News

CEO Mayaki (left) and President Kitaoka

On Nov. 26, JICA President KITAOKA Shinichi had an online meeting with Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the African Union Development Agency - New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD).

At the beginning of the meeting, President Kitaoka said that now is the time to reaffirm the solidarity between the two organizations and to strengthen their collaboration in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. CEO Mayaki expressed his deep gratitude to JICA and his appreciation for the achievements of the cooperation between the two organizations to date.

In addition, CEO Mayaki commented positively on the coordinated response of African countries to the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent, but also raised concerns about the worsening debt problems of African countries. The two leaders later affirmed the need for the international community to work in tandem to address the economic damage facing Africa.

The AUDA-NEPAD and JICA Annual Consultative Conference followed the meeting between two leaders. JICA Vice-President NAKAMURA Toshiyuki and CEO Mayaki led the annual consultative conference. The direction of future collaboration and specific activities were confirmed in the areas of (1) regional infrastructure, (2) agriculture and nutrition, and (3) KAIZEN, in which the two organizations have been collaborating so far, and in the new collaborative areas of (4) private sector support initiative launched in 2020 in response to the pandemic and (5) research cooperation.

JICA and AUDA-NEPAD will continue to further solidify their collaboration and contributions to the development of the entire African continent by encouraging African ownership.