Development Aid, Investment Should Not Encourage Abuses

(Tokyo, May 24, 2013) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should make improving the human rights situation in Burma a top priority during his visit to the country this week, Human Rights Watch said today. Abe’s three-day visit, which begins May 24, 2013, will be the first by a Japanese leader to Burma in 36 years. Dozens of major Japanese corporations will accompany the prime minister.

Government of Japan Provides more Support to UNMAS Humanitarian Mine Action Work in Africa

NEW YORK, New York, 22 May 2013 — The Government of Japan donated an additional six million US dollars in April to the UN Trust Fund in support of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) to support United Nations humanitarian mine action activities in Mali. Earlier this year Japan gave 18 million dollars to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action for mine action work in Africa and in Afghanistan.

A new road linking rural communities to a vital district centre has been completed thanks to a WFP food-for-work project in rural Laos. The project is part of WFP's Livelihood Initiatives for Nutrition (LIN) programme, designed to support remote communities in northern Laos with high rates of stunting (children too short for their age).

A RETENIR

• la Réserve Financière du FRH passe à 99.78 millions USD, avec 32.28 millions réservés pour l’appui budgétaire (p.2)

• Le FRH appuie le développement du secteur privé, en particulier les petites et moyennes entreprises (p.3)

• Le Projet de Reconstruction des Quartiers Défavorisés de Port-au-Prince reloge plus de 10 000 déplacés des Camps « Parc Jean Marie Vincent » et « Pétion Ville club » (p.5)

• Le 16/6 a un impact économique et social important sur les communautés (p.5)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Prolonged dry weather has triggered significant drought in northern Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI)

• A U.S. Government (USG) preliminary damage assessment team is scheduled to begin assessments of drought-affected areas in the coming days

• To date, USAID has responded with reverse osmosis machines and other pre-positioned relief supplies

The country’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation has received a $1 million cash injection from Japan, a government official has revealed.

“Despite the natural disasters that have bedevilled Japan in recent years, the country has become our development partner in the EPI interventions. Last year they donated $4, 8 million and this year they have added another $1 million to the pot,” the Ministry of Health EPI Manager, Mary Kamupota, said.

Global Estimates 2012 - People displaced by disasters

Period covered by this Operations Update: 1 January 2013 – 31 March 2013

Highlights:

Operations Update No. 11 captures the activities of the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET) over the past three months.

• During this reporting period, the second anniversary of the disaster was commemorated. JRCS has completed a number of reconstruction projects, while many early recovery support programmes for displaced people have come to an end.

Two years have passed since Japan’s Tohoku coast was ravaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Thousands of lives lost, hundreds of thousands of survivors left without shelter, and millions of dollars in monetary damage were left behind when the ocean waters retreated.

Much has changed in Japan in the past two years, yet much has painfully stayed the same in the tsunami zone. Mercy Corps assisted in the emergent aftermath of the disaster, and has continued to provide support for local small merchants, helping to revive the badly struggling local economies.