JICA-RI Director Ohno Speaks at NY Book Launch for ‘Leave No One Behind,’ Publication From Joint Research with the Brookings Institution

Brookings and JICA-RI began collaborating on research projects in 2010, and this is the fifth book of findings to be published. The book offers an analytical framework for transforming "Leave No One Behind" (LNOB) from a mere slogan of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into specific actions. The book stresses the need to identify who is getting left behind, where, and why. It also introduces good practices that have already achieved results and suggests policies and issues for scaling up the efforts. Of the 13 chapters, JICA-RI helped write Chapter 1 "Getting Specific to Leave No One Behind on Sustainable Development" (Ohno), Chapter 7 "Vulnerable Populations and Universal Health Coverage" (Makimoto) and Chapter 8 "No Women Left Excluded from Financial Services" (Research Fellows Eiji Yamada and Enerelt Murakami, Visiting Scholar Akira Murata).

Next were comments by Muhammad Musa, executive director of BRAC International, Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of CARE USA, and Koen Davidse, executive director of World Bank Group, followed by a diverse exchange of opinions with seminar attendees. One comment from an attendee was LNOB should not merely be a slogan for people in the development aid community but must be the methodology. Another attendee said people are losing trust in governments, and if LNOB is merely a national policy we may not reach our goals, adding that instead of the traditional approach, we need to go beyond discussions on a national level and identify the people and places in need and the problems they face.