Inter Press Service - May 28, 2008
Ramesh Jaura

But praise for Japan at the fourth round of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) that kicked off Wednesday in Japan's port city Yokohama near Tokyo did not come without a touch of criticism, particularly from Zimbabwe.

The admiration is for the fact that Japan, the world's second largest economy, initiated the 'TICAD process' in 1993, when focus on Africa's concerns was drifting. As Migiro points out, TICAD that is held every five years "helped rally Africa's development partners in a collective and forward-looking effort."

Former prime minister Yoshiro Mori initiated a dialogue between Africa and the world's major industrial countries at the Okinawa G8 summit in 2000.

Eight years later, Africa's development concerns will again be tabled by a Japanese Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, at the G8 summit in Hokkaido in Japan, scheduled July 7 to 9.

President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso joined the UN Deputy Secretary General in testifying to the TICAD conference being held May 28-30 that the process had enriched the policy dialogue based on the principle of African countries taking ownership of their development, and the international community supporting Africa's efforts.

"This is also the basis upon which the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was founded," Migiro told delegates. The delegates are from 52 African countries, 40 of them heads of state, representatives of 22 donor nations and the European Union (EU), and 12 Asian countries, besides officials from 16 African regional institutions and 55 international organisations.

While lauding Japan's decision to double its ODA in the next five years, bringing its annual aid to Africa from the current 900 million to 1.8 billion dollars by 2012, Migiro joined African leaders in pointing out that "donor countries must meet their commitments to increase the volume, quality and predictability of ODA."

Japanese officials say that though Tokyo continues to hold on to the UN goal of spending 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) on official development assistance (ODA), there is no plan to set a date for fulfilling the target.

Presently, only 0.17 percent of Japan's GNI goes for ODA.

Former prime minister Toshiki Kaifu (1989-1991), who founded Japan's volunteer corps to support developing countries, told IPS that it is much easier to convince people of the need for humanitarian assistance than for ODA to countries with which Japan has no historical ties. "But of course we must continue to pursue the goal."

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid expressed hope that more funds would be allotted to maternal health. Obaid warned that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved unless the lives, the health and the rights of women are promoted more vigorously.

"Maternal health underpins all the other MDGs, especially those to improve infant and child health, to empower women, and to attain gender equality," she said. "Only when women are healthy, educated and empowered can they lift their families and their nations from the depths of poverty, and place them on a firm stairway to development."

In his opening speech to the conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Fukuda made a strong link between improving reproductive health and achieving the MDGs.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the largest civil society organisation delivering sexual and reproductive health care in Africa, said that TICAD IV comes at the half-way point of the MDGs, and provides a real opportunity to address the lack of progress being made towards improving maternal and child health enshrined in MDGs 4, 5 and 6.

"The dialogue between African leaders and international development partners should help remove bottlenecks and scale up action," IPPF said in a statement.

The consensus reached through a broad consultative process leading up to TICAD IV is that there are a number of policy recommendations and 'windows of opportunity for action' that could favourably be supported to realise the vision of a 'Vibrant Africa' over the next five years, IPPF said.

The Japanese government won some nuanced praise from Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Simbarashe S. Mumbengegwi for offering "a valuable platform for genuine policy dialogue free from the prescription-based approach."

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister commended "the people and government of Japan" for taking the lead in the global efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing 500 million dollars in 2000 which became seed money for the Global Aids Fund."

He added: "However, when they made this selfless gesture, the government and people of Japan were not aware that the Global Aids Fund would one day be used as a political weapon with which to sanction some developing countries for unjustified political reasons."

Since the launch of the Fund, Zimbabwe has received assistance from it only twice in the nine disbursements made so far. Besides, Mumbengegwi said, the amounts that were disbursed to Zimbabwe on those two occasions were paltry in comparison to what was given to other countries in the region.

The average per capita aid for Zimbabwe is only four dollars compared to 124 dollars for the region. "It is regrettable that the Global Aids Fund has been politicised," Mumbengegwi said.

But a senior Japanese official did not appear to be optimistic about aid to Zimbabwe. Japan has an ODA charter which lays down three important criteria for recipients of ODA, he said. These are the rule of law, human rights, and good governance.

"Unless these criteria are fulfilled, we cannot provide ODA; our parliamentarians and people would not understand," the official said.

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+ DEVELOPMENT: Japan Makes a New Push Towards Africa (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42546)

+ JAPAN TAKES PROMINENT ROLE IN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (http://ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=42170)

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