Activities

As a networking NGO and a proponent for strengthening civil society, JANIC's activities have revolved around the following activities:

Promoting Partnership Among NGOs
・ JANIC NGO members meeting and promotion of coorperation.
・ National Conference of Network NGOs.
・ Cooperation with overseas NGOs.

Strengthening the Organizational and Project Implementation Capacity of NGOs
・ Risk management & security management seminar.
・ Basic accounting courses for NGOs.
・ Training Program for staff of NGOs concerned with supporting children in developing countries(Joint program with the Japan    Committee for UNICEF).
・ Capacity buildidng seminar for leaders of the next generation.

Creating a Favorable Environment for NGO Activities /Policy Advocacy
・ JANIC's Committee on Advocacy.
・ Making Guidelines of NGO accountability.
・ Serving as NGO secretariat /focal point for the formal meeting with the MoFA, JICA and JBIC.
・ Lobbying to improve the Law to promote citizens organizations.
・ Setting up of a discussion group between Parliament members and NGOs.

Widening Citizen Support and Participation in NGO Activities through Information Dissemination
・ Providing the services of its NGO Information and Resource Center.
・ Coordinating annual“Global Festa”held in Tokyo.
・ Participation in events related to international cooperation.
・ Serving as guest lecturer
・ Publication of JANIC's Japanese newsletter NGO Correspondence: Global Citizens.
・ Publication of NGO Directory and books on NGOs.

Promoting Dialogue and Network With Other Sectors of Society

JANIC collaborate with other social institutions which are concerned with international assistance (or international common cause). They include international centers (or sections) of local governments, educational institutions, economic organizations, Labor Unions, JANIC provides them with necessary information and advice on requests concerning international voluntary activities at grassroots level.

Strengthening JANIC as an Institution

JANIC has created a core team for its fund-raising and membershiip expansion activities, with the leadership of the Board of Trustees and one outside volunteer and two staff from JANIC. Targets for JANIC's fund-raising activities are prospective individuals, companies, labor unions, and prospective individual and NGO sustaining members.

History of JANIC

The history of JANIC is short. Through the initiative of eleven NGO leaders, it started with a small office staffed by a few volunteers in order to serve the Japanese NGO community engaged in international development coorperation, and to act as a clearinghouse of information regarding Japanese NGOs. In the past few years, in addition to the mission mentioned above, JANIC has started to emarge as an institution that fosters the growth and development an active civil society in Japan.

The early beginnings

JANIC was founded in October 1987 with the initiative of eleven NGO leaders. It aimed to foster the growth of the Japanese NGO community engaged in international coorperation by 1) promoting networking among NGOs; 2) strengthening the institutional capacity of NGOs; 3) expanding the number of supporters of NGO activities in society; 4) promoting dialogue between NGOs and other sectors of society such as governmental and business; 5) and promoting collaborative relations with like-minded foreign NGOs in both developing and developed countries.

Since its inception, JANIC has expanded from a voluntary operation with a grant of ¥500,000(US$4,300) and funds collected from memberships fees of nine NGO members, working at a desk in the corner of a storeroom of an NGO office, to an independent office of eleven full-time and two part-time staff members, few interns and dozens of volunteers with an annual budget of roughly ¥83 million (US$720,000) as of April 2004.

In the early years, when financial souces weer scarce, almost all the projects were carried out with designated grants from private foundations and also with entrusted funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MoFA). Some of the very early projects were the publication of the Directory of NGOs in Japan funded by MoFA and the survey of NGO workers, focusing on their educational and professional background and their workingconditions. Others were a series of international conferences such as the Asian NGO Forum on the Role of Appropriate Technology in Asia Development and Cooperation Among NGOs, and the International Symposium in the Role of NGOs in Development Cooperation.


JANIC also initiated a study on the relationship between NGOs and official development assistance(ODA) from an international perspective, and based on the findings, made recommendations to the MoFA. In 1988, JANIC initiated the establishement of the Joint Committee of 15 NGOs to Assist Victims of the Big Flood in Bangladesh in 1988, and in 1991, JANIC organized the first National NGO conference, which let to the creation of the National Liaison Committee of NGOs.

Reaching out to the public and staff development for NGOs

After three years of preparatery activities using grants from a foundation, in 1990 JANIC opened the Resource Corner on NGO activities and international development issues, An increasing number of people started to visit the Corner, and in 1992 using the Corner, JANIC began to offer a public seminar on NGOs and a placement guidance seminar for NGOs. Moreover, a series of global citizens seminars was conducted in collaboration with the local government agency in various cities.

Staff development for NGOs between another area of JANIC's concern. In 1991, JANIC started an accounting course for NGO workers, and held the International Workshop on Human Resource Development for NGOs in 1992. This workshop let to a series of staff training programs in the following years, including leadership training and mid-level staff training overseas.


Also, in responding to the emergency situation of Kurdish refugees in early 1991, JANIC initiated the establishment of a joint committee composed of 18 NGOs to extend emergency assistance to the refugees. This led to the creation to the Japanese Joint NGO Committee for International EmergencyRelief in 1992 that conducted a food assistance program to the Tigray people in Ethiopia suffering from an impending famine.

The global environment became another field of concern for JANIC. In 1991, JANIC held the International Forum on Development, Environment and Citizens Role and also conducted a field trip for foreign participatants to environmentally contaminated districts, such as Minamata in Japan. JANIC also published a Green Tree Directory compiling some 70 organizations include 38 NGOs engaged in the preservation of forests and international reforestation.

Organizational strengthening and NGO sector development

Information dissemination activities have continued to expand, and the NGO resouece Center was renamed the NGO-Citizens in 1944. In the past years,an average of 1500 people visit the Center annually. More recently, the Center has started to make use of the Internet system and opened a home-page for JANIC and international cooperation topics. JANIC hopes to make linkages not on among NGOs, including foreign ones, but also among citizens, foundation and companies concerned with international cooperation.

Staff training has become more systematic. JANIC conducts several accounting courses for NGOs all over the country, including Hokkaido in the north and Okinawa in the south. In 1996, a new course was introduced for entry-level staff and volunteers. JANIC also conducts overseas training programs for NGO workers engaged in environment protection. Also, with the generous support of Japan International Coorporation Agency(JICA), since 1989, JANIC has continued to serve as secretariat for NGO workers who receive intensive language training at its facility. JANIC also played an important role during the Hanshin big Earthquake in 1995. It initiated fund-raising and distributer the funds collected to its member organizations operating at the sites. Furthermore, its served as spokesman for its member organizations to the mass media and to the society in general.

In order to improve its financial base, in 1994, JANIC shifted its priority from a project-based funding policy to the expansion of its sustaining members (both individual and corporate) and general fund-raising for JANIC's institutional support. The number of individual sustaining members increased from 340 in 1993 to 820 in 1997. The number of corporate members including non-profit organizations, such as foundations, increased from 23 in 1993 to 74 in 2005.

The latest development for JANIC is its new role in the advocacy and policy recommendation area. Since 1995, by promoting a bill for Citizens Organizations which proposes to grant legal status to citizen groups and organizations (about 90% of Japanese NGOs have no legal status), JANIC plays a leading role in lobbying national diet members for improvement in the substance of the bill. Another important development initiated by JANIC is the creation of the NGOs-MoFA Council in 1996. The representatives of NGOs meet with officials of MoFA every three months to discuss the issues related to both NGOs and MoFA, such as government support schemes for NGOs and the participants of NGOs in ODA process.

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