Asia-Pacific Development Journal - Volume 23, Issue 2, 2017

The Development Cooperation Charter of Japan, which replaced the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter in February 2015, drives the country’s cooperation towards non-poor countries and non-poverty issues. The Sustainable Development Goals put Japan forward in these directions. As a result, the country’s focus on global poverty reduction is overshadowed by its national interests and sustainability under the concept of universality, which is a core principle of the Goals and differentiates them from the Millennium Development Goals.

The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a response to the wide gap between the financing need and supply of global infrastructure investment, especially in Asia. The potential competiveness of AIIB, as compared to other multilateral development banks, is that it has a more focused function, better balanced governance structure and sound financing and can strike a balance between the requirements of developing countries and conducting operations efficiently.

On 25 September 2015, during the 70th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly, the 193 Member States adopted a comprehensive and ambitious set of development goals aimed at the eradication of poverty in all its forms. The present article analyses the consultative process of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the positions of countries in negotiations, divided into two groups: donor countries and recipient countries. As to the consultative process, a detailed analysis of the main groups is submitted, along with the institutional design of the process. In addition, a comprehensive review of the countries’ positions in the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals, which includes a comparative analysis of the donor country statements (traditional, BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) and Arabic donors) and statements from recipient countries (by region) is presented. The position of the Russian Federation as a donor country is particularly noted. This position along with that of other BRICS countries is closer to position held by recipient countries, namely the Global South position. An analysis of the G20 countries’ annual voting on the United Nations General Assembly resolution 41/128: Declaration on the Right to Development is also provided. In conclusion, the progress achieved in the negotiation process for setting the Sustainable Development Goals presents a solid platform for further progressive work and the opportunity to tackle global challenges.

The Sustainable Development Goals are very comprehensive, reflecting the increased diversification and complication involved with the development challenges the world is facing in the post-2015 period. Also taking place is a dramatic change in the global landscape of development finance, in which domestic public revenues have risen rapidly to become the largest source of finance. Official development assistance (ODA) for domestic resource mobilization (DRM) will remain essential to accelerate economic growth and lift people from extreme poverty, particularly in the low-income countries. The combination of technical assistance and increased financing for capacity-building can play a vital role in strengthening DRM and lead to more effective and efficient use of public expenditure. The present report first reviews the latest literature on the rationale for this path and the emphasis on public domestic resource mobilization. It then looks at the two-decade experience of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with the Mongolian tax authority as an example of international cooperation that supports enhanced DRM. After reviewing the events chronologically from the mid-1990s to the 2010s, key takeaways from JICA are given with a focus on capacity development. Finally, the report discusses the transitional role of international cooperation in this regard. It points out that to effectively carry out capacity development, a long-term commitment and joint concerted efforts from the global community are needed. This, in turn, requires a change in mindset from being oriented towards results management at the individual project level to applying programme-based management, which entails combining different types of operations to meet the national development goals and strategy. In addition, it must go hand-in-hand with strong country ownership to come up with indigenous solutions. In the case involving JICA and the Mongolian tax authority, implementing quick-impact projects and showing the impacts at each stage has convinced the latter of the need for a long-term commitment to the results. The long-term commitment of traditional donors from the North could facilitate the participation of emerging donors in a concerted manner. It could scale up capacity development efforts by facilitating triangular cooperation to promote DRM in many countries.

The present study draws on two case studies, one on village dynamics during the 1970s rural community development movement in the Republic of Korea and the other on present day challenges and learning based on the experiences of a non-governmental organization from the Republic of Korea in implementing a community project together with local villagers in Cambodia. The study argues that the participatory approach, despite recent criticism and challenges associated with it, should remain the core mode of development cooperation because of its intrinsic and instrumental values in efforts to develop a sustainable community. Local leaders’ accountability and leadership, as well as genuine partnerships, involving equitable sharing of power in decisionmaking among various stakeholders, including external donor agencies, are also underlined as crucial in engaging local people in their own development initiatives.

To formulate health development policy and strategies aimed at the Sustainable Development Goal 3, which seeks to ensuring health and well-being for all, it is indispensable to revisit the issue of global health governance in the wake of the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. The issue of global health governance is also relevant in the Asia-Pacific region, where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), influenza A (H1N1) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were health security threats. The failure to respond timely and effectively to the health crisis was derived from a few factors that are relevant to the means of implementation necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. During ordinary times, efforts to enhance health systems should include building the core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHR), which should be supported not only by the World Health Organization (WHO), but also through coordination among diverse multilateral and bilateral organizations as part of their health development cooperation programmes associated with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. To enhance preparedness for handling health crises, the organizational capacities of WHO and its regional offices need to be strengthened. In addition, coordination among WHO and other actors should be facilitated in accordance with the situational categories based on the combination of (a) the capacity of the country where an outbreak of an infectious disease is occurring and (b) the severity and magnitude of that infectious disease.