(November 25, 2015, Nairobi-KENYA) The Civic Commission for Africa, a Pan-African civil society network to advocate for Africa’s development with a special focus on TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development), held the General Assembly in Nairobi and elected its new Pan-African Executive Committee on November 25. Japan Citizen’s Network for TICAD (JCNT), its a counterpart network in Japan for TICAD, congratulates the establishment of the new Executive Board to fully prepare for TICAD VI, which will be held in Africa for the first time in the history of TICAD.
“It is a historic moment that African civil society has established a complete Pan-African civil society network for TICAD,” said Masaki Inaba, one of the board members of JCNT. “The Executive Committee consists of the representatives from five regions of Africa, including South, East, North, West and Central”. Notably, Mr. Abderrazak Ben Haj Zekri, the Executive Director of Tunisian Human Rights Defenders League and the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is among the new Executive Committee member.
For the General Assembly of CCfA, JCNT sent three representatives including Mr. Inaba, and CCfA and JCNT held a joint session on Africa’s sustainable development on the first day of the Assembly. During the session, Mr. Inaba stressed, “In the era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) starting from 2016, African civil society will play a key role for Africa’s development. Japanese civil society will work together with CCfA, and will jointly advocate for TICAD to make it truly beneficial for the ordinary African people’s lives.”
The new Executive Committee members of the Civic Commission for Africa are the following:
President: Maungo Mooki (Botswana: Southern Africa)
Vice President (African Affairs): Willibroad Dze-Ngwa (Cameroon: Central Africa)
Vice President (Int’l Affairs and Advocacy): Mountaga Toure (Mali)
Treasurer: Olive Mumba (Tanzania, East Africa)
West Africa: Oumarou Paul Koalaga (Burkina Faso)
North Africa: Abderrazak Ben Haj Zekri (Tunisia)
Kenya (for TICAD VI): Florence Syevuo (Kenya)
