Civic Commission of Africa

March 15, 2016

Civic Commission for Africa

Position Paper for TICAD VI Senior Officials Meeting in Djibouti
1. Preamble
Ladies and Gentlemen,First, we appreciate for the Government of Japan for your solidarity to Africa by taking the lead of TICAD initiative,
and for the Government of the Republic of Djibouti to host the Senior Officials Meeting with your great hospitality.
Also we thank the Co-Organizers of TICAD for setting the official session named “Dialogue with Civil Society
Organizations”. TICAD has a long and unique history of civil society inclusion which has been ensured by both theco-organizers and African and Japanese civil society. We hope that this civil society dialogue will make TICAD
more open, inclusive and resilient multilateral forum for Africa’s development.

2. The priority areas of the forth-coming TICAD VI Conference
Considering the fact the priority areas for the forth-coming TICAD VI Conference based on Industrialization, healthwater and sanitation, and social security, the CCfA suggests that:
Acknowledging and appreciating development strides achieved since 2013:
Appreciating what the private sector has achieved this in facilitating Africa’s development:
Worried about the downturn of international price of primary commodities:
Concerned that it is difficult for most African countries to diversify their economies, especially those in extractive
sub-sector:
We therefore would like to reiterate what has already been alluded to by those before us and would like to urge
African governments to:A)

On Industrialisation

Utilize more Africa’s private sector and lean more towards Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for the transfer oftechnological and quality infrastructural development for Africa. The benefits of which are countless:
Considering the erosion of financial resources in many African countries due to the unstable export revenues, theburden of sovereign debt repayment, illicit financial outflow from Africa, etc., it is our belief that African country’s
should ensure sufficient public revenue generation through adequate taxation for social development.
We also urge African governments to put more effort towards diversifying their economies. This diversification
should lean more towards sectors that utilize more of Africa’s natural resources like in tourism and agriculture
sub-sectors. This would reduce reliance on sectors which Africa currently has no control over its market prices.
We call on AUC to work with African governments to put in place frameworks that would ensure that the prices ofAfrica’s raw materials and commodities such as coffee, cocoa, timber etc, be determined by Africans in the same
way the price of Toyota is determined by the Japanese; and that value addition on the value chains for market
products should be promoted.

That Africa’s development and especially infrastructure and technology transfer should deliberately target theyouth in order to produce Africa’s own future artisans and engineers; that youth be subcontracted to deliver
smaller construction and ‘add-on’ type projects as a way of imparting skills, which should in turn be transferred tofuture generations. In this way the youth would gain ownership and take charge of supervising, maintaining andcapacitating them to monitor and evaluate such projects to learn quality control and standards. This would in turnassist them to know whether Africa is getting value for its money from projects delivered by foreign companies ornot.
We also call on the African and Japanese governments to initiate a formal structure that develops a strong linkwith African Diaspora who are keen on investing in Africa; and that African governments should create anenabling environment that harnesses the return of Africa’s high-skilled persons from the diaspora to return tocontribute directly to the development of the continent.
African governments should empower the women towards land rights and the right to reasonable loans forinvestment. In the report entitled “Africa’s future is female: ONE Africa” alludes to the fact that women are adriving force behind Africa’s economy, running an estimated 48% of small and medium size industries andgrowing 80% of the food in less than 10% of the land. Paradoxically, these small holders’ schemes by women are
not taxed because they are at most informal traders.
We call on the AUC through the TICAD process to develop and enforce a framework geared towards ensuring
tougher standards and superior quality control measures towards all long-term infrastructure development
project undertaken through loan-aid. This is to guard against any African country left paying a huge debt towards
a project that collapsed within the first 5 years of existence resulting from sub-standard performance and poor
quality material use.
Ensure adherence to transparency, accountability and Good Governance in and that all actors in development
respect human rights and ensure environmental sustainability, and be accountable for the social andenvironmental impacts of their activities, programs and investments
And finally, it is our belief that all sustainable development frameworks should ensure a balance between
financing for infrastructure development and financing for social development. It is very important to also
consider social responsibility for sustainability of investments. We therefore call on the TICAD process to ensure
the promotion of and the involvement of communities in developing social development programs and inmonitoring infrastructure projects.

B)

On Health, Water and Sanitation"Agenda 2063" of Africa Union clearly states that sound health and well-being is a priority aspiration. It echoes
the position of civil society that "health is human rights". Achieving universal health coverage is the mostprioritized overall goal to realize "health for all".
The lesson of Ebola crisis shows that an accountable and high quality public health system is crucial to prevent
global health emergency. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) should be truly universal. Communities marginalized
or hard to reach, should not be excluded from quality health services. Financial, social, cultural barriers should beremoved.
To achieve UHC, it is necessary to create resilient, sustainable and inclusive health system for all. Abuja
Declaration to invest 15% of national budget to health should be respected and achieved by all African
governments. The Global Fund, GAVI Vaccine Alliance, IPPF and other health-related international organizations
should be fully-funded to achieve both UHC and targets set by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including2

