Foreword by Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Africa

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Japan, and their partners from the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) have worked tirelessly for more than two decades to articulate a bold vision for the development of Africa. They kept faith in the continent’s future even when it was not fashionable to do so.

The efforts of this unique partnership are now bearing fruit. Africa has witnessed a remarkable economic performance in the last 15 years, with at least 10 countries graduating to middle-income status. In recent years, African nations are resolved to chart their own development path with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s 2063 Agenda. This aligns with the TICAD mandate, which calls for national ownership and collaboration between all stakeholders.

The TICAD VI Conference, organized last year in Nairobi, Kenya, took stock of these accomplishments. Its key outcomes, enshrined in the Nairobi Declaration, underscored the need to consolidate Africa’s development gains through sustained economic structural transformation, the building of resilient health systems, and the promotion of social stability to bring about prosperity for all.

As UNDP and its partners gather in Maputo, Mozambique, from 24 to 25 August 2017 for the TICAD Ministerial Meeting, I am confident they will exercise their foresight and diligence in following up on their commitments and that they will do so with an added sense of urgency to ensure that lingering challenges do not rollback the past decade’s hard-won achievements.

The path toward African emergence is a marathon race that requires the mind of a sprinter and a long-term commitment. Through TICAD, UNDP and its partners will remain fully committed to supporting African governments on that journey and work to ensure they are well poised to reap the rewards of a promising future.

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Opening Remarks by Abdoulaye Mar Dieye at the TICAD 12th Ministerial Meeting

There are few places in this word that display sublime charm and mystic magic, so powerful and enchanting, that you can only be inspired by the muses, when you visit them.

Graciosa Maputo ranks very high in that exclusive club!

We are then blessed to have our 11th Ministerial meeting, here in this most welcoming city; and I would like to thank the Government of Mozambique for its generous hospitality.

Our TICAD Ministerial meetings have been quite instrumental. They are the locus where we shape the TICAD Agendas, monitor the action plans, and give further impetus for implementation. Overtime, they have grown in vitality, depth and reach. They have become special moments to renew and reinvigorate this unique spirit of partnership, and inject added momentum and energy to Africa’s development Agenda.

Judging from the deliberations of the experts meeting and side events held during the last two days, I am pleased to see that the tradition is maintained. Our meeting can then inspire brighter development prospects for the continent and can further translate the TICAD Strategy into enhanced development actions and outcomes.

As shown by the 2017 African Economic Outlook, 2016 was a difficult year, with regional growth dipping to 2.2%, the lowest growth in more than 2 decades. A modest recovery in growth is expected in 2017, but this fall short of the past trend of 5.0%, and too low to put Africa back on its emergence track. The dip in international commodity prices has seriously affected growth. A major lesson from this development is that Africa is yet to maximally learn from primary commodity price cycle by successfully modernizing agriculture and effectively transforming its economy from, mostly primary commodity sector to value added secondary and tertiary sectors that promote inclusive and sustainable growth and development.

TICAD has all the ambition and potential to contribute to that process given its full congruence with the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063. As agreed in Yokohama, during TICAD V, and in Nairobi, last year, during TICAD VI, if we invest massively in the continent ‘s structural economic transformation, human security and resilient institutions and societies, private sector development, youth employment and gender equality, peace and stability, then Africa’s path to inclusive and sustainable development will be further amplified, secured and made irreversible.

As we take stock, during our meeting, on how we have collectively performed, so far, and how we would guide further implementation, I would also suggest, in our deliberations, that we consider the following imperatives, which are sine qua none for sustainable development in the continent, and which can advance the future evolution of TICAD, and help plant the seeds and shape the contours of TICAD VII.

First, the imperative to ensure that the various regional and international initiatives on Africa, work in synchronicity. TICAD has demonstrated its integrative value and its instrumentality as one of the most central global partnership on Africa. We could, down the road, review how it relates to other initiatives; and how all initiatives collectively contribute to Agenda 2063.

Second, the imperative to ensure that all initiatives foster regional integration; as only through regional integration can Africa get out of the syndrome of fragmented markets. The question, therefore, is: How can we use the three pillars of TICAD VI to effectively accelerate regional integration in Africa?

Third, the imperative of seeing Africa beyond its challenges, and building massively on its opportunities. Today, Africa offers one of the highest business profitability in the world, with many countries such as Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gabon, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia having the highest Business Profitability Index. I call on Japanese businesses to leverage these opportunities.

Addressing these imperatives can strategically position TICAD as a partnership of choice, further frame the future of all development initiatives and stretch development frontiers in Africa, in a secured and irreversible way.

I wish our Ministerial Meeting all the success.

And I thank you.