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++++TCSF English Newsletter No.10++++ July 10, 2007

Viva! Africa: People's Network across Continents
Published by TICAD Civil Society Forum (TCSF)
http://ticad-csf.net/eng/index.htm
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Dear colleagues,
Our English newsletter contains information about TCSF's Activities
and Japanese aid support toward Africa. We hope to strengthen our
network with you by sharing information about our activities.
Thank you.
----------[Index]--------------

1, Feature Stories
- TICAD IV and G8 Summit 2008 dates announced
- TCSF and CCfA organised a workshop at the Alternative Summit, Germany
- African Festa 2007 in Tokyo
2, Topics of Japan-Africa Relation and Japan's Aid support
3, Activities of Working Groups
- TICAD/NGO Network (TNnet)
- TCSF White Paper Working Group
- Research Centre
- Network Working Group
- Alert Working Group
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[1] Feature Stories
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* TICAD IV and G8 Summit dates announced *
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The dates for TICAD IV and the G8 Summit 2008 have been announced by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. The dates and venues are as
follows:

-G20 Ministerial Meeting: 14th - 16th March in Chiba
-G8 Labour Ministers' Meeting: 11th - 13th May in Niigagta
-G8 Finance Ministers' Meeting: 13th and 14th May 2008 in Osaka
-G8 Environment Ministers' Meeting: 25th - 27th May 2008 in Kobe
-TICAD IV: 28th to 30th May 2008 in Yokohama
-G8 Justice and Internal Affairs Ministerial Meeting: 11th - 13th June in Tokyo
-G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting: 26th and 27th June 2008 in Kyoto
-G8 Summit: 7th - 9th July 2008 in Toyako, Hokkaido
The dates for the following meetings are yet to be confirmed;
-G8 Development Ministers' Meeting: Early April in Tokyo
-G8 Energy Ministerial Meeting: Early June in Aomori

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* TCSF hosts a workshop at the Alternative Summit, Germany *
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Three members from TCSF, including Prof. Minoru Obayashi, the president attended the Alternative Summit organised by civil society in parallel to the G8 summit in Germany. The alternative summit was
held in the northern port of Rostock, 15 kilometres from
Heiligendamm on 5th-7th June and the opening speech was given by
Professor Jean Ziegler, well-known for his addressing on starvation
problem and the acclaimed author of "Wie kommt der Hunger in die
Welt?" (2003) The Opening panel at the Nikolaikirche was filled with
participants from the elderly to babies indicating strong
commitments from across all age groups of the German civil society.

Much to our dismay, though the top agendas at this G8 summit were
supposed to be "climate change" and "Africa", the controversy
over the US anti-missile shield took centre stage during the
roundtable talks. Being one step closer to global consensus for
prevention of global warming is certainly a welcome development
however "Africa" the other top priority agenda saw less progress
and the outcome was less than anticipated.
In fact, even before the summit began, we had feared that "Africa"
may not receive the attention it deserves, for we witnessed some
telltale signs at the alternative summit organised by the civil
society with hardly any Africans on site nor were there many
workshops focusing on Africa.

TCSF, together with the "Civic Commission for Africa, C-CfA" which
was established in April with TCSF's support, hosted a workshop
titled "Partnership for Africa towards 2008 TICAD". As mentioned by
Joseph Ssuuna (C-CfA/PELUM) who chaired the workshop commented, "This
workshop was the only workshop chaired by an African".

At the workshop, we shared with the participants, information
regarding recent changes in Africa, that there has been some
progress in civil society-led cooperation efforts, and about the
forthcoming year with G8 Summit and TICAD IV taking place in Japan.
Furthermore, current partnership in advocacy efforts between
European and African civil societies was discussed and future
cooperative relations between civil societies of Africa, Europe and
Japan were explored together with the participants.

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* African Festa 2007 in Tokyo *
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African Festa is one of the large events held in the middle of Tokyo
every year. This year, it was held on 19th and 20th of May at Hibiya
Park. The event is aimed to promote understanding of Africa to the
Japanese public, bridging the two continents. It was hosted by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and sponsored by African
embassies in Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Chiyoda Ward
Office.

This year's African Festa attracted around 80,000 people in two
days. There were music performances, fashion shows, lectures and
workshops all relating to Africa. 33 African Embassies, 52 Non
Governmental Organizations as well as MoFA and JICA set up stands.
There were also 25 stands offering different kinds of African food
and drinks.

One visitor said "I tasted many different kind of African dishes and
all of them were very nice." Another said "I was really surprised
that there are so many Japanese NGOs which are related to Africa."
Many Japanese and Africans as well as other nationals who attended
the event enjoyed the African vibes in the heart of Tokyo.

