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Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD)

By providing an opportunity for high-level policy dialogue, TICAD has become a major global platform through which Asian and African nations, as well as international stakeholders, can collaborate to promote Africa’s development. UN Photo/Tim McKulka

The Conferences

Preparations for TICAD-VI

The Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-VI) will be held from 27 to 28 August 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Office of the Special Advider on Africa (OSAA) is currently working closely with all the other TICAD co-organizers and the Government of Kenya towards a successful organization of the momentous TICAD-VISummit. TICAD-VI will be a milestone of the TICAD process, since it will be the first-ever TICAD Summit to be held in the African continent in its over 20 years of history.

Holding TICAD-VI in Africa clearly demonstrates growing African ownership in the TICAD process and has been attracting much attention from African states and all TICAD partners, such as the international organizations, including the United Nations System and regional organizations, such as the African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), as well as civil society and the private sector. The highest-level representations from African states and TICAD partners are expected at TICAD-VI.

TICAD-VI will also take place at an opportune moment, as the year 2016 is the first year of the implementations of the global and regional development agendas, namely the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 and its First Ten-Year Implementation Plan. Being fully in line with these development agendas, TICAD-VI plan to discuss some thematic issues that Africa has been facing since the last TICAD-V in Yokohama, Japan in 2013, which include:

• industrialization,
• health, and
• social stability, among other things.

Furthermore, taking into consideration of the growing role that the private sector plays in promoting socioeconomic development TICAD-VI plans to feature the private sector from Africa and Japan.

Background

The Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD) was launched in 1993 by the Government of Japan, to promote Africa’s development, peace and security, through the strengthening of relations in multilateral cooperation and partnership, particularly with the country.

Coming at a time when aid fatigue had become apparent, the launch of TICAD was catalytic for refocusing international attention on Africa’s development needs. In the course of the past 20 years, TICAD has evolved into a major global and open and multilateral forum for mobilizing and sustaining international support for Africa’s development under the principles of African "ownership" and international "partnership.

Japan co-hosted TICAD conferences in:

• 1993 (TICAD I) ,
• 1998 (TICAD II) ,
• 2003 (TICAD III) ,
• 2008 (TICAD IV) , and
• 2013 (TICAD V) .

The First TICAD-V Ministerial Meeting was held in Yaoundé, the Republic of Cameroon in May 2014.

TICAD contributes to the facilitation and promotion of high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and Africa’s development partners on issues pertaining to economic growth, trade and investment, sustainable development, human security, peace and stability and government. Being a multilateral partnership, TICAD process also actively promotes South-South and triangular cooperation, in addition to traditional cooperation.

OSAA’s Role

In light of its mandate, the Office of Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) is one of the five co-organizers of TICAD. The other co-organizers are:

• The Government of Japan ,
• The African Union Commission (AUC) ,
• The World Bank , and
• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) .

OSAA and the other TICAD co-organizers continue to increasingly engage the private sector and civil society in the TICAD process. Furthermore, they are closely monitoring the implementation of the Yokohama Action Plan 2013-2017 , which is one of the outcome documents of the TICAD V Summit in Yokohama , Japan, in May 2013.

In May 2014, OSAA, along with Japan, the AUC, UNDP and the World Bank, co-organized the first ministerial meeting of the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in May 2014. The meeting endorsed the implementation matrix of the Yokohama Action Plan 2013-2017. The Matrix contains 617 concrete development initiatives of African institutions and development partners, composed of 57 countries/organizations that plan to implement these initiatives by the end of 2017. OSAA, in collaboration with the AUC, particularly focuses its follow-up of Pillar 6 "Consolidating Peace, Stability, Democracy and Good Governance" of the Yokohama Action Plan.

On 2 June 2013, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-V) and urged integration of Africa into the global economy. Read the UN News story about TICAD-V. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.

Impact

Besides their strong focus on trade, investment and technical cooperation, Africa’s partnerships, including TICAD, have paid growing attention to the issues of peace and security, including peacekeeping, terrorism and organized crime.

For instance, as part of the TICAD-V framework, Japan committed to allocate $26 million to support the consolidation of peace and stability in the Sahel Region. At the last TICAD-V in Yokohama in 2013, the Government of Japan pledged 32 billion USD in five years from then, with an emphasis on infrastructure and human resource development, based on African ownership and international partnership.

Japan has disbursed $3.5 billion in ODA to support the implementation of the matrix, representing 25 % of the $14 billion in ODA committed at the Conference, as a part of the overall $32 billion that was pledged.