JICA President Tanaka Participated in the Second Global Refugee Forum

JICA President Tanaka visited Switzerland from December 12 to 14 to participate in the second Global Refugee Forum (GRF) held in Geneva.

After attending the opening plenary, President Tanaka gave the keynote speech at a high-level event on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDP Nexus) co-hosted by JICA, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and also spoke at two other high-level events. In addition, he held talks with representatives of UN agencies and a refugee-hosting country.

In his aforementioned keynote speech, President Tanaka noted that in light of compounding and escalating humanitarian crises, cooperation among actors involved in development and peace, in addition to humanitarian assistance, is essential in order to respond to protracted refugee situations and to prevent crises. He also noted the importance of supporting governments in refugee-hosting countries to fulfill their roles and execute leadership in order to promote mutually complementary cooperation among all actors involved in the HDP Nexus. On this basis, he introduced examples of governmental capacity development and human resource development targeting refugees that have been conducted so far by JICA in refugee-hosting countries such as Uganda, and called for greater collaboration among actors in HDP areas and for cooperation towards refugees and host communities.

At a high-level event on peacebuilding and conflict prevention hosted by countries such as Colombia and Egypt, President Tanaka introduced examples of JICA’s peacebuilding efforts in Colombia and South Sudan. He also expressed JICA’s expectation that initiatives in both countries would lead to peace through inclusive support for refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, and residents in host areas, and that this would lead to addressing the root causes of the refugees and to realize their return home. He went on to mention the importance of regional cooperation between neighboring countries and its impact on the further promotion of peacebuilding.

At a high-level event on the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF), co-hosted by the World Bank, the Japanese government, and others, President Tanaka noted that Japan is the largest contributor to the GCFF and emphasized that this mechanism enables the provision of concessional funding to middle-income countries hosting refugees, making it possible to simultaneously contribute to the fulfillment of humanitarian needs and the promotion of development in host countries. Also, as specific examples of cooperation, President Tanaka introduced the possibility of cooperation in the form of co-financing by the World Bank and JICA’s ODA loans through the GCFF, and the collaboration of through World Bank concessional funds and JICA’s technical cooperation for capacity development for host country governments.

In his meeting with Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou, President Tanaka confirmed the importance of following up on the initiatives of the HDP Nexus based on the results of the GRF, and emphasized that the cooperation between UNHCR and JICA to be further enhanced.

In President Tanaka’s meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the pair discussed the possibility of incorporating human rights considerations into development cooperation initiatives, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After sharing JICA’s guiding principle of human security in accordance with the Japanese government’s Development Cooperation Charter, the two confirmed the importance of exchanging opinions between their two organizations for the protection and guarantee of human rights.

During President Tanaka’s meeting with Zambian Vice President Mutale Nalumango, the two exchanged opinions on cooperation that would contribute to the promotion of the HDP Nexus through support for the social integration of former refugees, and confirmed the direction of future cooperation.