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[2] Topics of Japan-Africa Relation and Japan's Aid support
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3rd July
Japan to send Observers to the Ninth Ordinary Session of African
Union
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2007/7/1174345_852.html

27th June
Emergency Assistance for Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) in Chad
and Central African Republic Caused by the Darfur Conflict
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/6/1174193_828.html

8th June
Dispatch of Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Japan to
Inauguration Ceremony of the President of the Republic of Mali
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/6/1173754_828.html

31st May-5th June
Mr. Takeshi Iwaya, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, to
Visit Libya
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2007/5/1173751_848.html

30th May
Announcement of the Schedule of the G8 Ministerial Meetings and
TICAD IV in 2008
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2007/5/1173657_848.html

29th May
Assistance by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security
project "Protection, Reintegration, and resettlement of IDPs" in
Somalia
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/5/1173648_826.html
Recent gathering of the Tokyo African Club (TAC)
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/5/1173669_826.html

22nd May
Japan-Tanzania Foreign Ministerial Meeting
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/5/1173499_826.html

16th May
Visit to Japan by H.E. Mr. Y. Bakayoko, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Cote d'Ivoire
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2007/5/1173411_848.html

14th May
Japan's Financial Assistance through the International Tropical
Timber Organization
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2007/5/1173404_826.html

11th May
Japan-R.O.K. Director-General Level Consultation on Middle East and
African Policies
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/event/2007/5/1173397_848.html
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[3] Activities of Working Groups
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* TNnet (TICAD/NGO Network) *
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TICAD MoFA/NGO Consultation - Report on the first meeting

TNnet (TICAD/NGO Network), formed for the coming TICAD IV in May
2008 held a regular consultation meeting with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs on 30th May. The first TICAD MoFA/NGO Consultation
was held to conduct report on "TICAD Ministerial Conference on
Energy and Environment for Sustainable Development" which took place
in March this year to discuss the activity schedule leading up to
TICAD IV. The participants included 5 MoFA officials (including the
Deputy Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs
Bureau), 25 NGOs and international organisation officials.

Fairly recently, the dates and venues of TICAD IV were officially
announced to take place on 28th-30th May 2008 in Yokohama, Japan and
furthermore, the Japanese Government has anounced 1) investment and
economic growth, 2) human security and 3) environment (climate
change) as "three pillars" for TICAD IV agenda. Consequently, there
was an active exchange of ideas in regard to Japanese government and
NGO's engagement towards TICAD IV as well as its direction.

Japanese CSOs generally do not agree with the three pillars as they
do not expricitlly include poverty reduction and MDGs and intending
to take actions, together with African CSOs, for more people centrerd agenda for the TICAD IV.

For the minutes of the TICAD MoFA/NGO Consultation meeting, please
contact TCSF office (office@ticad-csf.net)

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* TCSF White Paper Working Group *
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The White Paper Working Group has been preparing the 3rd issue of
the TCSF White Paper In the 3rd issue of the White Paper, we hope to
build on the findings of the previous White Papers in which we
assessed the Japanese contribution towards African development and
the role of civil society, and our next challenge is to evaluate
TICAD process from civil society perspectives.

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* TCSF Research Centre *
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On 11th May, we invited Mr. Jirou Otsuka, senior advisor for
Institute for International Cooperation of JICA, and Ms. Kaori
Miyamoto, OECD personnel for a study session titled "Current Trend
in SPA and African Aid: Its effect on TICAD IV and the G8".

At first, there was a report about the context of the reform of the
development aid in Africa and the budget support as a new direction
from Mr. Otsuka. And then Ms. Miyamoto talked about the Paris
Declaration and the achievement of ODA, immigration problem,
governance, and the reform of the United Nations. Finally, we
discussed with the participants about what civil society should do
towards the TICAD and the G8 summit next year.

On 15th June, we organised a workshop titled "The Civil Society in
Africa and the Representativeness." The lecture was given by Dr.
John Akokpari, a Senior lecturer at the Department of Political
Studies at the University of Cape Town, and currently a visiting
research fellow at Japan’s External Trade Organisation, Institute of
Developing Economies. He lectured on the followings; "Who are the
citizens of Africa?", "Is the civil society in Africa growing and
maturing?", and "Are NGOs and CSOs representing the grass-roots
people?"

We will invite an expert on civil society in Africa, and hold a
workshop once every month from here on.

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* Network Working Group *
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Three TCSF staffs were dispatched to Germany to attend the
Alternative Summit. As one of the side events, TCSF organised a
workshop titled "Partnership for Africa towards 2008 TICAD" in
Rostock (see detailed report below).

One member of Network Working Group is currently visiting Ghana to
attend the pan-African civil society meeting which is being held in
Ghana between June 20th and 25th. During her stay in Accra, C-CfA
meetings are planned to take place to discuss action plans, linkages
with G-CAP and information delivery with the C-CfA representatives.
For further details, please see TCSF website.

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* Alert Working Group *
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The Alert Working Group is currently working on the 9th volume of
the quarterly magazine, "Africa Alert News". The digest version in
Japanese and English will be available from our website shortly
afterwards.

Our Alert Blog Site has been regularly updated with selections of
the latest news from Africa. Please take a minute of your time to
check our English blog site! →http://www.ticad-csf.net/index.htm
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