African leaders, Japan and development agencies agreed yesterday on the urgent need to significantly boost agricultural productivity on the continent and pledged to tackle the impact of soaring food prices on health and poverty.
Participants at a three-day African development conference outlined three priority areas for the next five years: boosting economic growth, ensuring “human security” and addressing environmental issues.
Agriculture, they said, is key to Africa’s ability to support itself. They aim to double rice production on the continent in 10 years and expand irrigated land by 20 percent in five years.
They called for more research into drought-resistant crops and for Africa to tap into the agricultural prowess of countries like Japan.
PROMISES
They also promised to improve roads and power facilities, promote private-sector trade and investment, expand health care and education, and develop an effective international treaty beyond 2012 on climate change.
African leaders said they welcomed Japan’s plan to establish a US$10 billion program to help developing countries modernize their industries and address climate change.
“The conference took place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Africa determined to take responsibility for and to assert ownership over its own destiny, and an Africa increasingly confident and capable, itself, of determining that destiny,” the conference participants said in a joint declaration.
A major theme throughout the conference was Africa’s desire for self-sustaining economic growth.
The parties praised Africa’s increasing political stability, improved governance, strong economic growth of 5 percent a year and rising levels of foreign direct investment.
HUGE HURDLES
Still, they recognized that the continent faces serious hurdles such as widespread poverty and unemployment coupled with rapid population growth.
It is unlikely to meet many of the Millennium Development Goals — a set of eight objectives for poverty reduction, education, health, gender equality and the environment that UN member states agreed to try to achieve by 2015.
The parties urged the G8 industrialized nations, whose leaders will meet in Japan in July, to strengthen coordination with Africa.
“The participants acknowledge that while African governments bear primary responsibility for the economic and social well-being of their respective peoples, the international community, and Africa’s development partners in particular, have a crucial role to play in supporting Africa’s own efforts to address and overcome these challenges,” the statement said.
Hosted by Japan, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development first met in 1993 and has been held every five years since then.
This week’s gathering was the largest yet, drawing some 2,500 delegates from 50 African countries, international organizations and other governments.
JAPANESE OFFER
On the opening day of the conference, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda unveiled a series of proposals for Africa, including the doubling of Japanese aid to US$1.9 billion and up to US$4 billion in flexible, low-interest loans for infrastructure projects over the next five years.
Japan also pledged US$100 million in emergency food aid.
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