On 19th July, the 75th Regular GII-IDI meeting was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Tokyo, with 25 NGO representatives and 10 from MOFA and the Cabinet Office attending.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

The "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" will be awarded every five years to coincide with TICAD. The first award will be presented in May 2008 during TICAD IV.

According to the Cabinet Office representatives, the selection process had already started, and will continue until next March when the winners of the award will be announced.

Referring to a previous discussion with MOFA on requests for inclusion in the selection process and award committee, NGOs voiced their opinions on a preferred selection process.

In response to the requests, the Cabinet Office invited NGOs to submit nominations in the field of medical services, which will be open until 10th August.

The award money will be funded primarily by the Government of Japan, and the government is inviting donations to partially finance the award, which is expected to help raise public awareness of medical science and services in Africa.

The Cabinet Office reported that former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who conceived the idea of the Prize during a visit to Africa in May 2006, donated, as the Chair of the Donation Committee, the whole amount of his retirement allowance as prime minister to the Prize.

G8 Summit 2007 Heiligendamm

In preparations for the 2008 G8 Summit to be held in Japan, NGOs exchanged respective evaluations with MOFA of the G8 Summit, held in Germany in June 2007.

MOFA, who noted that climate change and Africa were given great consideration at the summit, positively evaluated that strengthening health care systems was focused on in the summit outcome document on Africa.

NGOs reported on civil society activities in which Japanese NGOs worked together with other G8 NGOs, and shared with MOFA other international NGOs’ evaluation of the 2007 summit.

Based on the outcome of the 2007 G8 Summit, NGOs will further strengthen advocacy activities toward the 2008 G8 Summit in order to mainstream global health issues in the summit agenda.

Case study

The fourth in a series of case studies showing NGOs comparative advantages explained a project to support pediatric surgery in Cambodia.

The project has been implemented by strategically using Japanese government schemes such as Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects and JICA short-term expert dispatch.

While referring to the benefits of utilizing the ODA schemes for the project implementation, the NGO made recommendations on what would be required for the schemes to be managed more effectively, including the need for MOFA and JICA to show more understanding of NGO projects with a high degree of expertise.