Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2007
Next PageMain Text > Part II ODA RECORD FOR FY2006 > Chapter 2 Details about Japan's Official Development Assistance > Section 3. Assistance for Each Region > 4. Africa (Sub-Sahara)
4. Africa (Sub-Sahara)
< Record for FY2006 >
Japan's bilateral assistance to the Sub-Sahara African region in 2006 was approximately US$2,558.19 million, 34.2% of total bilateral ODA.
< Features of Africa >
Africa is a region in which issues such as serious poverty, conflicts, hunger, infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and accumulated debt are concentrated, and it is a region which has an extremely low achievement rate for the MDGs. Japan believes that ownership on the part of developing countries is the key to achieving the MDGs. This ownership includes the establishment of stable political system and environments, human resource development, good governance, the management of sound macro-economic policies, and the mobilization of domestic financial resources. This ownership should be supported by partnerships among the international community which include bilateral donors, international organizations, and NGOs.
Based on the efforts of TICAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was formulated in 2001 at the initiative of Africa. Details of TICAD efforts will follow in this section. NEPAD aims for the poverty reduction, sustainable growth and development, and the integration of Africa with the global economy, without depending on the aid from the international community. At present, one of the important pillars of NEPAD is the development of a mechanism (APRM)8 for performing mutual evaluations and sharing experiences concerning governance in politics, economy and private sector business activities by the countries of Africa. Furthermore, in 2002 the African Union (AU) was established as an expansion and reorganization of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU was founded with the goals of achieving greater unity and collaboration among the countries and peoples of Africa, as well as expediting the political, economic, and social integration of Africa, among others.
With respect to maintaining peace in each region, the AU is expanding its activities for problems in the region with its ownership, including the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), which is the first joint mission by the UN and regional organizations, and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
< Japan's Efforts >
Since 1993, through TICAD held every five years, Japan has promoted the importance of ownership by African countries and the partnerships in the international community that support the ownership. This initiative by Japan serves to strengthen the efforts of the international community toward African development. The dialogue between G8 leaders and African leaders (the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, and Algeria) held at the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in 2000 was followed in the subsequent G8 summit process. Later, actions such as the adoption of the G8 Africa Action Plan at the 2002 G8 Kananaskis Summit, the agreement on a series of new Africa aid measures at the G8 Gleneagles Summit held in July 2005, and the agreement on aid measures for Africa's sustainable growth at the G8 Heiligendamm Summit in June 2007 indicate that African issues have become one of the main agendas at G8 summits in recent years.
At TICAD III in September 2003, then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Japan's initiative for assistance for Africa based on the three pillars, namely "human-centered development," "poverty reduction through economic growth," and the "consolidation of peace." He also clearly stated Japan's perspective of human security and its intention to place emphasis on South-South Cooperation whereby developing countries in which development is comparatively advanced provide assistance to developing countries where development is not advancing. Japan has subsequently worked to further discussions on each of the problems faced by Africa, organizing the TICAD Asia-Africa Trade and Investment Conference (held in Tokyo, November 2004), the TICAD Conference on Peace Consolidation (held in Ethiopia in February 2006), and the TICAD Ministerial Conference on Energy and Environment for Sustainable Development (held in Kenya in March 2007).
Then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced at the Asia-Africa Summit held in April 2005 in Indonesia that Japan would host TICAD IV in 2008 and would double its assistance to Africa in the next three years, as well as to promote dissemination of Asian productivity movement to Africa. In accordance to such announcements, he visited Ethiopia and Ghana from April to May 2006 and delivered a policy speech on Africa at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia. In the speech he announced Japan's intention to proactively support Africa's efforts in areas like the consolidation of peace and health care. He also announced assistance for resolving the Darfur issue, countermeasures for small arms and light weapons, measures for counterterrorism, assistance for NEPAD, and Japan's Action Plan in Combating Infectious Diseases in Africa. With respect to propagation of the productivity movement, activities are being expanded through the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), and a roundtable conference assembling seven African countries9 was held in South Africa in 2006, at which a master plan for improving productivity in each country was adopted.10
Chart II-35. Japan's Assistance in the African Region
< Toward Achievement of the MDGs >
Ahead of the MDGs, Japan announced at TICAD II in 1998 that it would provide ¥90 billion in the areas of water resources, primary education and health and medical services. Over five years until TICAD III in 2003, Japan helped to develop access to safe water for 4.6 million people, develop access to education for 2.6 million children, and provide health and medical care to 240 million people, placing high consideration on the perspective of "human security." According to the MDGs report announced in July 2007, progress toward achieving the MDGs has been particularly slow in Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the percentage of the population living on less than one dollar per day was 41.4% in 2004, far larger than other regions (19.2% for developing countries as a whole). In addition, one out of 16 mothers die from treatable or preventable diseases associated with pregnancy and childbirth (one out of 3,800 people in developed countries). Achieving the MDGs in Africa thus will require continued effort by the international community as a whole.
< Progress in South-South Cooperation >
To promote the South-South Cooperation, Japan has been providing third-country training to neighboring countries by utilizing cooperation bases within Africa and has been implementing technical cooperation jointly with other Asian countries. In particular, the Asia-Africa Cooperation is highly regarded as unique cooperation that utilizes in Africa the experiences which Asian countries have achieved growth through the support of economic cooperation provided by Japan. Specifically, under this cooperation, distinctive projects are being implemented such as the Indonesian experts' agricultural supervision conducted in Madagascar, Malaysian proposals on improving investment environment in Zambia, and the promotion of private trade and investment through the Africa-Asia Business Forum and other means.
< Expansion of Aid Coordination in Africa >
In Africa, the aid coordination movement is progressing forward vigorously in countries including Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania. Aid coordination is a method whereby multiple donor countries and international organizations share a common development strategy with the governments of developing countries and extend cooperation under a harmonious assistance scheme. Japan, too, participates actively in this framework of assistance.
See PART I, Chapter 2, Section 1, PART II, Chapter 2, Section 2, Section 3, for trends for Aid Coordination
< Recent Trends >
In June 2005, Japan and the African Development Bank Group announced the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa (EPSA for Africa), a joint initiative whose purpose is to provide comprehensive assistance for the development of Africa's private sector in five main areas: creating an investment environment; strengthening the financial sector; building socioeconomic infrastructure; supporting small and medium sized enterprises; and promoting trade and direct investment. Under this EPSA for Africa initiative, assistance has been provided for the construction of main highways in Senegal, Tanzania and Mozambique and to private sector enterprises through the provision of loan aid to the African Development Bank.
In addition, in February 2005, Japan announced the African Village Initiative (AVI). This initiative aims to support the development of regional communities through cross-sector combinations of assistance necessary to respond to the problems faced by selected regional communities or to their demand (i.e. improvement of primary education environment; supply of clean and safe drinking water; improvement of the health and sanitation environments; improvement of food conditions; food provision services; and improvements in nutrition) in poor areas or in regions and countries which are shifting from reconstruction to development after experiencing conflict. In countries including Senegal, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, Japan is providing assistance in keeping with this initiative.
Furthermore, 33 of the 41 countries in the world which are designated as heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) are in the African region. Japan is one of the countries granting the highest level of debt relief to these countries under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative.11
See Section 2 for information on Japan's debt-related efforts