What's New: Leaders stress African-led solutions at opening session

29 September 2003: The third Tokyo International Conference on African Development began today with a strong expression by the continent’s top leadership of their joint determination to tackle Africa’s problems with African-led solutions. Twenty-one African Heads of State or Government spoke on the first day of the conference.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, welcoming delegates, spoke of Japan's respect for "the will of Africans themselves to make the 21^st century the African century." He welcomed TICAD's purpose of bringing together knowledge and experiences of the international community in African development in support of NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

Mr. Koizumi also announced that Japan aims to extend over the next five years a total of US$1 billion in grant aid to Africa, for health and medical care, including measures against AIDS, education, water and food security.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a message read by Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, noted that while there are signs of a possible rebound in donor assistance to Africa following the 1990s decline, and there has been some debt relief and some new foreign investment interest in Africa, much greater efforts are still needed. “Otherwise," he warned, “few African countries will meet even some of the Millennium Development Goals — goals which have been endorsed by NEPAD, and which are attainable if the will and the resources can be summoned.”

Administrator Mark Malloch Brown led the delegation from UNDP, which is a co-organizer of TICAD III along with the government of Japan and the Special Adviser’s Office, as well as the Global Coalition for Africa and the World Bank. He noted that the number of leaders present was a mark of recognition for Japan’s continuing commitment to Africa’s development and to global development cooperation.

Reviewing the state of African development, Mr. Malloch Brown contrasted some “encouraging signs of progress across the continent” with other, more negative indicators. “In another direction,” said the Administrator, “we see how the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals remains most daunting in Africa. But he said: “It does not have to be this way,” pointing out that the excuse of resource scarcity could no longer be used. “At a time when billions are being pledged to Iraq, the argument that resources are not available is simply not true. What is missing is the political will.”

Much of the opening session addressed how best to support African-owned approaches to the continent’s development challenges. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi spoke in his role as co-chair of TICAD co-organizer, the Global Coalition for Africa, and stressed that support for NEPAD is a basic theme for TICAD III, and that the philosophies of TICAD, which are also common to NEPAD, have gained great influence. “Ownership and partnership” he said, “ have now become commonly used words in international dialogue on Africa’s development. This is a major achievement for Africans and the development process”.

President Olusegun Obasanjo was one of a succession of leaders who addressed delegates in a plenary session devoted to support for NEPAD. He said: “TICAD, which predates NEPAD, and for which all African leaders are grateful to Japan, should dovetail into NEPAD.

In a reference to another main theme of TICAD III, that of South–South cooperation especially in the form of Asia-Africa collaboration, President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, the current Chair of the African Union, said “We would like to see the participation of more Asian countries in the implementation of NEPAD programmes and projects. We believe that TICAD is the framework towards the attainment of this goal.”