OECD Development Co-operation peer reviews: Japan 2014

In this peer review, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) commends Japan for increasingly exerting global leadership and influence in areas such as disaster risk reduction and universal health coverage, as well as for launching a series of new global initiatives in climate change finance and women’s empowerment, which should further enhance its influence and impact at the global level. It argues that Japan has increased its spending on official development assistance (ODA) and is showing more global leadership, but that it needs to pay more attention to where it is spending the money and increase its focus on results and transparency.

The peer review highlights that Japan makes good use of its extensive knowledge and long history of disasters, including the devastating 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, to drive the global agenda on disaster risk reduction and comprehensively incorporate risk reduction elements across all its programming. It adds that Japan champions the Hyogo Framework for Action (UN, 2005) and will host the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, where the global community will agree the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.