JICA President Tanaka Visited Zambia

JICA President Tanaka Akihiko visited Zambia for the first time from June 1 to 6. He met with a number of government officials including President Hakainde Hichilema and Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane, gave a special lecture at the University of Zambia as part of the JICA Chair (JICA Program for Japanese Studies) to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Zambia, and also visited some JICA cooperation projects.

In his meeting with President Hichilema, President Tanaka expressed his delight at the steadily growing bilateral relations since diplomatic relations were established in 1964, and shared his intention to further cooperate, particularly in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure, health, and education. President Tanaka also shared his condolences for the current serious issue of drought damage in Zambia, and noted that the “Community-based Smallholder Irrigation (COBSI)” project (see Note 1) that JICA has cooperated on in Zambia is an effective approach to combatting the food crisis during droughts.
President Hichilema expressed his gratitude for the long-running cooperation with JICA, including sharing an anecdote about his life on the “Tokyo Way” (see Note 2), which was developed with the cooperation of Japan, and expressed his expectations for further cooperation in various fields, such as drought countermeasures and infrastructural development.
Also present at this meeting were Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo, Minister of Agriculture Reuben Mtolo Phiri, and Minister of Information and Media Cornelius Mweetwa, who all conveyed their gratitude for JICA’s cooperation in each of their fields, and their expectations for the future. In particular, Minister of Agriculture Phiri stated that he hoped to strongly promote COBSI, as mentioned above.
The meeting was streamed live on the President’s official Facebook page, and was viewed by many Zambian citizens (about 27,000 views).

Note 1 – Community-based Smallholder Irrigation (COBSI): An approach aimed at strengthening the overall resilience of smallholder farmers, which includes building simple dams with locally available natural materials (wood, soil, stones, etc.) to draw water from rivers for said smallholder farmers to continue growing during the dry season, as well as aiming to strengthen the organizational structure of farmer groups through water management and dam maintenance, further incorporating activities such as nutrition improvement and Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment & Promotion (SHEP) in terms of market-based agriculture.

Note 2 – Tokyo Way: About 15 km of roads in the southern part of Lusaka repaired with grant aid (2011-2014). The Lusaka City Council named this section of the project the “Tokyo Way” in 2015, and it has been known by that name in Zambia ever since.

President Tanaka also met with Minister of Finance and National Planning Musokotwane. Finance Minister Musokotwane shared his sincere gratitude for the extensive cooperation from Japan in the fields of science and technology, health, and agriculture (particularly irrigation), and noted that as the restructuring of Zambia’s government debt progresses, he hoped for further investment from the Japanese public and private sectors.
President Tanaka shared his respect for the efforts of the Zambian government to restructure its debt, and stated that JICA will continue to actively support infrastructure development to improve the investment environment, while also creating employment opportunities in agriculture as well as small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, President Tanaka gave a special lecture under the JICA Chair at the University of Zambia (hereinafter “UNZA”) in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Zambia. The event was attended by about 250 people, including UNZA faculty and students, as well as returned JICA training participants from the Zambian government.
Just prior to this lecture, the UNZA Vice-Chancellor Mundia Muya expressed strong gratitude for 40 years of cooperation with JICA since the establishment of the UNZA School of Veterinary Medicine in the 1980s, mainly in the form of grant aid and technical cooperation, and expressed hope for continued and stronger cooperation in the future.
President Tanaka’s special lecture was titled “A Japanese Perspective on International Relations in Compound Crises,” reflecting on the context of Zambia, which is facing complex crises from various challenges, including infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and cholera, food and power shortages due to drought, debt consolidation after the 2020 default, and job creation through industrial diversification from a monopolistic economy dependent on copper. The audience asked various questions about international relations and development, resulting in a lively discussion.

Furthermore, President Tanaka inspected the sites of projects with which JICA is cooperating, such as Chawama Hospital, one of the General Hospitals in Lusaka District, the Kazungula Bridge and its One Stop Border Post (OSBP) facility (see Note 3) which connects Zambia with Botswana, and the Livingstone Museum. All of these visits allowed him to confirm the results of many years of cooperation, and to share thoughts with JICA project personnel and Zambian government officials about future prospects.

On the basis of President Tanaka’s visit to Zambia, JICA will continue to look for ways for Japan and Zambia to connect, working as partners for the development of Zambia.

Note 3 – One Stop Border Post (OSBP): The initiative and facilities that allow the efficient movement of people and goods by making it possible to conduct customs and immigration procedures, which were previously carried out in separate countries, at a single location at the border between landlocked countries.