TICAD Should Keep Focus on Japan Investing in Africa, Not Merely Offering Aid

By Joao Filipe Papel / Special to The Japan News

5:50 JST, August 20, 2025

For more than 30 years, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) has stood as a beacon of engagement between Japan and Africa. The forum was established in 1993 to renew global focus on Africa’s development and foster peace through partnership. Prioritizing inclusivity and African ownership, TICAD has been co-organized with African and international institutions from the outset. This legacy is admirable.

Yet today TICAD stands at a crossroads. Africa and the world have changed, and the old donor-recipient paradigm has run its course. It is time for a bold reimagining of TICAD, to shift from an aid-centric model to an investment-focused paradigm by transforming the Tokyo International Conference for African Development into a true “Tokyo Investment Conference for African Development.”

This would be more than a semantic tweak. It would represent a major shift from passive aid to cocreated strategic partnerships that emphasize African agency, human capital, technology transfer and sustainable infrastructure.

Decades of development aid have delivered mixed results and often perpetuated a one-sided narrative of benefactor and beneficiary, donor and recipient. As U.N. Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed urged at TICAD 8 in 2022, we must “shift the perception of Africa as a dependent continent to one that is a key actor on the global stage, with the same rights and standing as any other region.” This means retiring the mindset of charity and embracing a new ethos of mutual respect and benefit.

Guided by the African Union’s Agenda 2063, officially described as a “master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future,” Africa is embracing self-determined, inclusive development, driven by its youthful innovators and growing focus on industrialization and regional integration. In this context, the donor-recipient model is outdated: Africa is a pillar of global growth and a strategic partner.

TICAD is uniquely positioned to lead this paradigm shift, precisely because of its history. Unlike some other international forums, it was conceived from the outset as open, multilateral and owned by Africa as much as by Japan. Launched in 1993, TICAD reengaged a post-Cold War world that had overlooked Africa, involving the United Nations, the African Union, the World Bank, civil society and the private sector as co-organizers. Over time, TICAD evolved from an aid-centric forum to one prioritizing investment, trade and human capacity building, as illustrated by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2019 remarks about $20 billion in recent private investment at that time. Aligned with Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, TICAD is now poised to fully embrace partnership-driven growth and codevelopment at its core.

Redefining TICAD starts with a mindset shift from “Made in Japan” to “Made Together,” moving toward initiatives jointly conceived and executed by Japanese and African partners. This means African and Japanese engineers working collaboratively on infrastructure, factories developed with local talent and materials and shared equity in projects. Key investment areas include training and entrepreneurship programs to scale up human capital, technology transfer via joint research centers and incubators (leveraging Africa’s resource wealth, such as Mozambique’s rare earth minerals) and cofinancing sustainable infrastructure designed for local employment and climate resilience.

At the heart of this new TICAD is shared responsibility and ownership, with both Japan and the African Union committed to cocreating solutions. This “Made Together” approach embeds African agency at every stage, ensuring development is carried out with Africa, not simply for Africa.

Reimagining TICAD as an investment-focused partnership conference fosters mutual economic growth, addressing Japan’s need for dynamic new markets while empowering Africa through high-quality technology and sustainable development expertise. Such an approach ensures genuine progress beyond traditional aid. Ultimately, transforming TICAD into a partnership of equals fortifies African sovereignty, promotes dignity and builds lasting trust and prosperity for both regions. By doubling down on codevelopment, Japan can demonstrate that it doesn’t just seek to help Africa, but to grow alongside it.

As TICAD 9 opens in Yokohama, we have a historic chance to pivot from traditional aid to bold, investment-focused partnerships emphasizing cocreation, innovation and youth. Turning this vision into action requires setting clear investment targets, translating discussions into concrete projects, and embracing mutual accountability.

This year’s TICAD offers a window of opportunity for Japan to move beyond aid promises and announce plans to launch joint investment funds, innovation hubs for entrepreneurs and large-scale skills training for African youth. African nations should present transparent, viable projects that attract meaningful investment benefiting their people broadly. Together, both sides must build a new norm in which projects bear African and Japanese fingerprints equally.

This reimagined TICAD upends old conventions, shifting toward a partnership based on dignity, shared growth and mutual prosperity. It reflects a profound belief in Africa’s potential, moving from donated development to genuine cocreation. Let TICAD 9 mark our commitment to transforming “Made in Japan” into “Made Together.” This is an ambitious call. But as Nelson Mandela reminded us, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Joao Filipe Papel

Joao Filipe Papel is a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and United Nations University (JSPS-UNU) postdoctoral fellow at the UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability in Tokyo. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNU.