On May 25-26, 2016, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank Group held the Third JICA-World Bank Group High Level Dialogue at JICA Headquarters, co-chaired by the heads of each agency, and discussed further deepening their partnership.
JICA President Shinichi Kitaoka and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim discussed six topics, namely, the two thematic issues of "health (universal health coverage [UHC])” and “disaster risk reduction and resilient and sustainable cities," as well as the four regions of East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, Africa, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). On the previous day, vice presidents and senior staff of the two agencies held separate sessions for each of the six topics to discuss in more detail. Among the topics, resilient and sustainable cities and MENA were newly added for this third dialogue.
The dialogue, attended by Mr. Kitaoka for the first time, was held on the occasion of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, which Mr. Kim also attended.
In the dialogue, the two agencies agreed to work for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to jointly promote UHC in Africa, to cooperate for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and to partner in the field of seismic resilience. They also agreed to collaborate on, among other things, the elaboration of the concept of sustainable cities and on partnerships among cities, on the stabilization of the MENA region, on disaster risk reduction in the Philippines and the Pacific, and on economic corridor development in South Asia. They agreed to promote collaboration toward TICAD VI in August, in the fields of private sector development, energy, trade and transport, food and nutrition security, agriculture, health (UHC), education and climate change.
President Kim (left) and President Kitaoka (right)
In addition to the two presidents, more than one hundred staff members from both agencies also participated in the discussion, including Senior Vice-President Kazuhiko Koshikawa, Vice President (VP) Yasushi Kanzaki, VP Hiroshi Kato, VP Shigeru Kiyama, VP Kae Yanagisawa, VP Naoki Ito, VP Hidetoshi Irigaki, and VP Kenichi Tomiyoshi from the JICA side; and from the World Bank Group, Cyril Muller, VP Europe and Central Asia, Makhtar Diop, VP Africa, Annette Dixon, VP South Asia, Hafez Ghanem, VP Middle East and North Africa, Victoria Kwakwa, VP East Asia and Pacific, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director for the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice, and Olusoji Adeyi, Director for Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice.
After the dialogue, the heads of the two agencies spoke at an event at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies to commemorate the G7 Ise-Shima Summit. In front of an audience of some 300 people, Mr. Kitaoka gave an opening address in which he talked about global health issues and the collaboration between the World Bank and Japan, as well as discussion in the G7 and Japanese leadership. Mr. Kim gave a speech about the World Bank's initiatives on global health issues.
The two agencies will continue to hold regular discussions at various levels to strengthen their partnership.
scroll