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Africa: After China, India, Japan Calls On Continent
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New Vision (Kampala)
4 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
Felix Osike
Kampala
WORLD economic powers are jostling to establish a strong presence in Africa.
This month, African leaders will head to Yokohama, Japan, for a conference on African development known as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which Japan convenes once every five years.
Over 50 leaders have been invited for the conference, which will take place from May 28-30.
Resolutions from the conference will be passed on to the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries summit, which will take place in July on the island of Hakkaido in the northern most part of Japan. Japan has been courting Africa since 1993 through technical and financial assistance.
In 2006, China hosted about 50 African leaders, displaying a robust relationship centered on oil and aid.
Early this year, India also hosted African leaders and promised duty-free imports from the world's least-developed countries, 34 of which are in Africa. India is an emerging economic powerhouse and trades with a number of African countries.
But its interest in Africa is seen in part as an attempt to counter Chinese influence. Japan is about to launch a new assistance package for African countries.
Japan believes international peace, security and prosperity cannot be achieved unless Africa's problems are solved.
Japan is providing assistance to African countries through the TICAD process, which focuses on African ownership and worldwide partnership.
The TICAD conference is expected to create a blue print for infrastructure development in Africa, an engine of growth.
There is a saying in Japan that: "Kindness to others helps more than just others." In other words, what goes round comes around and the good deed is never lost.
Based on the successful experience in Asia, Japan has focused on poverty reduction through economic growth. TICAD was launched in 1993 at a time of "aid fatigue" sentiment for African nations as well as donor countries.
The conference will focus on unprecedented political and economic changes that have taken place in African countries lately. It will discuss how to shore up a "vibrant Africa" by mobilising knowledge and resources of the international community.
The three priorities will boost economic growth in Africa by making it self sustaining and pro-poor and ensuring human security by assisting in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. They will also help with the consolidation of peace and address environmental issues and climate change. The increase in engagement of developed countries in Africa is due to many factors.
Africa has a population of almost two billion and is rich in natural resources including the much sought after oil. It has a huge potential for development0. What it lacks is infrastructural development and investment capital.
Twenty-three African countries are considered good performers and have maintained a growth rate of over 5% from 2005 to 2007. These countries, whose growth is led by export of natural resources, include Nigeria, DR Congo, Sudan, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zambia, Botswana and Equatoria Guinea.
Uganda, Egypt, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, Kenya and Mozambique had their growths led by stable macro-economic policies.
But the challenges facing the continent are poverty, food shortages and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, climate change and a soaring unemployment rate.
Japan contributes to conflict resolution, prevention and peace building.
In order to support humanitarian crises and peace building so as to consolidate peace in Africa, Japan has committed $264m in aid. This is expected to address drought and floods that ravaged much of Africa last year.
Japan will start helping peace keeping training centres that operate across the continent.
Japan draws its experience from its role in Asia. The Japanese minister for foreign affairs, Masahiko Koumura, contends that Asia became vibrant not long ago because of two factors.
The economic and technical cooperation and investment from Japan.
Koumura also notes that there are Asian countries which received aid, but have emerged as donor countries, contributing to African development.
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Japan has come to the conviction that what Asia has achieved must be achievable in Africa.
Japan has her own ideas about development assistance. There is a belief in Tokyo that development assistance must not be charity, that bread must be handed out to the needy who are hungry. Placing importance on self-help projects so that they can stand on their own is a way of thinking of all Japanese.
That is why almost all Japanese assistance to Uganda is directly injected into community projects and not budgetary support, which is subject to abuse. It is through this that Africans can get a chance to escape the permanent emergency situation they live in.
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