Taking the opportunity of the TICAD Ministerial Meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, a side event was organized on 24 August 2017 which introduced the "Africa Clean Cities Platform" and called for participation. It was co-organized by the Ministry of Environment of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Plan for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat). The event was attended by a hundred people, including national delegations of the ministerial conference, central and local governments of Mozambique, the city of Yokohama, Japanese companies and Japan Overseas Cooperation (JOCV) volunteers.

At the beginning of the event, Mr David SIMANGO, President of the Maputo City Council, delivered a welcome speech, and Mr Arata Takebe, Parliamentary Vice Minister of Environment of Japan, delivered a keynote address calling for the promotion of the platform and the participation of many countries. Mr João Cipriano, Director of the Environmental Department of the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) of Mozambique, presented the Mozambican government's efforts such as the development of a database on waste management, and Mr Simão Mucavele, City Councillor of the Maputo Municipality, summarized the outline of the Maputo City 3R project and the context for the creation of the platform. Mr Kazunao Shibata, Director, Environmental Management Team 2, Environmental Management Group, Global Environment Department, JICA, presented the outline of the platform and recent progress.

Mr Kazuhiro Kawai, Executive Director, Office of Resources and Waste Recycling, City of Yokohama, presented the experience of the City of Yokohama in waste management and the status of training preparation in Yokohama. Joost Mohlmann, Programme Director, UN-Habitat Mozambique, provided an overview of the challenges of solid waste management in Africa, and Japanese companies presented technologies such as the Johkasou wastewater treatment plant and organic waste carbonization technology. During the Q&A session, questions were asked about the importance of the platform in Mozambique and the possibility for JICA to support African private companies. Finally, Mr Kunihiro Yamauchi, Director General of JICA's Global Environment Department, delivered the closing speech and called for "African country ownership to be the key to the success of the partnership for waste management in Africa and closed the event.

Location Hotel Avenida, Maputo, Mozambique

Co-organizers Ministry of Environment of Japan, JICA, UNEP, UN-Habitat