Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development: Inescapable Solutions by David Leheny & Kay Warren

Author:David Leheny & Kay Warren [Leheny, David & Warren, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415554480
Google: miLZauiFkGoC
Goodreads: 7822079
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Outsourcing the problem: Japan’s preference for operating through multilateral institutions

Japan’sapproachtoAIDSinAsiahasemphasizedoutsourcingtomultilateral institutions and international NGOs—a policy that limits direct government contact with recipients. Indeed, the bulk of Japanese funding is funneled through multilateral institutions which devise and implement their own projects. The Japanese preference for “outsourcing” programs to multilateral organizations and NGOs and the concomitant lack of direct Japanese involvement in Asia’s AIDS epidemic, means that Japan has little role to play in the international HIV donor community. For example, in India, the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS has expanded beyond the UN cosponsors of UNAIDS to include a number of other donor agencies and indigenous groups, including India’s National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Japan is not included. Similarly, Vietnam’s major donors have, under the leadership of UNAIDS in Hanoi, made a concerted and dedicated effort to coordinate their efforts and contribute to Vietnam’s evolving policies on the epidemic. Japanese officials have not participated. Japan’s lack of engagement both with national governments in the region and other bilateral donors means that Japan’s role in addressing the regional epidemic is extremely limited.

Japan’s preference for operating through multilateral institutions, rather than addressing the issue directly through bilateral programs, is a function of three forces operating at the domestic Japanese level. First is a lack of public interest necessary to support the growth of an HIV/AIDS constituency in Japan itself. Public apathy in Japan is linked to poor public understanding of the contagion and the stigma and denial which surrounds the growing Japanese AIDS crisis (JCIE 2005: 2). There are only 10,000 officially documented cases of HIV infection in Japan, but testing facilities are inadequate and the number of those testing correspondingly low. Independent testing centers in Japan already register a monthly 3–4 percent infection rate among vulnerable populations, and unofficial estimates from those who actually work on the ground, put the number of infections in Japan as high as 100,000.21 Even official figures show a steady increase in Japanese domestic infections, an unusual trend among developed nations where awareness and access to medical treatment generally mean declining infection rates. Interviews among young male sex workers (MSW) in Osaka and Tokyo, moreover, show that middle-aged married businessmen constitute the bulk of MSW clientele, a trend which has yet to receive attention in Japan, but which does promise to deliver the contagion into the homes and households of Japan’s general populace.22 According to a study by the Japan Center for International Exchange, however, levels of knowledge about AIDS in Japan are low and most Japanese still regard HIV as a disease which afflicts far-off countries (JCIE 2004). HIV educational programs in schools are weak and a taboo on discussions about sex has rendered knowledge about transmission and prevention inadequate.

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