With the extensive network of Country Offices, expertise in key development areas such as Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Growth, Good Governance, Environment and Climate Change, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, and Gender, as well as the integrator role for UN development assistance, UNDP has been partnering with Japan to support and enhance the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), initiated in 1993, as one of the key forum for the advancement of dialogue and collaboration on African development. UNDP, as one of the co-organizers of TICAD along with Japan, UN-Office of Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), the World Bank and African Union Commission (AUC), has hosted a Special Unit for TICAD, which has been progressively integrated into the UNDP Regional Bureau of Africa (RBA) with a view to enhancing integrated UNDP support for the TICAD process. Through the Special Unit for TICAD, UNDP has consistently supported the successful expansion and evolution of the TICAD process and provided critical support in all relevant areas, including strategic, substantive, programmatic, technical and operational. Since the first TICAD welcomed 1,000 participants in Tokyo in 1993, TICAD has steadily grown into a major global platform for African development. TICAD VI was the first TICAD summit held in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya), brought together 11,000 high level participants, the largest ever recorded. Since then, two follow-up Ministerial meetings were held respectively in Maputo, Mozambique in August 2017 and in Tokyo, Japan in October 2018. UNDP’s contributions to this success, including the critical role it played to ensure the success of TICAD VI, are highly appreciated by wide-ranging stakeholders. TICAD 8 has been successfully held on 27 and 28 August 2022. TICAD 8 welcomed Japan and African countries (48 African countries including 20 heads of state and government) and was successfully conducted in-person with the adoption of the Tunis Declaration demonstrating the value of multilateralism in the context of multiple global threats to the achievement of SDGs on the African continent including COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and climate change, and how UNDP can contribute to the process of engaging a wide range of partners across Africa and Japan. The TICAD Unit is tasked with the follow-up of the TICAD 8 along with the TICAD Co-organizers, with the 30th anniversary of TICAD in 2023, the TICAD Ministerial Meeting to be held in 2024, and TICAD 9 announced to be held in Japan in 2025. Building upon TICAD 8 key achievements and preparing for TICAD’s 30th anniversary in 2023, UNDP TICAD Unit aims to intensify stakeholder outreach and engagement to advocate for fostering public-private partnerships and mobilizing resources for Africa to accelerate sustainable growth. Capitalizing on the TICAD platform and partners, UNDP, as one of the co-organizers, is expected to play a central role to build momentum by closely working with key public and private partners from Japan and Africa. The consultancy will be key in spearheading communication efforts, including advocacy of Japan funded projects across RBA.
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