“The Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Africa” was the subject of this year’s UNU Africa Day Symposium, held May 25 at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo. These symposiums are organised annually by UNU and the African Diplomatic Corps in Tokyo with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. This year we celebrated the tenth year of the series.

Coming a year after the conclusion of the TICAD IV conference held in Yokohama, the symposium examined the financial crisis with regard to the role of Japan and the TICAD process. Expert speakers and panellists were drawn from government and the public sector, as well as from the UN system and the private sector.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Yoshiro Mori, former prime minister of Japan and president of the Japan-African Union Parliamentary Friendship Association, and Elisabeth Tankeu, the African Union’s commissioner for trade and industry.

Speakers and panellists at the 2009 UNU Africa Day Symposium. From left, top row: Konrad Osterwalder; Jean Christian Obame; Yoshiro Mori; Nobuhide Minorikawa. Middle row: Elisabeth Tankeu; Eiji Hashimoto; Nobuyoshi Chihara; Kazushige Taniguchi. Bottom row: Takeshi Sagawa; June Kunugi; Drine Ime; and Noureddine Hached.

• UNU Africa Day Symposium series