JICA President Akihiko Tanaka visited Angola and Malawi for the first time from February 29 to March 8. In Angola, he attended the presentation ceremony of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook, and in Malawi, he attended the handover ceremony of the Old Town Substation, which was constructed under the grant assistance “Lilongwe Substation Rehabilitation Project”.
- angora
In Angola, President Tanaka met with President Joao Lourenço and expressed his pleasure at the strengthening of bilateral relations since President Lourenço’s first visit to Japan in 2019, and President Tanaka expressed his willingness for further cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, vocational training, and health. They also confirmed that the two countries will work closely together to steadily implement the “Southern Power Grid Reinforcement Project,” which is currently under preparation as the second yen loan project in Angola.
Meeting with President Lourenço
In addition, President Tanaka attended the presentation ceremony of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook to the Angolan Ministry of Health. The Angolan Ministry of Health has been working on the development and dissemination of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook since 2017 through JICA’s technical cooperation “Project to Improve Maternal and Child Health Services through the Maternal and Child Health Handbook”. International organizations such as the World Bank and UNICEF, government agencies in the U.S., EU, and other countries, as well as CFAO, a group company of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, have endorsed the project and are cooperating in the dissemination of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook. This time, CFAO and JICA donated a total of approximately 150,000 new copies to the Ministry of Health. At the ceremony, Mr. Carlos Souza, Vice Minister of Health, thanked the Japanese public and private sectors for their cooperation and expressed his hope for further collaboration in the dissemination of the MCH handbook to all provinces in Angola by 2025.
Maternal and Child Health Handbook Presentation Ceremony
Maternal and child health handbook（cover and back cover)
In addition, the participants exchanged opinions on strengthening development cooperation in the Portuguese-speaking regions of Africa through visits to the “Project for Human Resource Development in Car Maintenance (commonly known as Toyota Angola Academy)” and the “Viana Vocational Training Center Development Project” (grant aid) and discussions with JICA experts and past participants in the training. The participants exchanged opinions on strengthening development cooperation in Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.
Toyota Angola Academy
Viana Vocational Training Center
Discussion with JICA experts and past training participants
- Malawi
In Malawi, JICA met with President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera. President Chakwera expressed his appreciation for JICA’s cooperation in helping the Malawian government realize its policies, and particularly appreciated the activities of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), which Malawi has hosted more than any other country in the world. President Tanaka explained that the main focus of JICA’s cooperation is the realization of human security, and confirmed that JICA will continue to work closely with the Government of Malawi to support its efforts.
Meeting with President Chakwera
JICA is supporting the renovation and expansion of two substations in the capital city of Lilongwe through this project. The Old Town Substation is an important substation that supplies electricity to the city center, but it had been experiencing frequent power outages due to maintenance and problems caused by aging transformers and related equipment. In addition, the demand for electricity is increasing with the population growth, and the substation needed to be expanded. At the handover ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Samuel Kawale, attended on behalf of the Minister of Energy, and expressed his gratitude for Japan’s support and his hope that the power supply situation would improve.
Old Town Substation Handover Ceremony
The participants also visited the technical cooperation project “Market-Oriented Small-Scale Horticulture Promotion Project,” the grant aid “Kamuzu International Airport Terminal Expansion Project,” and JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers’ activities to confirm the results of their cooperation over the years and to exchange views with JICA project officials and Malawian government officials on important future initiatives. They also exchanged opinions with JICA project officials and Malawian government officials on important future initiatives.
Project to Promote Market-Oriented Small-Scale Horticultural Farming
Kamuzu International Airport Terminal Building Expansion Project
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