Food for thought – TICAD8 in Tunisia

21 August 2022

Food, in all its facets, is the pivot of the fulcrum that economics, society, peace and stability revolve around. At a press briefing on TICAD 8, the Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development, which is set to take place in Tunis, Tunisia from 27-28 August, was hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Miyashita Tadayuki, Deputy Director-General Department of African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mr Kato Ryuichi, Vice-President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) laid out the framework for the eighth instalment of the conference which was first held in 1993 in Tokyo.

Almost three decades of a conference on Africa’s development, the first of its kind to bring together the Japanese Government, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission, the World Bank and the private sector business forum, is the paradigm from the donor-recipient, to fair trade, and not aid dependency, creating equal partnerships and African ownership explained Miyashita.

READ ALSO: Ownership and Partnership – AUDA, JICA and TICAD

JICA is the key driver of this paradigm as the continent’s global agency and heightened interest in Africa’s well-being becomes apparent. Established in 2003 as an Independent Administrative Agency, JICA has 96 overseas and 15 domestic offices, 143 beneficiary countries and with an annual volume of 1,728 billion Japanese Yen (JPY), is one of the world’s largest bilateral Overseas Development Agencies (ODA). JICA’s approach on Africa has a focus on people, ownership and co-creation, while effectively using Japan’s advanced development experience.

JICA will present 26 online side events ahead of TICAD8 from 22-26 August. Stakeholder representatives including African governments, development agencies and African institutions, will discuss particularly pressing topics of agriculture and nutrition, post-Covid growth, refugee inclusion, youth empowerment, sustainability and green energy.

The enhancement of food security through the market orientated agriculture initiative, the Small Holder Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) project has delivered results for famers with specific target markets for their produce. Rice production has doubled on the continent from 2008 to 2018, reaching its target goal under the CARD – Coalition for African Rice Development scheme. 32 African countries are participating in Phase 2 to further double production for the growing demand for rice.

Support for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to build momentum and accelerate effective integration is critical. This includes establishment of relevant legal frameworks, fast tracking commerce and trade infrastructure, and coordinating border facilitation and harmonising customs regulations. The Covid-19 pandemic has hampered some of the progress, but has inspired a sense of African unity and solidarity and sparked invention and innovation, having once again defied the prophets of doom and gloom.

There are 30 million internally displaced people – IDP’s and refugees in African countries. Silencing the Guns in Africa is one of the flagship initiatives of the AU’s Agenda 2063, and aims to achieve an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens. Various initiatives involving the private sector for the development of both the refugees and host communities will be beneficial to mitigate and ease hardships.
Building resilient African economies through adequate and structural transformation will also come under the spotlight in discussions in Tunis. Experienced and influential experts are set to make their inputs and presentations on the matter, especially in the wake of the current, uncertain geo-politic.
Africa’s youth dividend holds much promise for the quantum leap into the epoch of the age of new energy. A young, vibrant and connected youth have the capability and capacity to advance the information age as it evolves into new and dynamic knowledge systems.
A healthy body is a healthy mind, goes the age old adage. Sustenance and nourishment is core to survival and progress, peace and stability, harmony and compassion. Africa’s vast and abundant resource essence has made an incalculable contributions to the world’s growth and development, and the true potential and wealth of ‘Mother Africa’, as it is endearingly referred to, still remains elusive.
Africa and Japan may seem incomparable on a plethora of factors, but the basic human necessities are common. TICAD 8 will bring Africa and Japan closer. It will also have an effect on the many competing interests in Africa.

K Bhana