Securing adequate financial resources and improving the safety of U.N. aid workers are two of the most important tasks to ensure the United Nations can carry out its humanitarian activities, according to the newly appointed chief overseeing such activities.

Career diplomat Kenzo Oshima, 57, will assume the post of U.N. undersecretary general in charge of humanitarian affairs and relief operations in late January.

"The international community will continue to have strong feelings about providing humanitarian assistance, but we need financial backing to continue to provide such aid," Oshima said in a recent interview with The Japan Times. He is currently serving at the Prime Minister's Office as head of Japan's international peacekeeping operations.

After assuming the U.N. post in January, Oshima's major task will be to coordinate policies among international organizations, national governments and nongovernmental organizations to provide assistance to places hit by natural disasters and conflicts.

"With only limited financial resources, I have to make sure that assistance measures go quickly to places in need," Oshima said.

He stressed that improving the safety of U.N. workers carrying out relief operations is also an urgent task in light of increasing attacks on U.N. personnel.

Referring to three U.N. aid workers recently killed by a pro-Indonesian militia in West Timor, Oshima noted that over the past two years, there have been more humanitarian aid workers attacked than peacekeepers.

"People used to believe that aid workers would not be targets of dangerous attacks, but that notion is no longer valid," he said.

As for Japan's contributions to U.N. humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping operations, he said the country should play a bigger role, including participation in U.N. peacekeeping force activities, which are not authorized because the Constitution does not permit the use of force.

"Over the past eight years, Japan has gained important experience in peacekeeping activities, and public support for such activities has also increased. But by international standards, we still have constraints," Oshima said.

Japan enacted the international peace cooperation law in June 1992, setting a framework for participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations, including the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces personnel. However, the country has limited its activities to humanitarian assistance and logistic support.

Oshima emphasized, however, that while politicians should thoroughly debate expanding the scope of Japan's peacekeeping activities, Japan can do a lot more even under the current framework in such areas as postconflict development, transporting relief materials and establishing communications networks.

Apart from such U.N. activities, Oshima said Japan should make more efforts to increase its presence at the U.N. headquarters, especially in high-level posts.

There are about 100 Japanese professionals at the U.N. Secretariat, but only a few high-ranking officials. This is far less than the desired number of 300 set by the U.N. according to each country's population and share of the body's budget.

"It's important to increase the number of Japanese who can participate in the U.N. policymaking process," Oshima said.

In providing humanitarian assistance in the field, the role of nongovernmental organizations is expanding more than ever before, along with their ability to carry out such projects, according to Oshima.

"NGOs not only carry out humanitarian projects on their own, but they often do entrusted work for U.N. bodies, such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Development Program," he said.

"We cannot imagine doing field work without the presence of NGOs."

Oshima is determined to make as many visits as possible to places of conflict and disaster-hit areas to personally supervise relief operations.

He said his policymaking experience at the Foreign Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency has taught him that actually being in the field is the most important thing.

"I have visited areas receiving assistance and listened to the voices of the people actually working there and that will not change in my next job at the U.N.," Oshima said. "You can't just be sitting in a matchbox-like building in New York. You have to actually be out there in the field."