Closeup Japan
Time to deliver
The fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, (TICAD IV) that ended last Friday in the Japanese port city of Yokohama by adopting a declaration unfurling an ambitious set of projects aimed at bolstering growth in Africa, has pushed Japan to the position of leadership in the international community's effort in helping the continent at a time of hope and despair.
Much of Africa's hope lie on the reality that the region, at long last, is set to find a way out of the civil strife and political unrest that characterised much of Africa ever since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. The changing political atmosphere is helping many African countries to gain economic achievement that remained elusive for so long.
Africa's annual growth rate, reaching around 6%, is a testimony to that success, the result of which is felt in many parts of the continent where the livelihood of people too is showing an upward trend. Africa has now become the largest expanding market for mobile phones.
The dark side, however, is represented by a surge in oil and food prices, which is draining out much of the gain that countries made in recent years and calls for renewed international attention in coming days. The Yokohama declaration didn't fail to take into account this reality.
In addition, many of the other important aspects linked closely to the process of development, like the importance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, democratisation, fighting infectious diseases, and the participation of civil society in the TICAD process, that were ignored and omitted in pervious declarations, could make their way into the latest Yokohama version.
Moreover, the chair's summary focusing on the adverse effects of soaring food prices and climate change also provided a detailed outline of pledges and included a guideline for the follow-up process of monitoring the achievements.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda assured African leaders that he would deliver the message from Africa to the Group of Eight summit in July -- in Japan -- and try to convince other leaders of the importance of joining hands in helping Africa to continue the journey towards progress and prosperity. As a result, much of the burden of responsibilities of post-TICAD initiatives now falls on the shoulder of Japan, and Tokyo has the moral responsibility of bringing other players into the field.
The three-day conference wound up last Friday with a declaration emphasising the need to support African industrialisation and fight poverty and disease. Fukuda's pledges included as many as 120 programs covering a broad range of areas, from building and maintaining social infrastructure to bolstering agricultural production and enhancing education.
During the last few years Africa has slowly reemerged from being a continent adored by many for its majestic untouched nature and ignored by many others who saw the continent as a region plagued by civil strife, HIV/AIDS and hunger and malnutrition, into what might be called a "growth continent."
The African economy began to take-off at the turn of the century, and the annual average growth rate of the continent eventually exceeded the 5% mark in recent years. The principal factor behind Africa's phenomenal growth is the sky-rocketing of prices of natural resources.
Africa is known to be a region with plenty of deposits, and Western countries, as well as newly emerged investors like China and India, have already started their hurried moves to get hold of their own shares of those resources.
Doing particularly well are oil-rich African nations like Angola, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Angola has seen a spectacular 27% growth of its GDP in 2007, and others, too, have marked double digit or near double digit growth in recent years. As a result, investors from the United States, Europe, China and India are now pouring capital into Africa with an eye to tap the resources that Africa is offering.
But it would be wrong to assume that the recent upward trend of African economy is easing the burden of problems the continent has been facing in any significant way. Africa's troubles have not gone away, and in some cases they have grown worse to a certain extent.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, four out of ten people still live on less than a dollar a day, one in every six children doesn't make it to the age of five, and average life expectancy of adults is around 50 years. Moreover, more than 60% of people infected with AIDS virus around the world are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to all that, regional conflicts are still bringing misery to millions of people across the continent.
Taking into account all these realities of Africa, TICAD IV had been a timely gathering that allowed African leaders, and important donors and representatives of international organisations, to focus not only on the sloppy side of investment and economic gain but also on other pressing issues that Africa needs to find a durable solution to so that its people can enjoy the benefits of recent economic growth.
The Yokohama declaration covered most of those issues, including the necessity of launching a coordinated effort to tackle the problem of global warming.
The overall impact of global warming would be quite serious for Africa, as continent's food production relies more than 90% on rainwater. Although the total annual carbon dioxide emissions from Africa is much less than the figure of individual big emitters, the continent is already facing the impact in various ways.
The Sahara desert is slowly taking hold of the surrounding cropland, and the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting. So, it is time for Africa, too, to take decisive steps in reversing the trend. At TICAD IV Japan made an open pledge to help Africa find a durable solution to the environmental problems. But Japan alone cannot do much, and here, too, Tokyo needs to convince others of the gravity of the problem so that a new framework agreement can be reached before the present setup agreed under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The three-day conference thus set an appropriate strategy for African development, and much from now on will depend on the willingness of all participants in Africa's progress to deliver what is expected from them. African leaders need to make sure that the benefits of economic development do not remain held up in just a few hands, while Japan and other partners need to provide what they have pledged.
Unless the two sides fulfill these very important obligations, nothing can be achieved, and the Yokohama Declaration will eventually end up being another paper document of great ideas with little real substance.
Monzurul Huq writes from Japan.
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