On May 2–3, 2011, JCIE organized a symposium and roundtable on “Health and Human Security in Africa” in Dakar, Senegal. The events were organized in conjunction with the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Follow-Up Meeting. These ministerial meetings are held periodically to follow up on commitments made at TICAD IV in 2008. TICAD summits have been held every five years since 1993 and operate as the preeminent global framework for Asia and Africa to collaborate in promoting Africa’s development.
At the symposium, senior Japanese and African government officials spoke about their countries’ efforts to improve health and development in Africa, including Japanese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chiaki Takahashi and Senagalese Minister of Urbanization, Housing, Construction and Water Oumar Sarr. Human security luminaries Miriam Were, Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Laureate, and Yukio Takasu, Special Advisor on Human Security to United Nations Secretary General, delivered keynote addresses, providing insight into the many roles that the human security framework can play in improving health outcomes in Africa.
In addition, some of the most well known African promoters of global health and human security presented in-depth reviews of their work current underway on the ground in Africa, including Cheick Tidiane Tall (African Council of AIDS Service Organizations), Noerine Kaleeba (AIDS Support Organization Uganda), Lola Dare and Adrien Sonko (CHESTRAD), and Fru Fobushi Angwafo III (Ministry of Public Health, Cameroon).
The roundtable on the following day provided a more intimate opportunity to explore individual human security approaches and case studies. Members of the Executive Committee of JCIE’s Global Health and Human Security Program, Yasushi Katsuma and Masamine Jimba, provided analysis from JCIE study trips in Ethiopia and Senegal undertaken the preceding week, as well as cases that the JCIE team has been collecting from organizations throughout Africa. Then, global health experts Cheikh Seydil Moctar Mbacke (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) and Carlos Santos–Burgoa (Pan America Health Organization) took a wider perspective on the discussion, exploring how the human security approach can be used to meet broad international targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals, across the African continent and beyond.
Participants in the symposium and roundtable agreed that human security, with its emphasis on linking community empowerment to top-down protection approaches, is a valuable tool for promoting better health outcomes and, more generally, wellbeing in Africa. With that agreement, now is the time for a more in-depth exploration of what human security looks like in its implementation in Africa and elsewhere and how it can be integrated into the policy frameworks of governments, international organizations, and local NGOs. The next phase of JCIE’s project will focus on similar topics in Latin America, as the team draws lessons from case studies it is studying in both Africa and Latin America
Satellite Symposium (May 2)
Opening Remarks
Tadashi Yamamoto, President, JCIE [moderator]
Aw. Boubacar, Department Chief, Higher Institute of Management, Enterprise and Organization (ISMEO), CESAG
Kazunori Oshiyama, Director General of Africa Department, JICA
Opening Speeches
Oumar Sarr, Minister of Urbanization, Housing, Construction and Water, Senegal
Chiaki Takahashi, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Keynote Speeches: What “Health and Human Security” Means in Africa
Moderator:
Tadashi Yamamoto
Speakers:
Miriam Were, Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Laureate
Yukio Takasu, Special Advisor on Human Security to United Nations Secretary General; Ambassador of Japan for Human Security
Presentations from the Ground
Moderators:
Cheick Tidiane Tall, Executive Director, African Council of AIDS Service Organizations (AfriCASO)
Masamine Jimba, Professor and Chairman, Department of Community and GLobal Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo
Presenters:
1) Empowering Communities to Respond to Health Threats
Noerine Kaleeba, Patron and Founder, AIDS Support Organization (TASO) Uganda; Deputy Chair, AMREF International Board of Directors
Lola Dare, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Governing Council, Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development (CHESTRAD)
2) Enhancing Protection of Communities to Deal with Health Threats—Policy, Implementation, and Service Delivery
Adrien Sonko, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Governing Council, Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development (CHESTRAD)
Fru Fobushi Angwafo III, Secretary General, Ministry of Public Health, Cameroon
Concluding Remarks: African Strategies to Human Security and Health
Moderator:
Tadashi Yamamoto
Speaker:
Matshidiso Moeti, Assistant Regional Director, World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (AFRO)
Closing remarks:
Aw. Boubacar
Satellite Roundtable (May 3)
Opening Remarks
Tadashi Yamamoto, President, JCIE [moderator]
Amani Kofi, Director, High Institute of Health Management, CESAG
Hiroshi Fukuda, Japanese Ambassador to Senegal
Hisatoshi Okubo, Resident Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Senegal Office
Session 1: Findings from case studies
Moderator:
Susan Hubbard, Senior Associate, JCIE, USA
Presenters:
Theoretical framework: Yasushi Katsuma, Professor, International Studies Program, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University; Director, Waseda Institute for Global Health
Cases: Masamine Jimba, Professor and Chairman, Department of Communty and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo
Discussion
Session 2: Added values of human security approaches in achieving MDGs and beyond
Moderator:
Lola Dare, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Governing Council, Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development (CHESTRAD)
Discussants:
Cheikh Seydil Moctar Mbacke, Member, Scientific Advisory Committee of the INDEPTH Network
Carlos Santos–Burgoa, Senior Adviser for Violence, Injury and Human Security, Pan America Health Organization (PAHO)
Discussion
Concluding Remarks
Moderator:
Tadashi Yamamoto
Speakers:
Bruno Kubata, Coordinator, Research for Health Initiatives in Africa, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
Miriam Were, Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Laureate
Yukio Takasu, Ambassador for Human Security; Special Advisor on Human Security to United Nations Secretary General