ending AIDS, TB and Malaria, universal vaccination, universal access to sexual reproductive health and rights, anddrastic reduction of infant and maternal mortality by 2030.
The work of civil society to ensure access of quality health to marginalized and hard-to-reach communities should
be recognized as a crucial part of the global efforts to achieve UHC. Independent monitoring and advocacy of civilsociety for accountable and affordable health services for the people should be recognized a crucial part toachieve UHC.
TICAD VI should be a historic moment to achieve universal access to water and sanitation in Africa. TICAD should
accelerate Africa's efforts to secure all women's access to sanitation. "Japan Toilet Fund" should be launched inTICAD VI to strengthen collaboration between Japan and Africa. Lack of adequate water, sanitation and hygiene inpublic healthcare facilities is another big problem in Africa. TICAD should accelerate joint efforts of Africa andJapan to achieve 100% access of safe water and sanitation in public healthcare facilities.

C)

Social stability

On issues of social stability, we suggest that:
The African governments/International Community/Partners should build a strong Global Human Security
network (economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community
security and political security).
African governments should de-radicalise the youth, by creating jobs to keep them active. The governments
should create enabling and investment-friendly economic environments for the youth. The youth should also be
consulted in matters that concern them because any decision taken on behalf of the youth, for the youth andwithout the youth is against the youth.
Checking violent extremism in general through effective Peace-Building efforts should be prioritised. We areconvinced that terrorism and the Boko Haram insurgence in Africa are man-made crises that can be resolved
through genuine dialogue which is fundamental in solving human problems. African governments should engage
in genuine dialogue with the extremist in order to determine what exactly they want.
To check religious fundamentalism, African Government should establish National Commissions for Religious andMoral Education (NCRME) in terrorist and Boko Haram affected countries to monitor and regulate religious
preachings of both Christian, Muslim and traditional preachers throughout the territories. National Commissions
for Religious and Moral Education (NCRME), composed of tested independent minds, should be put in place toregulate and monitor extremism. Such national syndicates should provide an African synergy for the control ofreligious extremism.
All stakeholders of the TICAD process should engage in Effective Security and Intelligence-sharing. Terrorism andBoko Haramism should ignite greater international collaboration and advanced countries should use theiradvanced technologies for better training in intelligence gathering and sharing among security personnel inaffected countries.
African governments should check their porous borders. The boundaries between Nigeria and Niger; Nigeria andBenin, Nigeria and Cameroon; Nigeria-Cameroon-Chad are very porous and dangerous. The conflicts in Libya,
Chad, Niger, Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, has facilitate the smuggling of weapons in Africa.
Armed manufacturers should stop selling arms to Africa. Most conflicting African countries do not produce arms.
Sufficient international cooperation should determine the sources of such weapons in order to cut their suppliesand funding.
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African governments should guarantee stable internal state structures and practically implement good
governance policies to avoid political conflicts.
D)

Agenda 2030, African Union’s Agenda 2063 and Regional Economic Communities(RECs) Agendas

With the adoption of Agenda 2030, which espouses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by the UN
Member States in September 2015, different countries are supposed to put in place measures to achieve thegoals within the set time. The AU also has a 50-year long-term plan called Agenda 2063 that all Member States
subscribe to. Further, different Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa have their own long-term plans
to which members in the sub-region are committed to.
We call on the TICAD process to put measures that promote consideration of the SDGs, AU Agenda 2063 and theRECs long-term plans by the African countries and their development partners as key components of African
development partnerships. We advocate for support to all national government to ensure alignment of national
policies to the new development agendas. In particular we call on development partners intending to work withAfrican countries to use the SDGs and Agenda 2063-based plans as the basis of providing support to development
programs and national budgets to African countries in Africa. Four specific areas Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
would like to emphasis: 1.

2.
3.
4.

Holistic approach for financing development- Both traditional (ODA, Domestic Revenue) and new
innovation should be pursued to ensure adequate allocation of resources. All the 17 goals on SDGs andthe Pillars of Agenda 2063 should find space within national budgeting and implementation plans.
Addressing Data accountability needs to facilitate evidenced based advocacy and implementation.
National ownership that prioritizes on people centered development to ensure Social, Political andEconomic accountability and transparency mechanisms inform all development processes in Africa.
Prioritizing on strategic partnerships “Leave No One Behind”-(Government, Civil Society Organizations(CSOs), Private Sector, Philanthropist, Religious organizations’, Trade Unions, Media & Academia). All
stakeholders are key and critical forces for grassroots implementation of all development agendas. Rulesof engagement should be clear especially with the private sector to ensure all interventions prioritize on
sustainable growth and human stability and NOT Profit on the expense of the latter.

We call on the TICAD co-sponsors to replicate other development initiatives and structures for Africa, by involving
African civil societies and other social networks and structures during the development stage of all TICAD process,during implementation and throughout the monitoring processes. A good example being how Africa tackled andcontinues to tackle health related challenges, especially HIV and AIDS. Development partners worked through anddirectly with local NGOs, CBOs and FBOs. This would ensure ownership by African peoples and their communities
on development targeted at them.
(ends)

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