.

“As outsiders we may be able to provideemergency advanced medical treatment,”he said. “But that is a one-off. It is the localmedical staff who must continue to treatthe people long term. Our role, really, isone of logistical support for these doctors.”

Because of political instability in thewest African nation of Niger where he had been help-ing to improve child education, Yoshitaka Shiraishihad returned to Japan shortly before the earthquakestruck. “I had learned in Africa to respect the methodsof the local teachers,” he said. “My ideas were onlyanother option for them to consider.” He applied thesame principles when he went to work at a local jun-ior high school in the earthquake region where he


On March 11,Japan was hit by

the worstearthquake in

its history,triggering acrisis which

Prime MinisterNaoto Kan at

the timedescribed as

“the mostdifficult crisis

for Japan” sinceWorld War II.


The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastJapan shook the country and the world. What hasbeen the subsequent fallout for JICA and itsoperations?Because of the ongoing financial difficulties at home therehad been a trend to cut back foreign assistance to developingcountries (Official Development Assistance, oda). But be-cause of the support and help we received from all over theworld, including from developing countries, there was a sud-den awakening among the general publicand policymakers that we are now in an in-terdependent world and the prosperityand health of everyone can only beachieved through closer collaboration andcooperation.

But Japan’s ODA budget has beendropping for a number of years andthere is even more pressure today ongovernment resources. Do you thinkthis decline in foreign aid willcontinue?I think it has bottomed out now. I don'thear very strong words about cutting assis-tance and there has been a strong reactionfrom the general public. I have been em-phasizing for some time the importance ofcloser interrelationships and the events of March 11 rein-forced this message. We have helped a lot of countries in thepast and they have responded by helping us. No one side canbe profiting all the time. We are all in this together.

Going forward, will there be more emphasis in JICAprojects on such areas as disaster prevention andrehabilitation?Prevention and rehabilitation are interlinked, but what Iwould like to see in this area is far more collaboration and interdependence. Assistance in such areas, say as the Pacifichas been piecemeal until now. In that region we must bring incountries such as Australia and maybe some Asian countries

JICA President Mrs. Sadako Ogata sat down recently to review events in 2011dominated by Japan’s own devastating earthquake-tsunami, other naturaldisasters across the globe, the birth of the so-called Arab Spring and Africa’snewest nation, South Sudan, and development projects and problems fromAfghanistan to Antarctica. She also looked forward to the challenges agencies such as JICA may face in 2012.

and achieve more joint policy building. Here, we have not re-ally worked hard enough. And we must consult and talk morewith traditional donors, European countries and the UnitedStates, to achieve more effective results.

During a recent Washington visit you actually met with senior officials including the head of USAIDMr. Shah.Yes, we discussed working together in Africa, particularly the

Horn of Africa, on more of a long-term basis.He was particularly interested in the develop-ment of some ‘high impact’ crops such asmaize (corn) though Japan has tended untilnow to focus on boosting rice production.JICA in the past tended to concentrate on de-velopment in Asia but now many of thesecountries, China, India, Korea, are leadingmembers of the G20 nations and discussionsare expanding on how we can collaboratemore fully. There is discussion for instance be-tween the Chinese delegation in Africa andJICA.

What is your most vivid memory of 2011?There was one crisis after another, no? Japanwas shaken by its own natural disaster andJICA, along with all institutions, had to pitch

in and do something within the country. And in the meantimewe had to keep up with what was going on overseas—from theearthquake in New Zealand to the flooding in Southeast Asia.So it was a very trying year.

What was the most positive development during the year? The Arab Spring was potentially a massive event. We have tobe very careful and we must be realistic. Things can move upand things can go down and right now things are touch andgo. But we have to remain optimistic. What happens now hasenormous implications for global development. These are notsmall, struggling developing countries and it is a very impor-

tant region. JICA was very early into efforts to consolidate thesituation both in Tunisia and in Egypt and we have alreadysent experts to help stabilize the situation socially and legally.And in Egypt we have already been working in areas such aseducation, agriculture, and the environment.

While attention has been focused on the ‘Arab Spring’countries, what about the rest of the Middle East?We are continuing with the Corridor of Peace (a project to im-prove agriculture, water resources, roads and other services inthe Jordan Valley bordering Israel, Jordan and Palestine).Progress is steady. We now have a large operation in Iraq andopened a bureau in Baghdad and we are involved in electric-ity, water supply and are moving into agriculture.

JICA underwent a major restructuring in 2008 andlast year the organization re-examined all of its majoractivities. Has this process now been completed? IsJICA a leaner, meaner development agency today? It was not easy, but the integration of ‘old’ JICA and part of theJapan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has movedmuch better than I had originally anticipated. We are now‘one’ organization and not members of ‘two’ groups. But wemust continue to be flexible, squeezing in some areas, expand-ing in others, to meet changing needs. And we also must putsome things into action a little more quickly.

