An instructor teaches an industrial robotics class at the Senegal-Japan Vocational Training Center in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo: Shinichi Kuno/JICA)
By providing an opportunity for high-level policy dialogue, the Japan-led TICAD has become a major global platform through which African countries, as well as international stakeholders, can collaborate to promote Africa’s development.
The Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) will be held on August 27 and 28, 2016, in Nairobi, Kenya. All the heads of state and government of Africa and their developed partners will meet for the first time in the world’s second-largest continent to discuss the progress of a series of Japan-led aid initiatives to speed up the growth and development of Africa.
Since its launch in 1993 by the Japanese government, in conjunction with the United Nations and the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA), TICAD has evolved into a major global and open forum for mobilizing and sustaining international support for Africa’s development under the principles of African “ownership” and international “partnership,” enabling Africa to determine its own goals and approaches.
One area of focus at TICAD VI will be how to empower young people and women, who are vital to sustainable and resilient growth in Africa. The Japanese government has invested heavily in human resource development in the continent, while working together with local counterparts to build infrastructure, ensure health, and promote human security.
ABE Initiative Internship Program
As an example, the African Business Education (ABE) Initiative for Youth, which the Japanese government proposed at the last TICAD in 2013, is providing opportunities for 1,000 young African men and women to study master’s courses at Japanese universities and to gain work experience through internships at Japanese companies. Under the five-year ABE program, Japan is inviting young African adults aged 22–39 years to Japan to help them acquire skills and knowledge that they can use for the benefit of their own countries after returning home. The program has enjoyed a good reputation among participants. Godfrey Mwema, who came from Tanzania to study policy science at a university in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, did a summer internship at a used car exporting company located west of Tokyo. Mwema told the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a main facilitator of the ABE initiative, that he not only learned business workflow but also gained ideas about why the Japanese work ethic and etiquette, such as being punctual, working as a team, and maintaining product quality, are so important for business success.
Kenyan participant Antony Ndirangu, who worked at the same company as an intern, said that he was impressed with the Japanese spirit of hospitality and careful attention to detail and procedure. Ethiopian participant Yasuf Mohammed, who did an internship at a yuzu (citrus fruit) farming company located on the smallest of Japan’s four main islands, said that he was fascinated by the company’s efforts to involve all generations of islanders in revitalizing the local community by making a wide range of products by hand from organic yuzu fruit. After attending the program, Mohammed said that he was thinking of establishing his own company back home and working toward connecting and networking Ethiopia and Japan.
Senegal-Japan Vocational Training Center
Education for Capacity Building
To promote innovation and competitiveness in Africa, the Japanese government has provided assistance to higher education, with a focus on science and engineering. Many joint research projects between African and Japanese research institutes and universities are underway. The Applied Center for Climate and Earth System Science (ACCESS) in South Africa, for example, is developing an early-warning system for infectious diseases in Southern Africa by incorporating climate predictions, with Japanese partner institutions.
Enhancing primary and secondary education in Africa has also been one of Japan’s interests. The Japanese government pledged at the last TICAD that it would further provide quality education for 20 million children by expanding its “school for all” project, which seeks to support educational development through community participation, and its SMASE (“strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Education”) project, which aims to train teachers and thereby improve the academic performance of students. After training 20,000 secondary school mathematics and science teachers in Kenya, where Japan started the SMASE project in 1998, the classroom environment has changed remarkably, and students have become much more interested in these subjects. The SMASE project soon gained a significant attention at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa in 2002. The project focusing on mathematics and science has since been recognized even higher because computers, mobile communications, and medical technologies are the modern engines of commerce, prosperity, and public health. Believing that these subjects are the keys to unlocking Africa’s potential, Japan has plans to invite 800 government-sponsored educators from Africa between 2013 and 2017 and provide them with vocational training, such as enhancing their mathematics and science teaching skills.
Coalition for African Rice Development
Agriculture, nevertheless, is still indispensable to form the foundation of stable society, as it is by far the largest generator of employment and source of livelihood, accounting for 65%–70% of the labor force in most African countries. In the early 1990s, Japan successfully contributed to developing a variety of new types of nutritious rice that are suited to the natural conditions of each region in Africa, by working closely with African farmers and fully respecting their ownership. As a next step, Japan and its international partners established the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) at the fourth TICAD in 2008 to help double sub-Saharan Africa’s rice production levels to 28 million tons from 2008 to 2018. With the CARD’s coordinated efforts to promote rice-related policies, rice-cropping techniques, value chains, research, and human resource development, sub-Saharan Africa achieved annual rice production of 25.16 million tons in 2014, an achievement of approximately 74% of the target.
Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment Project
Capacity Building in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
More than 6,000 participants from Africa, Japan, and various international organizations are expected to attend TICAD VI to discuss sustainable and stable economic development in Africa. The Japanese government, which has hosted the past five TICADs, will make every possible effort to ensure the success of the first TICAD to be held on African soil.