Countries & Regions

On June 3, for 15 minutes from 4:00 p.m., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a meeting with Dr. Jeffrey David Sachs, Professor of Columbia University, in Yokohama, Japan. The following is the gist of the meeting. Dr. Jeffrey David Sachs is visiting Japan to participate in the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) held from June 1 to 3.

1. At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Abe welcomed the visit of Dr. Sachs to Japan, and expressed his hope for contributing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and setting the post-2015 Development Agenda through discussions at TICAD V. In response, Dr. Sachs expressed his gratitude for the invitation to Japan, and added that the activities of Japanese companies in Africa are important for development in Africa. He also said that as he recognizes Japan’s assistance is provided based on the needs in Africa, so that he would like to support Japan’s assistance. Further, Dr. Sachs showed his expectation for Japan’s efforts towards setting the post-2015 Development Agenda, especially in the field of environment. Mentioning that Japan’s economic growth is important to Africa, he expressed his support for “Abenomics”. In addition, he expressed his appreciation for Japan’s cooperation to Millennium Village Project promoted by Dr. Sachs.
2. Prime Minister Abe expressed his hope that, through TICAD V, Africa shows its active efforts for moving towards realization of the MDGs while the efforts of the international society rally for supporting Africa. Prime Minister Abe also stated that the post-2015 Development Agenda should be a framework based on Human Security taking into consideration, ensuring for all people to obtain the basic health services they need (Universal Health Coverage), the earth’s limitations, and integrating the theme of sustainability including disaster risk reduction. Prime Minister Abe further stated his hope for the outcome of TICAD V to contribute to the United Nations’ future agenda setting process, and expressed his expectation for inputs from Dr. Sachs’s academic perspective. In response, Dr. Sachs expressed his support for Universal Health Coverage.

(Reference) Millennium Village Project
Millennium Village Project is a project to promote an integrated approach to rural development in Africa to establish development model to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.