By Xinhua,
Yokohama : The Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) closed here Friday after drawing out a road-map for the development of Africa in the next five years.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda declared the meeting closed at a ceremony Friday morning.
After three-day discussions, leaders from African countries and representatives from development partners at the conference adopted the Yokohama Declaration and the Yokohama Action Plan, committing themselves to work towards boosting economic growth, ensuring human security and addressing environmental issue and climate change in Africa.
On economic growth, the participants stressed that it is essential to accelerate broad-based economic growth in the region, keeping a principle of ownership by African countries, international partnership, and the expansion of South-South cooperation.
One of the planned actions is to put financial and technical assistance for the development of infrastructure and agriculture, and to promote trade, investment and tourism.
On human security, the participants called for increased support to health and education programs as well as consolidation of peace and stability in the region.
On climate change, increased support will be mobilized for climate change activities, including disaster prevention plans, early warning systems for droughts and floods, and Global map data for the entire Africa.
The progress will be monitored through the TICAD follow-up mechanism.
The participants noted that more vigorous impetus is necessary to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
They also urged the Group of Eight (G-8) nations to honor their commitments already made for African development.
The outcome from the meeting will be fed into the G-8 summit, which will be held at Japan’s Hokkaido Toyako in July, to seek G-8’s active support to the African development.
Delegates highlighted the closer Africa-Asia cooperation and intra-regional cooperation. They also called for productive usage of international aid and balanced and broad-areas assistance in the region.
The “early reform of the main UN bodies” was also mentioned in the declaration which says, “The participants reemphasized that the member states should exert efforts on the Security Council reform during the current session of the UN General Assembly.”
Under the theme of “Toward a Vibrant Africa: A Continent of Hope and Opportunity”, the conference is co-organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.
Delegates from African countries and international and regional organizations, including 40 heads of state and government, attended the meeting.