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++++TCSF English Newsletter Extra++++ May 28, 2008

Viva! Africa: People's Network across Continents
Published by TICAD Civil Society Forum (TCSF)
http://ticad-csf.net/eng/
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Press release from TNnet/G8 NGO Forum on the opening speech of the
Japanese Prim Minister at the opening ceremony
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Civil Society Reaction to Opening Speech by Prime Minister Fukuda

May 28th, 2008, Yokohama: At the opening ceremony of the Fourth Tokyo
International Conference on African Development, the Japanese Prime
Minister delivered a speech, in which he announced various development
supports for Africa for the coming 5 years. TICAD IV NGO Network and
2008 G8 Summit NGO Network have together issued the following reactions
to some of the announcements made.

Aid to Promote Private Sector Investment to Boost Economic Growth Prime
Minister first noted rapid economic growth that Africa is seeing, and
announced various supports including USD 4 billion in loans for
transport infrastructure, trade insurance and a USD 2.5 billion worth of
financing support for Japanese companies, seeking investment
opportunities in Africa, all over the next 5 years when the next TICAD
will be held.

While there is no doubt Africa needs growth, we civil society believe
that this is exactly the time to prioritise direct invest in the areas
of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), both because many African
societies suffer from social and economic divides and in order to ensure
that poor people can take part in the economic activities.

Civil society is also concerned the implication of this large amount of
loans on the poor communities in Africa. Africa’s current debt crisis
started with the plummeting primary commodity prices. It is not clear
whether the current growth is sustainable, and it is questionable
whether Africa will have the capacity to repay the loans announced today.

Millenniun Development Goals
Fukuda reiterated the importance of achieving the MDGs, and committed
Japan to support reproductive health and train 100,000 health workers in
the coming 5 years. Although welcome in itself, the plan does not go far
enough to help Africa reach the health MDGs. Africa’s public health
sectors suffers from the huge lack of money to recruit and pay for their
human resources, so the trained and qualified people have little choice
but to migrate to rich countries. If Japan is serious about overcoming
the health worker crisis, then it needs to be prepared to pay for these
expenditures.

Prime Minister also mentioned the pledge he made last week to contribute
USD 560 million to the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria for the
coming few years. But unless this is disbursed by the end of 2010, it
will not lead to an increase of Japan’s contribution.

Considering TICAD’s repeated emphasis on the role of education in
creating an equitable society, it is mysterious to see Fukuda not
mentioning the issue. Japan must increase its financial contribution to
the Education for All Fast Track Initiative.

Increase of Aid to Africa
Prime Minister announced the country’s plan to double grant aid and
technical assistance to Africa. According to the information material
distributed by the government at the TICAD venue, this doubling will be
“excluding debt relief”. This is a marked step forward, as most of the
last “doubling of aid to Africa” announced by the then-PM Koizumi in
2005 has disappeared in the form of debt relief. Japan now must combine
this with a timetable to increase its overall aid from the current 0.17%
of GNI to 0.7% so that this increase of aid to Africa will not end up
robbing the needed development finance from other regions.

Climate Change
Fukuda highlighted the USD 10 billion finance for developing countries
trying to reconcile economic growth and climate mitigation objectives,
as part of Japan’s Cool Earth Partnership. However, this money is
mainly aimed for large emitting developing countries, and it is not
clear how much of it will be distributed to Africa, whose primacy
problem of climate change is adaptation rather than mitigation. NGOs
also stressed the need for climate finance separate from and in addition
to the 0.7% GNI commitment on ODA, and for it to be spent through the UN
Adaptation Fund which ensures majority developing country say.

Lastly, Africa will continue to suffer as long and as much as Japan
continues to cause global warming. Japan must set and achieve an
ambitious mid-term Green House Gas Emission reduction target, as well as
providing adaptation financing to African countries.

ENDS


For more information, contact:
Toko Tomita: +81-(0)90-5217－6448 on behalf of:
TICAD IV NGO Network
c/o Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Rm 613-6
1-21-1, 7F Soudainishiwaseda, Bldg.
Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Takumo Yamada: +81-(0)80-3155-7017 on behalf of:
2008 G8 Summit NGO Forum
c/o Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC)
Avaco bldg. 5F, 2-3-8 Nishiwaseda, Shinkuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

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http://ticad-csf.net/eng/
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