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JAPAN TAKES PROMINENT ROLE IN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

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TOKYO, Apr 29 2008 (IPS) - This year Japan will host two events that will be critical in helping to shape the African agenda: the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), to be held 28-30 May, followed in July by the G8 summit in which the continent\’s issues will figure prominently, writes Sadako Ogata, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1991-2001). African countries are not content just to grow cocoa or coffee; they want to move on and expand their sciences, information technology expertise, and industries. In today\’s world a country cannot improve its living standard by relying on farming alone but must also produce goods that create new sources of revenue. The May conference will be an opportunity to both review progress and address future challenges. Economically, Africa has enjoyed a robust 5 percent annual growth in recent years, and one of the major targets in 2008 will be to accelerate this expansion, in part by supporting large-scale infrastructure projects like enlarging national, regional, and intercontinental road networks, which will boost agricultural and industrial expansion.

This year Japan will host two events that will be critical in shaping the African agenda: the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), to be held 28- 30 May, followed in July by the G8 summit in which the continent’s issues will figure prominently.

Until recent years, Africa always seemed a distant matter to many Japanese circles, but the TICAD process has drawn the continent firmly into Tokyo’s foreign policy mainstream. To put it simply, Africa has rapidly assumed significance for Japan.

The May TICAD conference will be the fourth in a series of meetings on Africa that have helped forge an international response and commitment to the continent. The first, in 1993, focused almost exclusively on economic issues. Since then conflict prevention, peace building, ‘human security’ for peoples and communities, and more recently climate change and the environment have also been addressed.

It was only in 2000, at the G8 summit in Okinawa, Japan, that four African nations were invited for the first time to become directly involved in the process. In contrast, the TICAD meeting will be attended by around 40 African heads of state and government.

The May conference will be an opportunity to both review progress and address future challenges. Economically, Africa has enjoyed a robust 5 percent annual growth in recent years, and one of the major targets in 2008 will be to accelerate this expansion, in part by supporting large- scale infrastructure projects like enlarging national, regional, and intercontinental road networks, which will boost agricultural and industrial expansion.

My organization, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) recognizes, however, that a fully integrated approach to development assistance is vital. Thus, while we support economic expansion we are also paying greater attention to the grassroots, to the concept of ‘human security’, which emphasizes that communities and individuals should play a greater role in projects in such fields as health care and education which directly shape their lives.

Domestic developments in Japan will, of course, influence development assistance to Africa. JICA’s own project budget for the continent has increased by 15 percent for fiscal 2008 to approximately USD 260 million . This is encouraging, although the fact that official development assistance (ODA) has at the same time been decreasing is not.

While Japan remains the world’s second largest economy, the government faces major fiscal constraints at home, and it is within this difficult environment that we must try to reverse the recent downward trends in development assistance. ODA for 2007 was USD 7.69 billion. Though it will be difficult to get this budget increased, I am not just hoping but insisting that it be done.

Later this year as part of a multi-year overhaul of the country’s entire ODA system, JICA and the soft loan section of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will merge. This will be good news for Africa, and probably the first effect will be easier and faster access for those African countries seeking soft loans to expand their economic base.

African countries are not content just to grow cocoa or coffee; they want to move on and expand their sciences, information technology expertise, and industries. In today’s world a country cannot improve its living standard by relying on farming alone but must also produce goods that create new sources of revenue.

The TICAD delegates will also examine two relatively recent crises. Because of a series of factors, the increases in global food prices in recent months are helping to trigger political instability, increased malnutrition, and poverty. There have been riots and protests in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Egypt, Mauritania, Mozambique, and other African countries.

Tens of millions of Africans already do not have enough to eat, and in the short term Africa will continue to suffer. There is a need for a series of emergency assistance mechanisms to bring prices down. Long term, say within a decade, with better production methods and private investments, Africa could enjoy an agricultural bonanza. My organization, for example, is currently involved in developing a new rice variety called Nerica, which is particularly suited to the continent and will significantly increase harvests.

Climate change is perhaps the most unpredictable crisis facing Africa. Development experts have been involved for a long time in education, health, and post-conflict reconstruction, but the long-term effects of global warming, rising sea levels, and other related phenomena present a whole new challenge.

Africa is making major strides. In what has been described as a ‘race against time’ to catch up with the rest of the world, Africa has begun to close the gap, but there is still much more to be done. Hopefully, both Africa and Japan as well will benefit from the forthcoming developments in 2008. No country, including Japan, can prosper alone in this age of interdependence. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

 
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