Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
World Bank President Wolfowitz meets with JICA President Ogata
Discussions focus on Africa, decentralization, aid coordination and greater institutional collaboration
During his first official visit to Japan, President Wolfowitz met with JICA President Mrs. Sadako Ogata on October 12, 2005, to discuss areas where the World Bank could increase collaboration with JICA. Africa was at the top of the agenda, as Wolfowitz has indicated that the region is his primary priority for the World Bank. Ogata stressed that JICA had been paying special attention to Africa following the Japanese government's announcement that it would double ODA to Africa over the next 3 years. JICA is now developing its own assistance plan and Mrs. Ogata welcomed close collaboration with the World Bank as joint priorities for assistance are established. Wolfowitz introduced the World Bank's new Action Plan for Africa and proposed JICA to collaborate with the World Bank in its implementation. Wolfowitz has instructed his African regional management team to follow up directly with JICA in the months ahead to discuss joint opportunities for scaling up operational collaboration.
Discussions also focused on joint World Bank and JICA knowledge-sharing and research activities, especially the collaboration between JICA-Net and the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC). Ogata expressed considerable satisfaction about progress and underlined the value of this satellite-linked regional and global communication tool which had the potential to transform ways of doing business.
Wolfowitz and Ogata also exchanged experiences on coordinating activities between international and regional organizations, as well as the decentralization experience of JICA and the World Bank. They agreed that further decentralization and a higher level of coordination on the ground will be critical to development success, not only in Africa, but across the developing world.
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