From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #2 (July 2003), page 17

Building on the 'Dakar-Tokyo axis'

Senegal lauds Japan's spirit of partnership with Africa

Joining a growing army of compatriots active in Africa, 21 new Japanese volunteers officially took up their duties in Dakar, Senegal, on 23 May. Like some 500 other Japanese youths already working in agriculture, health, education and related development activities in Senegal, they are a concrete expression of a "strengthened Dakar-Tokyo axis," Senegal's Director of Technical Cooperation Pape Birama Thiam said during the ceremony.

Many of the volunteers already in Senegal have learned local languages -- Wolof, Serere and Pulaar, among others -- and live alongside villagers in poor rural communities throughout the country. Among other things, they help rural women's associations develop irrigated market gardens, train villagers in the production of organic fertilizers and provide information on HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

Photo : ©Japan International Cooperation Agency

This Dakar-Tokyo relationship, said Mr. Thiam, is a reflection of Japan's support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the continental development strategy adopted by African leaders in 2001. Mr. Konishi Kiyofumi, resident representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), made the same point, noting that Japan's assistance to Senegal is part of a broader orientation to Africa which focuses on meeting basic human needs, following the approach mapped out at the 1998 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

"Now that NEPAD has been widely adopted," said Mr. Kiyofumi, "the basic policy of Japan will be to expand its partnership with Africa, to support NEPAD within the framework of the TICAD process and to open a new chapter in the history of relations between Africa and Asia."

Raising Africa's profile

The third TICAD conference -- a decade after the first one in 1993 -- will take place in Tokyo from 29 September to 1 October. Co-sponsored by the government of Japan, the UN and the World Bank, it will draw delegations from virtually every African country, African regional organizations, much of Asia, the major donor countries and key international aid and development institutions. It comes at a time when much of the international community's attention is focused on crises in other parts of the world, and is aimed at raising Africa's profile on the global agenda.

"There will be no stability and prosperity in the world in the 21st century unless the problems of Africa are resolved," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi emphasized during a 12-14 May visit to Tokyo by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. Both NEPAD and TICAD featured prominently in the discussions between the two leaders, and President Wade praised Japan for its lasting partnership with Africa.

One of the central features of NEPAD -- its insistence on African leadership in the continent's development process -- was one of the original themes of the TICAD process at its inception a decade ago.

During the second conference in October 1998, Prime Minister Koizumi noted, Japan pledged to provide Africa with the equivalent of US$750 mn over a five-year period, specifically for helping meet basic human needs. Of that amount, nearly $700 mn has already been disbursed. This has been only one component of Japanese assistance to sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, which totalled $932 mn in 2000 alone, making Japan the region's fourth largest donor, after France, the UK and the US.

Roads and rice

The Japanese prime minister, in accord with NEPAD, emphasized the importance of infrastructure, declaring that this year Japan will begin providing about $1 bn in aid to help develop Africa's roads, railways, ports, electricity systems and information and communications networks. Mr. Koizumi added that he considers it "very important for Africa to raise agricultural productivity and to extricate itself from reliance on imported food." Toward that end, Japan will continue to support the development and dissemination of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA), a hardy, high-output cross between an African and an Asian rice strain.

Beyond aid, Mr. Koizumi went on, Japan would cancel up to $3 bn in aid-related debt owed to Japan by African countries. And to facilitate investment by Japanese companies in Africa, the government will provide up to $300 mn in overseas investment loans.

President Wade noted the value of increased investments during his Tokyo visit. At a meeting with Keidanren, the main Japanese employers' association, he appealed to "businessmen to invest in Senegal and Africa."

Japanese businesses are indeed interested in Senegal, said Mr. Satoru Anzaki, chairman of Keidanren's commission on sub-Saharan Africa. "Senegal is known today for the quality of its infrastructure, especially its port facilities, for its incontestable leadership and stability and for the decisive role that it plays in promoting NEPAD."

Throughout his visit, President Wade stressed that he was not promoting only his own country, but the African continent. This is in line with NEPAD's regional vision. "It is necessary above all," Mr. Wade said, "to break with a national logic," adding that Africa's previous preoccupation with national plans was one factor in the failure of earlier continent-wide development initiatives. But through NEPAD, the Senegalese president said, Africans and their international partners should begin thinking in terms of action at the regional level, and ultimately on a continental scope.

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