DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN: After Aiding Asia, Japan Looks to Africa

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 1 1998 (IPS) - After lending a helping hand to its Asian neighbours, Japan is looking beyond its backyard and stepping up overseas aid to Africa this year.

In fact, the Japanese government is hosting a two-day conference on Africa in November, called the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD II).

“We would like to renew our commitment to Africa this year,” said Yoriko Suzuki, a foreign ministry official involved in organising the conference. “Japan is very concerned with development in the region.”

The Africa conference will bring together representatives of 47 of Africa’s 53 countries, 11 Asian non-donor countries, 14 donor governments and other regional donors as well.

Salim Admed Salim, secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity, visited Japan early this month in preparation for the November meet.

The first such conference was held five years ago. This year’s meeting is being organised by Japan with the United Nations and the Global Coalition for Africa, a U.S.-based non-governmental organisation.

“There has not been enough progress in Africa recorded between the first conference held in Tokyo and the upcoming one,” Suzuki said. Thus, the November meeting will try to see “where we have failed and to reinforce our efforts towards development in the region”.

Japan, the world’s top donor, extended 13 percent of its budget for official development assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa last year, up from 12.8 percent in 1996. The bulk of this aid consists of grants with special terms, since many African aid recipients cannot meet normal repayment conditions.

Traditionally, the bulk of Japan’s aid pie has gone to its own region. Developing Asia gets more than 60 percent of Japan’s aid funds, most of it loans used for infrastructure schemes to help recipient countries attract more foreign investment. Japan pro vides official aid to 28 countries in Asia and 47 in Africa.

But while Japan’s aid to Africa will also touch on traditional assistance schemes, officials say political stability in the African continent will be a major priority. Regional and internal conflicts have been a major cause of poverty in many countries.

As deputy foreign minister Kazuo Ogata said recently on the issue of aid to Africa, “social woes such as terrorism and epidemics are deeply rooted in poverty”.

At the same time, he said Japan had a responsibility to help more needy nations. “If we do not solve Africa’s profound poverty problem, the very base of international society could become threatened.”

“Restoring peace is an important part of economic development and bringing democracy will be a major part of the discussion (in November),” Suzuki said.

Officials hope the thrust on anti-poverty efforts will help rationalise the use of Japan’s aid funds, given their declining levels. Japan decided to reduce its official development assistance budget by 10.9 percent in fiscal 1998, which begins in April.

Its aid budget stands at 8.25 billion U.S. dollars.

Japan takes pride in the fact that its aid to South-east Asia has helped that region post record economic growth rates in the past decades. A growing shift of aid policy toward Africa is being made with the same vision, aid analysts say.

The first Tokyo conference on Africa focused on development through aid through “self-help” efforts of African countries. This year’s meeting will also stress education, conflict management, private sector development, agriculture and issues such as ge nder and environment. Democracy and peace toward development will also be emphasised.

Suzuki adds that the need to strengthen the social sector to attain high and sustained growth will be a theme of the conference.

Ichiro Inukai, an expert on Africa at the International University, says the upcoming conference highlights Tokyo’s increasing efforts to improve the quality of its overseas aid programmes instead of merely focusing on volume of aid.

“With the decision to reduce its ODA budget this year given Japan’s recession, there is a growing mood to make ODA disbursements more quality of assistance rather than the quantity,” Inukai said.

He says developing Asian countries will continue to get most of Tokyo’s aid funds because of reasons of geography and their economic links with Japan. But “there is a shift to develop the poorer countries”, he said.

After all, Inukai explained, “No longer is Japan going to be the unchallenged top donor as its economic woes linger longer. The (November) conference will be a landmark in this sense as well.”

DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN: After Aiding Asia, Japan Looks to Africa

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 1 1998 (IPS) - After lending a helping hand to its Asian neighbours, Japan is looking beyond its backyard and stepping up overseas aid to Africa this year.
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