Nigeria, Other African Countries Meet in Tokyo to Set Development Agenda

African countries, including Nigeria today begin the Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo.

It is jointly hosted by the Japanese Government with the United Nations, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank and the African Union Commission (AUC) to set agenda for African development conference expected to hold next year in Yokohoma, Japan.

At the ministerial meeting, the progress of initiatives announced in VI in Kenya, in 2016, will be reviewed and the discussions will be made towards the TICAD 7 to be held from August 28 to 30, 2019 in Yokohama, Japan.

Minister Kono Taro of Japan is also expected to hold bilateral talks with ministers from African countries at the occasion to further strengthen ties with African countries.

While side events such as business related events, jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNDP, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO)), Japan Africa · Business · Fair 2018 (hosted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs), clean city platform (JICA, jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Africa’s acceleration of development and open innovation (JICA, World Bank) co-organised for the promotion of rice development in Africa (JICA), Co-hosted by UNDP), civil society side event (citizen network for TICAD sponsored) are scheduled to be held.

As part of the side events scheduled, the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP) yesterday gave an overview of its activities.

ACCP is a platform created in April 2017 with the initiatives of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlement Plan (UN-Habitat) and City of Yokohama, and currently with 62 cities in 34 countries in Africa participating, to share knowledge and promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on waste management in Africa with the aim of African countries realising clean and healthy cities.

Making a presentation yesterday, a senior staff of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dr. Shunichi Honda, said that in spite of several efforts made by African countries to address waste management issues, economic growth and urbanisation had continued to compound the problems of waste management, adding that it was becoming more and more serious due to insufficient collection services and inappropriate disposal.