summary
Conference name: JICA YALI Alumni networking event in Ghana
Date: May 2, 2023
Organized jointly by JICA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Location: Ghana (Accra)
Main Participants
This event was attended by 56 people, including online participants.
From USAID, graduates of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) program, a training program funded by USAID and implemented by the Ghana School of Business Administration, participated from various African countries (Ghana, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, etc.). Other participants included staff from the YALI West Africa Regional Leadership Center, USAID Headquarters, and USAID West Africa Regional Office.
From JICA, entrepreneurs who completed the NINJA program, which supports the establishment of start-up ecosystems in developing countries, graduates of the ABE Initiative, an industrial human resource development program for African youth, counterparts from the Ghana Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, a technical cooperation project “Enterprise Promotion Project using Kaizen,” and local companies that received Kaizen training participated. The Ghana Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, a counterpart of the “Promotion of Enterprises Using Kaizen” project, and local companies that received kaizen training participated. Other participants included staff from JICA Ghana Office, JICA United States Office, and JICA Headquarters.
Background and Objectives
USAID requested collaboration between the YALI program and JICA in the area of enterprise support, and discussions were held, as the YALI West Africa Regional Leadership Center was interested in NINJA and Kaizen, which meet the needs of YALI program graduates who run small and medium enterprises, Details of the collaboration were discussed.
The YALI program has a Regional Leadership Center in Ghana and has been conducting training programs for African youth since 2015. Ghana was selected as the first country to implement the program because JICA was also implementing a comprehensive project that included both Kaizen and NINJA components in its technical cooperation project “Enterprise Promotion Project Using Kaizen”.
As a first step of the collaboration, a networking event was planned and implemented to deepen understanding between YALI, Kaizen and NINJA, and to provide a place where graduates of both JICA’s NINJA, ABE Initiative and YALI programs can exchange their experiences of starting and growing as young entrepreneurs, learn about Japanese and African business cultures, and create future matching opportunities. The networking event was planned and implemented to provide an opportunity to learn about business culture in Japan and Africa and to create matching opportunities in the future.
Contents
Program of the day
Presentation Session
- description of the YALI program
Director of YALI West Africa Regional Leadership Center explained about the YALI program, and mentioned expectations for synergy effects of collaboration with JICA.
- Description of the ABE Initiative
Daniel, CEO of Transonica, who completed the ABE Initiative and was subsequently selected as the second place winner in the audience vote for the 2020 NINJA program, gave an overview of the ABE Initiative and what he learned from the program.
Explanation of Kaizen Concept
Ms. Juliana and Ms. Steffenia, business advisors from the Ghana Small and Medium Enterprise Authority, counterparts of the “Promoting Enterprises Using Kaizen Project,” shared with us the concept of kaizen and examples of kaizen.
4.Explanation of the NINJA concept
Ruth, who participated in the 2022 NINJA program, explained the concept of the Lean Method, which was the main topic of the program, and introduced her own practice.
Round Table Session
Each participant was divided into three groups to discuss the theme of “How can I apply Kaizen and Lean Methods to my business? There was a lively exchange of opinions, with participants expressing their desire to introduce standardization of work, a characteristic of kaizen, and expressing their impressions of the high level of NINJA entrepreneurs utilizing lean methods, as well as sharing examples of collaboration with JICA volunteers in kaizen.
Future Collaboration
Follow-up to this networking event is being considered.
In addition, as this networking event was the first step in the collaboration between JICA and USAID in the area of corporate support, we are planning to visit companies that have introduced kaizen and to visit companies initiated by YALI alumni in the future.
In addition, the participants exchanged ideas for collaboration between the YALI program and Kaizen Training, as well as a networking event for government officials.
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