JAPAN TO HOST SECOND TOKYO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT IN 1998
Press Release
DEV/2110
JAPAN TO HOST SECOND TOKYO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT IN 1998
19960506 NEW YORK, 1 May (DPCSD) -- The United Nations, the Government of Japan and the Global Coalition for Africa plan to jointly organize a second international summit meeting on African development in Tokyo in 1998. The conference will review the progress made in the implementation of the Tokyo Declaration since its adoption in 1993, by the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). This was announced by Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Yukihiko Ikeda on 30 April in Midrand, South Africa, at the Ninth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD IX).Known as TICAD II, the meeting will be organized in principle at the summit level, and is expected to draw greater high-level participation than the 1993 ministerial-level conference, which was attended by five African heads of State, in addition to other participants from 48 African countries, a dozen donor countries and numerous representatives of international and regional organizations. Besides reviewing the achievements made so far in the implementation of the 1993 Tokyo Declaration, the upcoming conference is also aimed at "further enhancing the momentum of efforts towards African development within the international community", Mr. Ikeda said. A preparatory meeting will be held in Tokyo in 1997, and the Government of Japan will encourage high-level participation from Asian countries in those meetings.
The idea for the first TICAD emerged at the time of the adoption of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s by the General Assembly in 1991. The Tokyo Declaration adopted at TICAD I conveyed two central messages: that the development of Africa should be in the hands of African countries and their peoples; and that the Asian region, including Japan, could become a significant new partner for Africa.
In accord with the latter goal, the Government of Japan is allocating to Africa around 10 per cent of Japan's total level of official development assistance, currently about $1.3 billion, Akio Tanaka, Minister of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, said on 30 April at a briefing meeting on TICAD II held at United Nations Headquarters, which was organized by the Permanent Mission of Japan and the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries. Foreign Minister Ikeda announced at UNCTAD IX that Japan intends to provide assistance amounting to $100 million over three years for the purpose of expanding education in Africa.
- 2 - Press Release DEV/2110 6 May 1996
Since the first Tokyo conference in 1993, a series of follow-up efforts have been undertaken: a meeting in Bandung, Indonesia, in December 1994, which adopted the Bandung Framework for Asia-Africa Cooperation; a regional meeting of southern and eastern African countries held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in July 1995 to help operationalize the principles of the Tokyo Declaration; and a December 1995 meeting of African experts in Seychelles. A regional meeting of western and central African countries is planned for 23-25 July in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, along the same lines as the Harare meeting. In addition, OSCAL is organizing a series of Asia-Africa Forum meetings in 1996: in China on desertification, in Malaysia on financial intermediation and in Thailand on gender and development. In relation to the 1997 preparatory meeting in Tokyo, the United Nations and the other co-organizers of TICAD II intend to hold a meeting in the coming months with their African partners.
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