Present in Africa since the post-independence era, and more intensively since the 1990s, Japan has been seeking to build a partnership of choice with African countries. This explains the creation in 2003 of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), from the ashes of the former cooperation agency of the same name. In the Timbuktu Institute's recent survey of local perceptions of security cooperation in the Sahel and West Africa, which covered Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Senegal and Togo, perceptions of JICA point to a certain lack of communication and a lack of understanding of its work. The Japanese agency seems to suffer from both a lack of visibility and a misunderstanding of its action.

Generally speaking, the overall results in the graph below show that the overwhelming majority of respondents see no positive aspects to this development cooperation. With regard to JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), it is one of the institutions receiving the fewest positive responses (19%) to its central policy, far behind, for example, traditional partners such as USAID (42%), the IMF (33%) and AFD (32%). Created on October 1^,2003, today's JICA is the result of a remodeling of the former semi-governmental organization founded in 1974, bearing the same acronym. Although cooperation between Africa and Japan is not as extensive as with Western partners, it remains dynamic. One example is the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), first held in 1993. However, the results of the study suggest that cooperation between Africa and Japan seems to be little-known.

Furthermore, a large majority (81%) say they are unaware of the positive aspects of JICA's cooperation with their country (graph 67). This result seems to reflect a lack of awareness rather than a negative judgment of JICA's activities. However, the Japanese agency has been supporting a number of African countries in the fields of education, health and agriculture, among others, through its programs and projects in recent years. In Togo, the results are more worrying; 90% gave a negative answer to this question on the positive aspects of the partnership with this Japanese cooperation agency (graph 68) .

This article is an adapted version of some of the findings of the report entitled "Sahel - West Africa: Security and development cooperation put to the test of local perceptions", published by the Timbuktu Institute on January 16, 2025.