Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor UN Summit: saving what could be saved UN summit press review Commodity exporters enjoy high demand UNCTAD: Happy times for commodity exporters Taxing air travel to fund development Japan to increase aid Roads and development Alternative health report for WHO reform Women have higher crop yields World Bank: inequality blocks development 10/2005		Japan to increase aid After spending cuts in the last four years, Japan wants to make more money available for development aid this year. According to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, aid will increase by ten billion dollars in the coming five years, while aid to Africa will be doubled in line with the G8 resolution from Gleneagles. In 2004, the official development assistance (ODA) from Japan amounted to 8.9 billion dollars. As a ratio of gross national income, that was 0,19%, making Japan the third least generous country of all advanced nations (with Italy and the USA spending even less). “It is important that Japan shows the world that as the second richest country, it can give as much assistance as some of the other industrialised countries do,” says Yoko Fukawa of the non-governmental ODA Reform Network. In a newspaper interview, a high ranking diplomat said that giving more assistance to Africa would improve Japan’s chances of a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Masaki Inaba of the Japan Africa Network said that non-governmental organisations would have to be more strongly involved if the efficiency of Japanese aid was to increase. (ell)