TICAD Ⅳ

Do you know anything about a event which happened in Yokohama city, Japan, from May 28 to 30?
More than 40 people from each african country assembled.

'TICAD Ⅳ' was held for 3 days in Japan. What does TICAD stand for?
TICAD means 'Tokyo International Conference on African Development(アフリカ開発会議).'
The first conference began in 1993 in Tokyo. The next one was held in 1998 in Tokyo. The third one was held in 2003. And the forth one was held this year in Yokohama city in Kanagawa prefecture.

Today I read the article related with the fourth conference. It raises question about the conference phrase 'Towards a Vibrant Africa.' What does this mean to the TICAD participants?
Does it just mean greater economic growth for the African countries?
The article gives us information that some observers and NGOs advocated that much more essential points for the stable growth in Africa were not discussed in TICAD.
The essential points are 'democratization' and 'redistribution of wealth.' The article also introduces Minoru Obayashi(a learder of TNet)'s interview. He said that 'Japan should send a clear message calling for democratization because it has no history of colonial rule in Africa, unlike some Europian countries.' I argue for his comment about Japan's democracy. I am not sure Japanese copied Europian democracy in completely the same way. Thus, I think that Japan's perception of democracy is different in some way. Also, I am not sure democracy have power to make all of countries and people happier and their lives safer and richer.
I want to pursue for this question through the study of international relations.

[Sources]
THE JAPAN TIMES Sunday, June, 1, 2008 「Making a continent 'vibrant'」
TICAD Ⅳ online brochure http://www.undp.or.jp/ticad/pdf/ticad_iv_j.pdf