Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the independent institution of the Government of Japan, responsible for the international cooperation and development agenda of the country. It aims to reduce poverty and enhance the process of socio-economic development in poor and developing countries around the world. It has its headquarters based in Tokyo and many of its overseas offices are located in different countries where it is actively working. 

JICA’s development vision believes in helping people realize their development issues and address them in a participatory manner. JICA understands the relevance of long-term support in an ever-changing environment of developing countries and provides effective support to reduce poverty and related issues. It endeavors to address the negative effects of globalization such as climate change, spread of infectious diseases, terrorism and uneven distribution of wealth. In its poverty alleviation agenda, it provides support towards enhancing employment opportunities and ensures provision of basic services such as healthcare and education to communities. Since good governance is essential for addressing issues of socio-economic development, it supports governments in placing appropriate systems. The guiding principles of JICA’s mission are “achieving synergies of the merger, tackling complex, difficult issues flexibly with the field-based approach, fostering expertise for providing professional solutions and efficient and transparent operations.” The themes covered by JICA range from education, health, disaster management, governance, peace-building to social security, gender development and environmental management.

Besides provision of ODA loans and technical cooperation support to various groups, governments and institutions, JICA also supports NGOs directly as well as indirectly. Its Grant Aid support is mostly to governments, which need to work closely with NGOs. The JICA Partnership Program is mainly a key partnership with Japanese international organizations working in poor countries around the world. JICA sometimes also introduces direct support to NGOs, but this support is managed locally. JICA also has the Emergency Disaster Relief support to counter the effects arising out of natural disasters around the world.

The contact information for JICA’s headquarters is:

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
6th–13th floors, Shinjuku Maynds Tower
1-1, Yoyogi 2-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8558 Japan

and

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
1-4-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004 Japan
URL: http://www.jica.go.jp/english/