JICA has significantly increased its overall assistanceto Africa in recent years. Will this trend continue?For the time being, I would say yes. In the past JICA concen-trated much of its work in Asia, but the situation there has im-proved significantly. Now, Asian countries are trying to beactive in Africa. And that is a very important developmentwhich JICA fully supports.

The independence of South Sudan after decades ofcivil war was a major success. What is JICA’s role inthat region?JICA started very early in the southern part of Sudan. Wehelped to redevelop the Nile River port of Juba (South Sudan’scapital) and open up the entire region to the outside world.We helped rebuild roads in Juba. Our staff had to endure very

difficult living and working condi-tions. When I visited the city myroom was in a container. But I amvery proud of what we have accom-plished in that region.

Special units of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, includingengineers and otherspecialists may soon bedeployed to the region also. Yes, such units in the past have

done really good work in areas such as Timor, and I am verysupportive of the idea of their deployment to South Sudan,probably in the new year.

Afghanistan is one of JICA’s biggest operations, butsecurity remains a problem. What does that mean fordevelopment assistance not only in Afghanistan but insurrounding countries such as Pakistan?When hundreds of thousands of refugees began returning toAfghanistan early in the millennium we were able to do somuch so quickly to improve the situation. It was a ‘good time’for development. Our staff is still doing heroic work but be-cause of the security situation we cannot do as much as wewould like to do. Certainly we could do a lot more if we couldget safe access. One important recent development is that wehave invited 500 key Afghan officials to Japan and they arenow starting their studies at universities across the country.This training will be very important for the development ofAfghanistan’s human resources potential going forward. InPakistan we have been involved in such areas as roads andelectricity and on several occasions have provided emergencyassistance to the country after a series of natural disasters,particularly flooding.

What will be the major challenges of 2012?There are several. We have made progress, but JICA has tocontinue to move faster in its decision making. Natural disas-ters can be terribly damaging to development. If we cannothalt natural disasters we can at least help countries be betterprepared to deal with their consequences. Social inequalityand lack of inclusiveness in society are major problems insome countries. Food security—or the lack of it—is again amajor global crisis and we must find innovative ways to tacklethe root causes.

Your position as president of JICA was recentlyrenewed. What do you hope to accomplish goingforward?Everything we have been discussing here. Overall I would liketo see JICA more efficient, more field orientated, and shorterbut more relevant reports. We have come a long way, but thereis room for further improvement.

2011“A Very Trying Year”

Afghanistan:an uncertainfuture

Famine in the Horn of Africa

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foreign aid, Japanese experts and financial assistancehelped transform the so-called cerrados or closedlands in Brazil into a massive farming bonanza whichtoday yields huge harvests of soybeans, corn, rice,cassava and sugar and has been hailed as “one of thegreat achievements of agricultural science in the 20thcentury.”

Since then Brazil has emerged as an importantglobal player in development assistance and, usingmuch of the expertise it gained 40 years ago, hasnow teamed with JICA and the government ofMozambique to try to replicate that earlier agricul-tural ‘miracle.’ Experts say Mozambique has the po-tential to become Africa’s next breadbasket.

stakeholders such as JICA; the beneficial knock-oneffects of assistance to one country being transferredto other needy nations; and the need for a balancedassistance package including the development of bothbasic infrastructure and other grassroots projects insuch areas as agriculture, education and health.

At the start of this particular ‘virtuous cycle’ of

Mozambique’s modern

history has been one of unremitting tragedy. Sincethe 1500s and the advent of Portuguese colonialismand the Arab slave trade untold numbers of the re-gion’s men, women and children were plunderedfrom the ravaged land. An 11-year war of independ-ence was followed in 1975 by a further 17 years ofcivil conflict.

The southern African nation remains one of theworld’s poorest countries, but now it is also one ofhope. And many of the key elements which JICA isemphasizing as the way forward in development as-sistance is helping to drive the turnaround.

They include closer ties between traditionaldonors such as Japan and a new group of emergingdonors; the importance of south-south cooperationand triangular cooperation emphasizing closer tiesbetween developing countries themselves and key


South Sudan, helping the world’snewest nation

Looking to the Future


Linking the continents In an example of south-south cooperation

and closer links between Africa and Asia, which JICAalso sees as key to Africa’s successful development,Vietnamese rice experts are helping to improve over-all rice production in Mozambique.

Basic infrastructure such as roads and ports is be-ing built in the northern Nacala Corridor to open upnew parts of the country to agriculture and trade,and the number of school children also doubledwithin three years and thousands of new teachersare being trained annually.

Further north, in the newly independent state ofSouth Sudan and along the Mediterranean littoralin Tunisia and Egypt there were major events in 2011and high, though fragile hopes for further progressin 2012.

JICA has been active for many years in the twoMediterranean countries, in Egypt helping farmersto more effectively harness the waters of the RiverNile, promoting industrial development and helpingto finance the construction of the world’s largestEgyptology museum.

