Japan will reboot its approach to African development

Subject

Japan's Africa development model.

Significance

The latest edition of Japan’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) concluded on August 30, with the summit largely continuing the developed world’s shift from traditional government-to-government aid to a focus on trade and private-sector investment.

Impacts

• With 42 African leaders attending, the conference will help strengthen and create new bilateral linkages.
• The summit’s major themes will provide policy space for initiatives focusing on small, medium and micro-sized enterprise (SMME) development.
• The focus on SMMEs, conceptualised as a solution to many of the continent’s problems, may entrench the developing ‘business-first’ mindset.
• The conclusion of 110 new memorandums of understanding between Japanese companies and African states will be seen as a key success.