Japan's Foreign Aid Policy in Africa: Evaluating the TICAD Process

Japan's Foreign Aid Policy in Africa: Evaluating the TICAD traces the historical evolution of the five Tokyo International Conferences on African Development, in relation to each conference's guidelines, implementation policies, and action plans from 1993 to 2013. It is evident that TICAD is now part of Japan's foreign aid policy and development assistance discourse. To deny that would be to refute twenty years of effort devoted towards African development—taking place at both the highest and field levels between African governments, the Japanese government, civil society, and other TICAD co-organizers. Nevertheless, TICAD diplomacy remains strangely unknown and controversial. The scope of TICAD's policies and priorities and the influence it has had on development outcomes in Africa are remarkable, asserts Raposo. This book seeks to evaluate TICAD's intellectual contributions to and its development practices regarding Africa over the past 20 years. A central conclusion is that, while TICAD bureaucrats lacked the agency necessary to support Japanese companies in Africa, the model of emerging powers partnerships has expanded in Africa, partially as a result of the TICAD conferences.