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Dr. Mayaki (left) and President Kitaoka

On October 28, JICA President KITAOKA Shinichi held talks online with Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the African Union Development Agency- New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD).

In their exchange of views on the response to the COVID-19 crisis, President Kitaoka stressed the importance of Africa standing on their own feet, applauded AUDA-NEPAD for promoting pandemic response with Africa’s local products and services (Home Grown Solutions), and emphasized that JICA will continue to support the promotion of the initiative. He also expressed his delight at the signing of the revised Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) between JICA and AUDA-NEPAD as a testimony of the growing collaboration between the two organizations.

In response, Dr. Mayaki expressed his appreciation for JICA’s support in response to the COVID-19 crisis and commented that Africa has many things to learn from both Japan's experience in its modernization and its development cooperation in Asia. He stated his desire to promote cooperation between the two organizations based on the concept of the "JICA Chair" (JICA Program for Japanese Studies).

The two then signed the revised MOC in order to expand and enhance the collaboration leading up to the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) to be held in Tunisia next year. Under this revised MOC, the two organizations will work collaboratively in the areas of local private sector support, especially in the field of healthcare, and research, in addition to regional integration, KAIZEN, as well as food and nutrition.

In the subsequent AUDA-NEPAD/JICA Annual Consultation, in addition to reviewing the efforts over the past year, the two organizations talked about specific collaborative activities for TICAD8.

JICA will continue to collaborate with AUDA-NEPAD to contribute to Africa's development while respecting African ownership.