President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing delegates at the TICAD VI
The Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) Summit was held at Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) on 27th -28th August 2016 and this was the first time TICAD took place in Africa since its inception in 1993.
The decision to host TICAD VI Summit in Africa was reached during the TICAD V Summit in 2013 when it was agreed that the venue of subsequent TICAD Summits be alternated between Japan and Africa and the interval of summit Meetings was also shortened from every 5 years to three (3) years.
In his remarks, Kenya’s president H. E Uhuru Kenyatta termed the event as a great honor and privilege for Kenya and Africa in general to host the first ever TICAD Summit in the continent. “It is a major milestone and indeed a big boost towards achieving a more strategic partnership with Japan that we all desire. More importantly however, it underscores the spirit of partnership and ownership which underpinned the very principles of the formation of TICAD in 1993,” Uhuru said.
The Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD) afforded the Heads of State and Governments from the entire African continent, an important opportunity to monitor the progress and implementation of previous TICAD agreements whose letter and spirit, remains that ever-great need to speed up the growth and development of Africa.
A group photo of the Leaders at the TICAD VI
Kenya is among the very first African countries to have benefited immensely from the long-standing friendship with Japan and its relationship goes back to the 1920s, when Japan opened its first consulate in our coastal city of Mombasa way back in 1932. “To date there are some sixteen ongoing projects in Kenya that are receiving critical funding support from the Government of Japan, “the President noted.
President Kenyatta stated that Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa currently stands at USD 32 billion, including USD 16 billion for Public-Private Ventures. “Of greater interest to me personally, is the fact that Kenya is the leading recipient of the Japanese ODA in Sub-Saharan Africa of which cumulatively to date, is at approximately 549 billion Japanese Yen (or Ksh 445 billion),” the president said.
He applauded the Government of Japan and especially Prime Minister Abe, for being at the forefront of delivering TICAD’s unique agenda in Africa. TICAD initiative and process has clearly given Kenya and Africa one of the most important global platforms for re-focusing our quest for development among other critical issues; including the contemporary world threat posed by violent extremism. “Indeed, TICAD’s traditional focus on the critical livelihood issues; notably, economic growth; agriculture and farming as well as social stability do themselves remain as important,” President Kenyatta observed.
Being the leading agro-processing Business Membership Organization (BMO) that was formed in 2013 to promote productivity and enhance competitiveness across different agricultural product value chains in Kenya, the Kenya Agribusiness and Agroindustry Alliance (KAAA) was represented by her officials and Small and Medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) who had an opportunity to showcase their products to a global audience.
TICAD-VI took place at an opportune moment, as the year 2016 is the first year of the implementations of the global and regional development agendas, namely the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 and its First Ten-Year Implementation Plan. Being fully in line with these development agendas, TICAD-VI discussed some thematic issues that Africa has been facing since the last TICAD-V in Yokohama, Japan in 2013, which included industrialization, health and social stability among other things.
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