News

Overview

Event name: Africa Kaizen Annual Conference 2022
Date: 4 - 5 October 2022
Sponsors: AUDA NEPAD, Government of Cameroon, and JICA
Location: Yaoundé, Cameroon

Moderators and panelists

The meeting was attended by about 250 participants from 20 countries, including participants via online.

Primary objectives and outcomes

The Africa Kaizen Initiative (AKI) is a 10-year initiative launched in 2017 by AUDA-NEPAD and JICA following the announcement of the Africa-wide promotion of the Kaizen Initiative at the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in 2016.

Through discussions and networking among stakeholders, Africa Kaizen Annual Conference is held to share 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 6 Annual Conference have been implemented since the 2016.

Content of the discussions

1. Progress of the AKI Action Plan and Report on Activities of Each Working Group (WG)
AKI has formed five working groups, and each group reported the results of their analysis of the current situation in order to develop certification guidelines, propose standard performance indicators, and formulate training curriculum etc, and confirmed that their activities are progressing according to the action plan.

2. Sharing good practices in Cameroon on kaizen
As a Kaizen model in Cameroon, it was shared that BDS is provided in collaboration with consultants from the private sector, that marketing and public relations activities are being actively undertaken, and that kaizen consultants are working on projects by other development partners such as UN agencies.

3. Panel Discussion by PAPA, AUDA-NEPAD, and JICA
A panel discussion was held among PAPA, AUDA-NEPAD, and JICA on the theme of "Policy implication of Kaizen/QPI on transforming
MSMEs thereby contributing to the establishment and strengthening of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)". It was 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 also discussed.

4. The 4th Africa Kaizen Award
Eighteen companies from nine African countries applied for the awards, and based on the screening by the Examinationn Committee consisting of experts from Japan and abroad, the Outstanding Award in the large scale category went to a Tunisian company, and the Excellent Award to a Mauritius company. In the small and medium scale category, the Outstanding Award went to a Cameroonian company and the Excellent Award to a Kenyan company.

[Category] large scale
Award: OUTSTANDING / Company: PHOENIX MECANO ELCOM / Country:Tunisia
Award: EXCELLENT / Company: Archemics Ltd / Country:Mauritius

[Category] small and medium scale
Award: OUTSTANDING / Company: MAKO INDUSTRIES SA / Country:Cameroon
Award: EXCELLENT / Company: Kega Fashions Ltd / Country:Kenya

• Announcement of AKA2022 results (PDF/293KB)

Day 1:

1) Brief review of the framework of AKI

• AKI 2018-2021 Accomplishments and the Way forward (PDF/1.46MB)

2) Country reports by 4 haeds of AKI Ptential CoEs (Ethiopia,Mauritiau,South Africa,Tunisia)

• Ethiopia_Four Country Reports by Heads of AKI Potential Centre of Excellences (PDF/3.21MB)
• Mauritius_Four Country Reports by Heads of AKI Potential Centre of Excellence (PDF/875KB)
• South Africa_Four Country Reports by Heads of AKI Potential Centre of Excellences (PDF/938KB)
• Tunisia_Four Country Reports by Heads of AKI Potential Centre of Excellences (French) (PDF/233KB)

3) Presentation on outputs by AKI-AP Working Gourps (WG1&3,2,5)

• WG1_3 report presentation for AKAC2022 (PDF/1.09MB)
• WG2 report presentation for AKAC2022 (PDF/984KB)
• WG5 report presentation for AKAC2022 (PDF/498KB)

4) Presentation on How to create management mechanisims for AKAC (WG4)

• WG4_How to create management mechanisms for AKAC_AKA (PDF/589KB)

Day 2:

1) Presentation on good practices of Kaizen in Cameroon (Cameroon model)

• Good practices of Kaizen Approach and Cameroon model_part1 (PDF/811KB)
• Good practices of Kaizen Approach and Cameroon model_part2 (PDF/1.22MB)

2) Online seminar on policy implication of Kaizen on AfCFTA

• Benefits of Kaizen for MSMEs and AfCFTA (PDF/1.53MB)
• Interventions of PAPA (PDF/976KB)

3) Awarding Ceremony of 2022

• Introduction of AKA2022 (PDF/394KB)
• Overall comments by Prof. Osada (PDF/115KB)

4) Comminique

• Final COMMUNIQUE (PDF/151KB)
• Final COMMUNIQUE (French) (PDF/234KB)