TICAD II Follow-up Measures

IV. South-South Cooperation

IV-1. Support for training of 2000 Africans within the next five years under South-South cooperation

At TICAD II, Japan announced that it would provide financial cooperation for the training of 1000 Africans in Asian and North African countries under JICA's third-country training scheme during the ensuing five-year period. The GOJ also stated that it would extend financial support to the Indonesian Center for South-South Technical Cooperation (CCSTC), which was completed by the Indonesian government in February 1998 with financial assistance from Brunei Darussalam. This Center is to be the focal point of South-South cooperation, and is to accept approximately 1000 trainees from Africa during the next five years with Japan's assistance.

IV-2. Third Asia-Africa Forum (AAF III)

The Tokyo Agenda for Action stated that African countries should engage in concrete actions for development, and that international development partners, including Japan, should support such efforts as an international priority. The Third Asia-Africa Forum was held from May 23 to 25, 2000 in Malaysia, and was based on the Tokyo Agenda for Action and the discussions held in the two previous Asia-Africa Forums. Asian and African countries as well as the international organizations and donor countries shared their experiences and discussed specific measures into the future on the three themes: (a) capacity development; (b) agriculture; and (c) private sector development. The Forum culminated in adopting the "Kuala Lumpur New Millennium Statement."

IV-3. Japan-France-Malaysia Trilateral Cooperation

In 1997, Prime Minister Hashimoto of Japan, President Chirac of France　and Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia put forward an initiative to set up a trilateral framework for assistance to Africa. Each country is to make proposals for specific projects, with Japan concerned with human resources development, France with the sustainable development of forests, and Malaysia with agricultural development. To date, around 20 Africans have received training at CIAST (Center for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training) in Malaysia, under a plan put forward by Japan.

The actual direction of this cooperation has been decided at a meeting of special government representatives appointed by the countries' leaders. The representative from Japan is Dr. Tatsuo Arima, from France Mr. Jean-Claude Paye (former OECD secretary general), and from Malaysia Tan Sri Ahmad Kamil Jaafar.

The 5th Meeting of Special Representatives was held in Paris on 6 September 2000. At the meeting, Representatives continued with their discussion in various areas. In regards to human resources development, various improvement measures for the CIAST training program were discussed. Also, Malaysia elaborated on the progress of its proposals on increased food production. On forestry, Japan and France referred to the possibility of trilateral cooperation in various African countries. The next meeting between Representatives is scheduled to be held sometime in 2001 in Tokyo, with prospect of solidifying each proposal.

IV-4. TICAD UN Volunteers

TICAD United Nations Volunteers will be sent from Asia to Africa, thus promoting the transfer of knowledge and experience from Asia to Africa (North African and Japanese people could be sent instead of Asian people in some cases). This program not only contributes to African development but it enhances South-South cooperation by promoting understanding on Africa among Asian young people as well.

9 volunteers in fields such as agriculture and private sector have already been sent. More volunteers are scheduled to be sent in fields such as good governance and IT in addition to above mentioned fields.

IV-5. e-TICAD

This project aims at assisting selected African countries (Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zambia) to enhance their access to and application of ICT under the collaboration with UNDP. It started in February 2000.

In detail,

(1) Utilizing experience and speciality of APDIP(Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme), workshops and a training programme will be developed to enhance the ICT capacity of African decision-makers.
(2) Under coordination with UNV, mainly Asian volunteers will be dispatched to African countries to transfer ICT technology.
(3) Pilot activities applying the knowledge and experience of the APDIP project will be implemented to increase connectivity of information networks.
(4) This project will build and nurture partnerships with the private sector in building training capacity in ICT, providing Internet Services and enhancing connectivity.

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