Following the birth of the Arab Spring Japaneseadvisors held meetings and seminars with govern-

ment officials to help establish functioning demo-cratic and political systems in their countries.

In 2010 Mrs. Ogata helped inaugurate the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology whichwill offer undergraduate and graduate courses inbusiness, culture and engineering and is expected tobecome a regional and African center of excellencein the next few years.

Such institutions will help to tackle one of themost divisive issues facing the Arab Spring govern-ments—the lack of social and economic opportunitiesfor large sectors of the population. While ‘optimistic’about events in 2011, going forward Mrs. Ogata said“we must be realistic” because “things are touch andgo” in the region.

In July South Sudan became Africa’s newest stateand JICA activities during the past several yearshelped one of the world’s poorest countries to preparefor a better future.

The agency helped the country’s capital, Juba, re-open a vital port on the Nile River, construct basicroad and other infrastructure, rehabilitate a localhospital and train a new cadre of plumbers, electriciansand bricklayers who will be vital to the country’sprosperity.

According to Ichiro Tambo, JICA’s Africa’s DirectorGeneral, South Sudan will be a major priority in2012 and there are now ‘fast track plans’ to repeatsome of these earlier projects in the country’s secondlargest city, Malakal, 650 kilometers to the northeastof Juba and also on the River Nile.

They include plans to draw up an overall masterplan for the region and boost both agricultural pro-duction and vocational training programs. These ac-tivities will be enhanced by the expected arrivalduring 2012 of specialist experts such as engineersfrom Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

Tambo said JICA intends to return to the WestAfrican state of Cote D’Ivoire which the agency leftin 2004-5 because of civil conflict there.

A global food crisis—rising prices and widespreadshortages—again hit many parts of the world in2011. To help meet that threat, in Africa JICA is in-volved with continental governments and other in-ternational organizations in an ambitious agriculturalproject to double the continent’s rice production bythe year 2018. Senior JICA presidential advisorKenzo Oshima said the project was “on course andshowing good results.”

Food security was the top priority in the Horn of


The Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA) is the world’slargest bilateraldevelopment organ-ization, operating insome 150 countries tohelp some of the globe’smost vulnerable people.

Publisher: Noriko SuzukiOffice of Media and PublicRelations

Editor: Raymond Wilkinson

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Cover : The aftermath of Japan’s worst naturaldisaster.

’ sJICA

WORLD

Africa where as many as 13 million peoplefaced shortages and possible starvation becauseof the worst drought in decades and continuedcivil war in Somalia.

Hundreds of thousands of persons weredisplaced as refugees and though as a devel-opment agency JICA does not normallydirectly assist such communities, because ofthe enormity of the problem it sent suppliesto refugee centers in Kenya and Ethiopia

during the year. The agency also expanded plans to

help some local communities, whichoften receive less assistance than offi-cially registered refugees, by improvingdomestic and agricultural water sup-plies.

Emphasizing the need for morelong-term planning to tackle the un-derlying causes of such crises and theneed for greater cooperation amongdonors, JICA and the American de-velopment agency, usaid, discussedjoint ideas including developing quickgrowing, ‘high impact’ crops such asvarious strains of corn (maize) in fragileenvironments such as Africa’s Horn.

Climate change and environmental degradationoften exacerbate traditional development needs inareas such as agriculture, education and economicexpansion.

JICA is involved in a series of often innovativeprojects to address such concerns. In Egypt it helpedfinance a unique power station run by natural gasand solar energy which will provide needed industrialenergy resources but blunt any environmental impactby taking advantage of abundant renewable energysources. Japan has already provided financial assistanceto build vast wind farms at two locations along thecountry’s Red Sea coastline.

In the Himalayas and the Andes mountain rangesprojects have been undertaken to measure the ‘retreat’of mountain glaciers because of global warming andthe subsequent impact on water supplies and localeco-systems.

At the far tip of South America, Japanese and Ar-gentine scientists have measured the ‘hole’ in theearth’s ozone layer and helped devise an early warningsystem for local populations against unnecessary ex-posure to harmful UV light caused by the ‘tear’ inthe ozone layer.

The Amazon river basin, a 2.5 million squaremile eco-system which contains much of the world’sflora and fauna and literally helps the globe to‘breathe,’ has been under increasing environmentalpressure.

A four-year project between JICA and Brazil’sNational Institute for Amazon Research (inpa) isstudying the fundamental question of how the forestworks and how much carbon the eco-system holds.

The answers to that riddle will eventually impacton countries, and their future development, aroundthe world.

While naturaldisasters

captured manyheadlines, JICA

continued itswork in a

myriad of otherdevelopment

projects acrossthe globe.

Brazil: mapping the Amazon Basin

Bolivia: trackingglaciers in the Andes

Argentina: measuringthe ozone hole


it all added up to a very turbulent year earthquakes, floo ......as it rushed inland for as much as...

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