"CEAC Commentary" introduces news analyses andopinions in Japan on the concept of an East AsianCommunity, but they do not represent the views ofCEAC as an institution.

August 22, 2008

WhatJapan

ShouldandCouldDoforDevelopment Aid to Africa
By IRIYAMA Akira
The Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV)
ended without a hitch. The Prime Minister Fukuda had meetings with forty heads of Africanstates, allocating to each fifteen-minute slot. Meetings were probably through an interpreter,
since it is quite doubtful that Mr. Fukuda has a good command of English, French and/or
Swahili. Accordingly, if we exclude the time of interpretation, each meeting must have been
virtually seven and a half minutes long. Thus, only three minutes and forty five seconds wereallowed per person for his or her remark. I do appreciate that hard work. The development aid
from Japan will be doubled. And infrastructure development, whose importance I have been
underlining for years, was emphasized at the beginning of the declaration. It seems that theConference worked out pretty well, thereby showing off Japan's presence. Or did it not?
Broadly speaking, African economy seems to have recovered from the prolonged
doldrums and now got on the right track, marking economic growth rate of slightly less than29%. However, such growth mainly relies on natural resources, including gas, petroleum andmineral resources. As a detrimental consequence of this kind of economic growth, all benefits
flow only to a handful of the privileged and the impoverished state of general public is hardlyimproved, due to the malfunction of wealth distribution system. We can see everywhere suchfamiliar scene as foreign luxury cars passing and skyscrapers towering against slum areas which
teems with trash scavengers, while countries poor in natural resources are still suffering fromdire poverty.
I do not intend to ruin one of those rare bright news about Africa, much less tocriticize the aid policies expressed by the Japanese government at the Conference. In fact, incontrast to countries scrambling for natural resources or making prodigious profits by arms sales
to both parties in a civil war, Japan's stance is much to be praised. Nevertheless, more often thannot, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You know the common tale that aid supply
merely fills the pocketbook of some ruling class, but that is not all. It is quite possible thatwhimsical speculation would bring about unintended consequences, as is shown in the case of
our rice crop support in Africa, or miracle rice called "NERICA (New Rice for Africa)," whichis hailed as a success of Japan's development aid in Africa.

1Indeed, "NERICA" is yielding remarkable results. Yet, the population in sub-SaharanAfrica living on rice account for less than 30 % of the whole population in Africa. The
remaining 70 % of the population live on maize. Besides, their agriculture overwhelmingly
relies on rainwater. Rice crop requires far more water per unit of crop yields. This is not to saythat the promotion of "NERICA" is a misdirected way of aid. Instead, we should warn against
the assumption that "NERICA" is a panacea for starvation in Africa. Africa has no future
without the increase of productivity in agricultural sector, along with the economic growth led
by natural resources. Hopefully, the wealth yielded by the natural resources should be equitably
distributed and spent for the promotion of basic agricultural sector. But we should refrain fromsuch kind of nincompoopery.
Therefore aid is crucial. Although aid by itself cannot save Africa, it could have a
pump-priming effect for shaping their policy-orientation. Or, we should say it is the only
promising resource for us. Therefore, we must count on well-devised aid policy which is basedon calculation rather than unintended evil brought about by goodwill or sincerity. I believe
Japan is almost the only country capable of doing it.
(This is the English translation of an article written by Mr. IRIYAMA Akira, Guest
Professor of Cyber University, and Executive Research Advisor of International
Development

CenterofJapan,

which“Hyakka-Somei” of CEAC on July 26, 2008)2

originallyappearedontheBBS