Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective (1993–2001)

U.S. Agencies

Japan Agencies

Meeting Frequency

Context

• Part of the U.S.-Japan Framework for a New Economic Partnership agreed upon by President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.
• Is an overarching term for a collection of bilateral cooperation activities, overseen by an annual meeting of the Japanese deputy foreign minister and the U.S. undersecretary of state for global affairs, to review projects of the past year and upcoming initiatives.

Goals

• To show an alliance between two partners and not just two economic rivals, as proposed by Japan.
• To address major areas including health, rapid population growth, disasters, and the environment through smaller joint bilateral projects.

Significance

The Common Agenda initiated about 100 projects plus many hundreds of small grassroots grant-funded projects, some of which epxanded into larger multilateral initiatives. Common Agenda projects were based off four pillars: promoting health, global stability, environment, and science & technology.

The Common Agenda is credited by some with helping to transform Japan’s approach to official development assistance (ODA); rather than solely focusing on “hard” assistance (technology and infrastructure), Japan also came to focus on “soft” assistance such as health-based initiatives and capacity building. Specific areas of successful cooperation include AIDS surveillance and education programs, as well as polio immunization work in Africa.