Assessing Japan’s ownership promotion within Africa: cases of Tanzania and Ghana

Abstract

This research aims to look within Japan’s efforts to promote ownership within Africa throughout the platform of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). The conference emphasises the disbursement of Official Development Assistance as a pivotal tool to fostering self-help within the continent of Africa. The research will assess whether Japan’s efforts in Africa have promoted a level of ownership within Africa by looking at the cases of Tanzania and Ghana. As two of Japan’s major African recipients of ODA during the past 5 years, these countries will provide good grounds to evaluate Japan’s engagement with African states by focusing on development projects that have been implemented through ODA within these two countries. Overall, the paper will give an efficient test of Japan’s aid performance and reflect on the viability of the TICAD platform as a harbinger of development in Africa.