TICAD: Unpacking Japan’s unique development link ahead of the eighth edition

Barely one week from now, the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), will be hosted in Tunisia on August 27 and 28, making it the first edition of the forum since the outbreak of Covid-19 grappled global economies.The forum comes at a time when Africa, like other continents, faces different challenges including adverse impact of the pandemic, disruption to economic systems and supply chains caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.However, by maintaining the conference despite the current toll and the recent apparition of new variants on the African continent, the government of Japan and other co-organisers of the conference are sending a strong message of solidarity.Through an interactive discussion between Maruo Shin, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Rwanda Office, alongside Prof. Charles Murigande, former Ambassador of Rwanda to Japan, The New Times learned of the birth and evolution of TICAD8.The officials pondered of the progress of TICAD past editions and mull ways to utilise technology, innovation and digital transformation to ensure human security and sustainable development for both African governments and Japan.Murigande, who has been part of many past editions of TICAD, appreciated the contribution of this forum to raising and sustaining the world's interest for Africa's development and has somehow inspired the birth of similar forums between Africa and other countries and continents such as China, Russia, Turkiya and Europe. He highlighted the circumstances in which the Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD) was launched.He recalled that it was in 1993 in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin wall and the disintegration of the USSR, the start of close collaboration between the Western world and the former Eastern Europe countries.Progressively Africa was losing the attention of its traditional development partners. In addition to that situation, it was also after many years of implementation of structural adjustment by the Bretton Woods institution which had caused tremendous suffering on the African continent.Japan had the idea of convening this conference and associated UNDP and the Global Coalition for Africa (CFA). They launched the first TICAD in 1993. As he said it would be really proper to recognise that initiative taken by Japan, which again really galvanised the interest of developed countries for the African continent.He appreciated the fact that from its inception, TICAD has consistently and continually been characterised by the principle of ownership according to which Africa's development must be driven by Africans themselves. The respective African governments should be the ones deciding what to do to spearhead their development. The second principle that has also characterised TICAD is that of partnership, whereby development partners come to support Africa in that effort of driving its own development. And for these two principles to be effective, there was need for open and inclusive discussion, thus the expansion of participants to include not only all major development partners of Africa but also Africa private sector and the civil society.He also mentioned that all the previous TICAD editions had a specific emphasis on the African continent learning from the development journey of South and Southeast Asian countries, because these countries were almost at the same level of development or same level of poverty as Africa in early 1960s. But by the first TICAD, many of these countries had made tremendous strides in their development.Both officials continued the discussion reflecting on involvement of the private sector in TICAD, JICA’s role as an in-between agency between the Japanese and African private sectors through ABE initiative and AfCFTA and the way forward.Shin:It has now been 29 years since the first TICAD, and in the process, different themes have dominated respective editions. I understand that the first three were mainly government-to-government cooperation. But gradually the recent editions have been involving the private sectors . What role has this played for the forum to achieve its goal?Murigande:You pointed out the fact that the first few TICAD editions focused on on what development partners and African governments could do spur Africa’s development. But even though they weren’t involving private sector, their resolutions always recognized it as the best driver of economic growth and development.Maybe what happened at the time was that the forum focused on what African governments could do to create enabling conditions for a private sector to emerge and be vibrant, this included things like; what regulatory framework, what support, what laws should be put in place, among others.With time, participants in TICAD process realised that it would be more productive to involve the private sector in the dialogue on what enabling environment governments should create for the private sector to become a real engine of development.Therefore, from the early 2000, TICAD really started involving the private sector, through inviting African companies and Japanese companies. Maybe it was also after realising that though we've been talking about private sector involvement in the development of the African continent, there was limited numbers of Japanese private companies investing in Africa.Shin:Despite these efforts however, the reality is, the presence of Japanese private firms is still low if we compare it with other countries. While we expect more involvement of such firms on the continent, what would you say is the missing link and how can we facilitate more Japanese firms to pick interest to invest on the African continent?Murigande:From my own