Major Summit on future of Africa attracts continent's top leaders

Tokyo, 25 September 2003. More than 20 African Heads of State will gather in Tokyo from 29 September to 1 October for a crucial meeting on the continent’s future.

The third Tokyo International Conference on African Development, known as TICAD III, marks a decade since the Japanese government, in collaboration with the United Nations and The Global Coalition for Africa, first launched its effort to encourage international partnerships for Africa’s development, especially cooperation between Asia and Africa. The Conference will review progress over the last 10 years and is expected to identify new priorities for this important partnership.

In addition to national leaders TICAD III is drawing a broad range of participants from both the public and private sectors in Africa and Asia, donor countries, non-governmental organizations, academia and civil society. A central focus for the Tokyo deliberations will be the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the continent-wide development initiative formulated by African countries themselves and mandated by the recently constituted African Union.

Delegates to the conference are expected to endorse a TICAD Tenth Anniversary Declaration, pledging to support the principle of Africa’s ownership of the development process, as embedded in NEPAD. In anticipation of the agreement, the TICAD co-organizers said: “We believe that the TICAD Tenth Anniversary Declaration constitutes an important step forward in African development for the 21st century.”

Co-organizers of the conference with the Government of Japan are The Global Coalition for Africa, the Office of the UN’s Special Adviser on Africa, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. UNDP’s Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown said: “TICAD III offers a great opportunity to formulate an action plan for Africa led by Africans themselves. Through this important gathering we can prepare powerful advocacy and mobilize essential resources around NEPAD, and so open a new chapter in Africa’s development.”

Previous TICAD meetings—the opening conference in 1993 and a second gathering in 1998— fostered an ongoing process of international support for Africa, and a framework for building consensus on developmental priorities. Initiatives born out of the TICAD process have ranged from agriculture to high-tech industries. One ground-breaking example of Asia-Africa cooperation was the creation of a new high-yield, hybrid form of rice (known as NERICA) which combines characteristics of both Asian and African varieties, and which is now helping seven pilot countries in West Africa to generate a projected US$88 million a year in import savings.

TICAD-based initiatives have also boosted the spread of information and communications technologies in African countries, backed by expertise developed in Asia. The Global Coalition for Africa’s Executive Secretary, Hage Geingob, commented: “To leapfrog into the knowledge society Africa needs enhanced access to information technology and knowhow. TICAD III can help us identify just where and how to concentrate our efforts to improve the rate of IT transfer.”

This year’s run-up to TICAD III was marked by a series of wide-ranging consultations throughout Africa, beginning with a senior officials' meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March. Critical input for the consultation process came from three Regional Workshops—held in Pretoria, South Africa for the Southern Africa region in May, in Nairobi, Kenya, for East and North Africa in early June, and in Yaounde, Cameroon for West and Central Africa in late June.

During the TICAD III preparations Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the Diet: “Japan will play a major role towards the resolution of important issues including sustainable development, poverty and infectious diseases.” Mr. Koizumi also warned “There will be no stability and prosperity in the world in the 21st century unless the problems of Africa are resolved.”

The regional workshops helped set the Tokyo conference’s agenda, agreeing on priorities such as the need to consolidate peace throughout the continent and improve governance, at the same time as promoting agriculture—which delegates spotlighted as an indispensable engine for Africa’s economic growth.

Other priorities the workshops endorsed for the Tokyo conference included the vigorous involvement of the private sector, building up national and regional infrastructures, strengthening human resources, mobilizing action against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and improving water supplies.

For more information, please contact: Nicholas Gouede, UNDP Communications Office, New York; tel. 1+212 906 6801 or in Tokyo at (011) 81 9020 267 253; e-mail: nicholas.gouede@undp.org; David Tereshchuk, UNDP Communications Office, New York; tel. 1+212 906 5371; e-mail: david.tereshchuk@undp.org; Akiko Fujii, UNDP Tokyo Office; tel. (81) 3 5467 4752; e-mail: akiko.fujii@undp.org

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