The Tokyo agenda for action: A review of Japan's new strategy on African development

Abstract

A high-level international conference, the second Tokyo International Conference on African Development, (TICAD II) took place in Tokyo from 19 to 21 October 1998. It was a follow-up to the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD I) of October 1993. Like the 1993 Conference, the Government of Japan was largely responsible for the organisation of TICAD II. Other co-sponsors of the conference included the United Nations Office of Special Co-ordinator for Africa and least Developed Countries (UNOSCAL), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA).1 Participants at the Conference included official delegation from all but three African states2 (Libya, Sudan and Somalia), 11 Asian countries3, 16 donor countries4 and several international organisations (MFA 1998a:20). Organised as a non-aid pledging conference, TICAD II is the largest international gathering to deal exclusively with the problem and challenges of African development in the 21st Century. At the end of the Conference on 21 October 1998, The Tokyo Agenda for Action: African Development towards the 21st Century, hereafter referred to as the Tokyo Agenda was adopted. Formulated by the Government of Japan with inputs from 24 other countries and international organisations, the Agenda emanated from the Preparatory Committee of the Conference that met in Dakar, Tokyo and Addis Ababa between March 1998 and September 1998 (Ibid.). The decisions of the Preparatory Committee were in turn derived from the recommendations of the various TICAD II regional workshops that were held in Harare, Ouagadougou and Windhoek between 1995 and 1998. The Tokyo Agenda is a policy blueprint for poverty reduction in Africa and for increased integration of Africa into the global economy. It stressed the question of ownership by African countries of their development process and focused attention on policy co-ordination, regional integration, South-South (Asia-Africa) co-operation, and capacity building (MFA 1998). Priority areas identified in the Agenda for enhancing African development in

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