Japan unveils ‘relevant and timely’ HE initiatives

Higher education stakeholders have welcomed a set of new Japanese initiatives aimed at promoting research and development capacity in Africa as well as entrepreneurship and innovation skills among African students.

"We reaffirm our commitment to education at all stages and to accelerating research and development including, through the Pan African University, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as a key driver for achieving the AU Agenda 2063 and SDGs," read the Yokohama Declaration adopted at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD7, held from 28 to 30 August in Yokohama, Japan, under the theme: "Advancing Africa’s Development through People, Technology and Innovation".

The declaration also committed Japan to developing “the innovation, entrepreneurship and digital – including artificial intelligence – skills that young people and women need to thrive in a technologically-driven world”.

Professor Juma Shabani, director of the Doctoral School at the University of Burundi and former director of development, coordination and monitoring of UNESCO programmes with a special focus on Africa, described the new Japanese initiatives in human resource development in Africa as “relevant and timely”.

“They mainly focus on the training of young Africans in Japanese universities and enterprises and aim at promoting youth entrepreneurship and innovation," he told University World News.

Sustainable Development Goals

"The capacities that will be developed through these initiatives, coupled with ongoing Africa-Japan partnerships on the continent such as the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya, will help to build the science, technology and innovation capacities needed in African universities in order to enable them to contribute effectively to the implementation of the SDGs at national levels," he said.

TICAD7 is co-hosted by the Japanese government, the United Nations, the World Bank, the UN Development Programme and the African Union Commission. The next meeting, TICAD8, will be held in Africa in 2022.

At the TICAD7 opening ceremony, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in his speech that Japan had long emphasised human resource development in Africa.

"We are in an era in which the challenges Africa faces will be resolved through science, technology, and innovation," he said.

"At the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST) and at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, we will foster 5,000 young people who will advance STI [science, technology and innovation] into the future."

E-JUST President Ahmed El-Gohary described Japan’s contributions in African development as “tangible and recognised in almost every country in Africa”.

“It is amazing that such honourable assistance is so wide of scope to cover many areas of ‘sustainable’ development including higher education … E-JUST is a modality of these collaborations; it is technical assistance, partnering, investing in the human capital, networking, implementing transnational education and far beyond,” he said.

According to El-Gohary, 15 top-ranked Japanese universities are cooperating with E-JUST.

Referring to the agreement by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Japan's Prime Minister Abe to support 150 scholarships for African graduate students (masters and PhD) affiliated to STI universities and research institutes from Africa, El-Gohary said: "This aims to support the human development of STI African institutions, with an ultimate goal to initiate an STI network and to support the existing cooperation between African universities and the Japanese universities."

New TICAD

Abe also introduced the “New TICAD”, which, he said had been born at the TICAD meeting in Nairobi in 2016 and was growing “by leaps and bounds”.

"It is a partnership that lifts to greater heights the double Es of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘enterprise’, along with the double Is of ‘investment’ and ‘innovation’, Abe said.

Under the New TICAD, Abe also outlined a set of human resource development programmes for Africa, including the “African Business Education (ABE) Initiative 3.0”, which will involve the training in Japan over six years of 3,000 people who can contribute to the promotion of business between Japan and the African continent.

According to a 2018 TICAD report , the ABE Initiative for Youth offers opportunities for African students to study masters courses in Japanese universities and to experience internships at Japanese enterprises.

"The ABE Initiative, which nurtures industry leaders, has grown as many as 2,700 young people over the past five years," Abe said. "We now have 20 applicants vying for every opening."

"The number of Japanese companies welcoming them as interns is now 358 – 5.4 times the number when the initiative was first launched."

Saori Imaizumi, education specialist at the Education Global Practice unit of the World Bank and a delegate at the TICAD7 conference, welcomed the new initiatives.

"It is great that Japan is focusing on entrepreneurship, enterprise, innovation and investment in this new TICAD partnership with Africa," Imaizumi said. "For all of these aspects, human capital development is key."

"I hope that the World Bank-supported higher education projects such as the Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) and the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) can … leverage the partnerships that we are developing with Japanese universities and industries to improve research and innovation capacity in Africa."

"As a continuation of the ABE Initiative, we would like to provide the opportunities for African scholars to continue their study at PhD level in Africa."

Scaling up

"Japan can go beyond bilateral aid through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to promote higher education and scientific research," Imaizumi said. "For instance, if Japan can collaborate with the ACE project, access to 72 centres from 20 African countries becomes available to scale the impact."

“Partnering with various organisations is key for Japan to promote more support in this area at scale," Imaizumi said.

Professor Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid, based at Cairo's National Research Centre in Egypt, who obtained his PhD from the Japan-based Gifu University, told University World News it was important not to underestimate the benefits for Japan from such initiatives in boosting its soft power capabilities.

For example, the Japanese private sector, including companies and small and medium enterprises, could count on trained African students emerging from the ABE Initiative for Youth when they approach the African market, Abdelhamid said.