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Conference name: Africa Kaizen Annual Meeting
Date: Tuesday, October 4 – Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Organized jointly by the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), the Government of Cameroon, and JICA
Location: Cameroon (Yaounde)
Main Participants
The meeting was attended by about 250 participants from 20 countries, including online. The Cameroonian participants included the Minister of SMEs, Social Economy, and Handicrafts, the Director General of the SME Promotion Agency, and the Mayor of Yaounde. From JICA, Director Imoto, International Cooperation Specialist Homma, and others attended the meeting. The online session was viewed by JICA project officials, donors, experts, and business people.
Background and Objectives
The Africa Kaizen Initiative (AKI) is a 10-year initiative launched in 2017 by AUDA-NEPAD and JICA, following the announcement of the Kaizen Initiative’s Africa-wide promotion at the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICADVI) in 2016.
Through discussions and networking among stakeholders, the annual meeting aims to share the policy implications of implementing kaizen, findings and lessons learned in each country, deepen understanding of kaizen, and discuss future course of action. So far, the annual meeting has been held in 2016 (Ethiopia), 2017 (Kenya) as a knowledge-sharing seminar, and since its holding in South Africa in 2018, it has been converted into an annual meeting, with hybrid meetings held in Tunisia in 2019, online in 2020, and in Tanzania in 2021.
Contents
Progress report on the AKI Action Plan and activities of each working group (WG)
AKI has formed five working groups, each of which is working on the following themes: building a certification system, consultant training curriculum, setting KPIs, organizing annual meetings, and strengthening the Center of Excellence function to serve as a core center for wide-area and third-country cooperation.
Each group reported the results of their analysis of the current situation for the development of certification guidelines, proposals for standard outcome indicators, and curriculum development, and confirmed that their activities are progressing according to the Action Plan.
- Panel discussion by PAPA, AUDA-NEPAD and JICA
A panel discussion was held among PAPA, AUDA-NEPAD, and JICA on the theme of “How Kaizen can contribute to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He also mentioned that further industrial development and trade promotion are important to promote AfCFTA and that ASEAN’s efforts can be used as a reference. The importance of promoting international trade was discussed.
- sharing good practices in Cameroon related to kaizen
As a model for kaizen in Cameroon, it was shared that BDS provision is done in collaboration with private sector consultants, that they are actively engaged in marketing and public relations activities, and that kaizen consultants are working on projects by other development partners such as UN agencies. The participants also shared that they are actively engaged in marketing and public relations activities.
4th Africa Kaizen Award (to recognize local companies for their kaizen efforts)
Eighteen companies from nine African countries applied for the competition, and based on the judging by a panel of experts from Japan and abroad, the Grand Prize in the Large Company Division went to a Tunisian company and the Excellence Award to a Mauritius company. In the small and medium-sized companies category, the Grand Prize went to a Cameroonian company and the Excellence Award to a Kenyan company.
Category Award Company Name Country Large Company OUTSTANDING PHOENIX MECANO ELCOM Tunisia Large Company EXCELLENT Archemics Ltd Mauritius Small and Medium Company OUTSTANDING MAKO INDUSTRIES SA Cameroon Small and Medium Company EXCELLENT Kega Fashions Ltd Kenya
Materials
Day 1
Day 2
© Source JICA