Towards equal partnership and evaluation of the international organizations: Lessons learnt from JICA projects on polio eradication in Laos / 国際保健医療

ABSTRACT

As globalization has been accelerated, the partnership is getting important in the international society. JICA projects in Laos on "Public health" and "Pediatric infectious disease prevention" had achieved its goal of regional polio eradication under the strong partnership with Laos government, JICA, WHO and UNICEF. The global commitment at the WHO assembly contributed to the achievement by sharing common goal and partnership, which enabled to draw sufficient financial supports. However, in general, fewer efforts have been done among Japanese researchers/experts to examine the appropriateness of top-down global health policies. JICA should break away form the power of ministries which possess huge vested interests in ODA business so that the agency can find and address problems actively in the project sites. In this way, as one of influential nations in Asia, we can build equal partnerships in the international society, respecting diversity of environment and cultures of developing countries. It is also important to evaluate the funding flows and activities of the international organizations, which have been widely criticized for being lack of transparency.