The Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD II), to be held on 19-21 October, is expected to adopt an Agenda for Action that will focus on issues of serious concern to Africa, including the development of infrastructure, the solution of Africa's external debt problem and support to Africa's industrial development.
TICAD II, which will provide a programme of action for Africa's development in the next millennium, is primarily sponsored by Japan and supported by the OAU. Other co-organizers of the conference include the UN and the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA).
The conference is also expected
to adopt an effective and pragmatic framework for fostering cooperation
between African and Asian countries, including Japan. Though without a colonial
heritage in Africa, Japan spends the second largest share of its official
development assistance (ODA) in the continent, amounting to more than one
billion dollars a year since 1994. It is also the only country to organize
a major conference on African development at the summit level.
Emphasizing the critical importance of this Asia-Africa cooperation in TICAD II, Ms. Kimiko Uno, a senior economist in the UN Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries, says African countries can learn and benefit a lot from Asia. "Asian countries have developed from scratch, and whatever their ups and downs are today, they have important lessons for Africa. They also have skills and technologies that are relatively less expensive, compared to those from developed countries."
This concern with stronger South-South cooperation is in keeping with the objectives of the first TICAD held in Tokyo in October 1993. That conference came out with the Tokyo Declaration on African Development, which stressed the need for African ownership of the continent's development process and gave a strong push for Africa-Asia cooperation. Strengthening African ownership is also a key element of UN activities in the continent, notably the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s and the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. Countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have also adopted a similar operating philosophy.
Preparation for TICAD II began with a conference held in Tokyo on 10-11 November 1997 to review the progress made since TICAD I. The meeting reached a consensus on the areas of cooperation on which the Agenda for Action will focus. These include the priority areas identified by African countries, and where targets can be set and strategies defined for implementation.
Conference participants agreed that the development of the capacity of African countries to solve their own problems, and to set and implement national priorities, is critical in making development internally self-generating and sustainable.
They also said that not only traditional donors but also many rapidly growing Asian countries should play a role in Africa's development. They stated that intra-regional and inter-regional cooperation, including triangular arrangements involving African, Asian and donor countries, were important strategies in furthering African development. And while better donor coordination is essential to ensure effective use of resources, participants emphasized that recipient countries should also play a greater role in determining the use of those resources.
The conference set up a preparatory committee to work on the Agenda for Action. Committee members include the OAU, the African Development Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Community. It also includes eight African countries, two Asian countries, and five donor countries. Japan, the UN and the GCA are also members.
The preparatory committee has held meetings in Dakar and Harare in March and June to draft the Agenda for Action. Its last meeting in Addis Ababa is scheduled for September to finalize the draft. So far the preparatory committee has endorsed the key concepts of the Agenda for Action -- strengthening coordination, regional cooperation, South-South cooperation, capacity building and gender development.
Two regional workshops have also been held to provide opportunities for
African countries, especially those that are not members of the Preparatory
Committee, to contribute to the preparatory process. The regional workshop
for West and Central Africa was held on 18-20 May in Burkina Faso, and the
one for East and Southern Africa in Namibia on 15-17 June 1998. The workshops,
attended by representatives of African and Asian governments, have also
provided opportunities for African and Asian countries to exchange ideas
and promote partnerships.