experience in Japan, I realised that many Japanese companies are ignorant of Africa. Actually, it was the biggest challenge we had as ambassadors to Japan. For most Japanese companies we encouraging to go to Africa, they were always arguing that Africa was a far-off and risky continent. So we would argue with them, assuring them that even though that was the situation in the 1960s and 1970s, today it takes 16 to 20 hours to travel from Tokyo to Kigali, which is reasonable and comparable to what it takes to travel to Latin America where they were investing massively. We would also add that though Africa may be portrayed as a risky continent it is at the same time a place where the return on investment is the highest in the world. Furthermore, we were encouraging to not consider Africa as one country but as a continent with 54 countries, many of them with stable governments, advanced and sophisticated business laws, reliable judicial systems, and excellent doing business environments.That's when we started seeing business delegations with big companies coming to African countries with the encouragement and facilitation of both JICA and Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shin chips inAs far as the private sector involvement is concerned, JICA also tries to facilitate Japanese private firms to do their business in Africa particularly in Rwanda. We have special scheme for the private partnership in which we encourage Japanese private farms to do their feasibility study on business opportunities in the African continent through providing financial support to their proposals.Through the feasibility study, we expect them to find business opportunities in the country. In addition, we collect and share information on Rwandan business environment including incentives, value chain of local products as well as local companies in different sectors to partner with.We are now planning to organise an on-line business seminar in early September, where we will have panel discussions with Japanese private firms operating in the country, to address the business opportunities in the country.For Rwanda specifically, what has been the take home from previous TICAD editions?Murigande:One of the beneficial aspects of TICAD is that at each of its editions, participants discuss areas of priorities for Africa’s development to focus on and agree on an action plan. African governments can then enter into discussion with Japan on the actual projects to be implemented within that agreed upon Action Plan. For instance, at TICAD V, Japanese Government through the late Prime Minister Abe, announced big human resource development plan- ABE (Africa Business Education) initiative- in which Japan was going to provide scholarship program for more than 1000 African youth for the next 5 years. A new element introduced in the initiative was to give ABE scholars to have opportunities for internship in Japanese companies.This was in line with the effort of developing Japanese private sector interest in the African private sector. When that happened, I remember pushing my colleagues at JICA to make sure that Rwandans are included in the first cohort of ABE Scholars to arrive in Japan. And we achieved that, and actually Rwanda is one of the countries that has always had ABE scholars since then.-----Shin chips inThis is the first TICAD happening since the Covid-19 pandemic took a toll on global economies. The discussion will include resilient society and economy as well as digital and green transformation.This will also be the first TICAD since the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which bloc is also set to be included in the coming discussions.Murigande:I am of the view that Japan cannot solve all our problems, therefore JICA can’t be involved in all sectors. Actually that is also thinking of the government.When it is dealing with development partners, it tries to identify two or three sectors a development partner should invest in because it has a competitive advantage. So far JICA, has been involved in key strategic sectors, which in my opinion are still strategic for our development even in the aftermath of Covid-19. Indeed, we still need to train skilled labour, develop our transport, water, irrigation and energy infrastructure.Shin:In our cooperation with Rwanda, we shall continue our involvement in some areas, while gradually change our cooperation approach in line with the development journey of Rwanda. We would like to continue the capacity enhancement approach, which contribute to the human resources development in Rwanda.Further, we would be happy if we can facilitate Rwandan initiative to support neighbouring countries’ socio-economic development using her knowledge and experience.Japan and Africa are constantly continuing their dialogue on development through this process. We are learning from Africa through this process and Africa is also learning from Japan. We learn from each other and get to know each other, build a relationship of mutual trust for a better impact.-Interview END-In light of the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8*1) to be held August 27-28 in Tunisia, JICA will host 26 side events to discuss a wide range of topics including agriculture, climate change, education, regional integration, health/vaccines among others. The events will be held from August 22 to 26 online. Leaders and experts from Africa, international organisations and Japan will take the stage to discuss the challenges that Africa is currently facing, and their solutions.The dates, times and outlines of each event are as follows:Information on JICA-Sponsored Side Events: https://ticad8event.jica.go.jp/en/index.html

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TICAD: Unpacking Japan’s unique development link ahead of the eighth edition