Third, it is important that the people who were affected by conflicts regain independence at an early date in order to swiftly restore peace. From this viewpoint, consideration should be paid to individual and community empowerment as well as assistance for self-reliance via community rebuilding and vocational training, in addition to special consideration for the socially vulnerable. Consideration should also be paid to the social rehabilitation and reintegration of victims.

Finally, it is important to provide assistance for improving Africa’s peacekeeping capacity. In particular, with regard to this final point, Japan worked together with UNDP in 2008 to start assistance for PKO Training Centers in African countries, and worked with UNESCO to commence NGO human resources development. Japan has also launched a human resources development project at home in the peacebuilding sector to foster civilian experts capable of engaging in global peacebuilding activities including those in Africa.

However, peace achieved through these measures will not last without good governance. In recent years, the importance of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the pillar of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), has been widely recognized across the African continent with more participating countries. Japan believes that it is important to put the resulting national action programs into action, and has thus commenced a project to support the implementation of the program in Ghana, which was the first country to complete the review in the APRM.

### Section 4. Environmental and Climate Change Issues

### 1. Climate Change

Africa is said to be one of the continents most susceptible to the impact of climate change. While Africa has the second largest tropical forest in the world, the Congo Basin, it also has the world's largest desert, the Sahara Desert. The continent is largely vulnerable to drought, reductions in food production, flooding from frequent torrential rain and rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity, and changes in the distribution of diseases such as malaria brought by climate change. Moreover, Africa is not equipped with adequate capacity to adapt to these changes.

Measures to adapt to climate change contribute to eliminating obstacles that hinder growth in Africa, and these measures are becoming more and more important for African development. As discussed in Part I, Japan supports efforts for cutting emissions in developing countries including those in Africa. In addition it has announced the Cool Earth Partnership in order to support developing countries that are negatively impacted by climate change. Japan will strengthen partnerships with developing countries in order to reduce greenhouse gases on a global scale.

Japan will proactively support countermeasures against serious climate change in Africa by actively building this partnership with African countries. Before TICAD IV, Japan called on African countries to join the Japan-Africa Cool Earth Partnership. Thereafter, at TICAD IV, participants commented in the Chair's Summary that they welcome the Japan-Africa Cool Earth Partnership.

As a part of the specific assistance measures based on this partnership, Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a co-organizer of TICAD IV, announced at the conference that they will establish a Japan-UNDP Joint Framework for Building Partnership to Address Climate Change in Africa. This joint framework is meant to balance greenhouse gas reduction and economic growth, whereupon Japan and UNDP will jointly provide a total of at least US$120 million for the climate change countermeasures of African countries working independently for climate stabilization. Specifically, the framework will provide assistance for national capacity building for adapting to climate change, reviewing poverty reduction strategies based on economic evaluations of climate change, and implementing training for climate change countermeasures.

As of October 2008, Japan had activated the Cool Earth Partnership in approximately 20 African countries. Specifically, Japan decided to extend ¥800 million in non-project grant aid to Senegal and ¥900 million to Madagascar. It will also contribute US$400,000 for community-based projects for adapting to climate change in Namibia and Niger through UNDP. Japan anticipates that such assistance will help African countries overcome their vulnerability to climate change and promote their active involvement in making an effective future framework.

### 2. Support of Water and Sanitation

## (1) Current Situations in Africa

The goal seven of the MDGs “ensure environmental sustainability” sets a target to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of population without sustainable access to safe drinking