On 17th March, the 61st Open Regular Dialog on GII/IDI was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), attended by seven MOFA officials and 16 NGO member representatives.

The Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative (IDI) will finish this year, and MOFA is considering a new initiative to succeed it. With this background, NGO representatives submitted a draft proposal to support post-GII/IDI initiatives, under the title of Health Initiatives in the Context of Human Security - toward Achieving the MDGs.

The draft focuses on the three 'health' goals of the MDGs, numbers 4, 5 and 6, which are reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, respectively.

MOFA will make public official post-GII/IDI initiatives at a High Level Forum on the Health MDGs in Asia-Pacific, to be held in Tokyo in June 2005.

Highlights of NGO Proposal

The NGO proposal is based upon the concept of human security with special focus on two principles. First, community people need to be considered as the agents of their own development, not recipients of aid. Second, government needs to nurture a healthy civil society.

Within this, there are five strategies to further implementation of goals 4, 5 and 6. Two of them are:

• Better coordination by MOFA with the ODA Charter and mid-term policy, including a holistic, comprehensive approach to programs and implementation, using NGOs, both Japanese and local, in the process.
• As well as considering human security from a government-driven, top-down approach, using NGOs as active partners in a grassroots-up manner, since they have knowledge, methods and experience at this level.

In achieving MDG 5, improvement of maternal health, the NGO proposal states the importance of including "universal access to reproductive health" as an additional indicator for this goal. The following comparative advantages of NGOs for MDG 5 are also included:

- NGOs can provide quality services cost effectively, leading to better project sustainability. That NGOs provide quality and cost-effective family planning services is especially important for the health of women and mothers to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

- NGOs are very capable in raising community awareness, and behavior change communication, both important aspects in reducing high-risk pregnancy and delivery.

- NGOs are better equipped to approach youth as they are less constrained by national cultural, social, religious and political concerns than governments. Furthermore, since NGOs work at the grassroots they are closer to youth than governments, who often have little in the way of youth-friendly services and approaches.