In 2007, JICA launched a technical cooperation project titled "Capacity Development of Public Administration" with the aim of improving the capacity of the Ghanaian Civil Service Training Center (CSTC). This is an interesting case where a wide range of knowledge was sought and accumulated from a variety of sources in order to achieve the objective.
The project focused on two key cross-cutting themes: Ethical Leadership (EL) and Quality and Productivity Improvement (QPI). From the onset, the project tried to seek knowledge and experience not only from Japan but also from other Asian and Sub-Sahara African countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Tanzania and South Africa, which are the members of the Commonwealth and share many common features in their civil service. In particular, the Civil Service College (CSC) in Singapore played a central role. JICA, with its close ties with these partners, played the dual role of catalyst and knowledge actor. During the project, the Ghanaian CSTC acquired relevant knowledge resources from partner countries through diverse modes of triangular cooperation, including face-to-face training sessions as well as videoconferencing.
Ghanaian officials exchange knowledge with their Southern counterparts.
Extensive and intensive exchanges were promoted between Ghanaian officials and their Southern counterparts. All through these programs, CSTC applied a systematic approach to planning, execution and evaluation of training. Complemented by the improvement of training facilities, the annual number of training programs offered at CSTC has increased from 15 courses to 54 a year, which reflects the improved capacity of CSTC in organizing training provisions.
With these achievements, CSTC has been moving toward becoming a regional center of excellence in civil service training. Assisted by JICA's project titled "Project for Institutional Capacity Development of the Civil Service Training Centre" (Period: March 2011 to February 2014), the center offered training opportunities to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
*This text was edited largely based on JICA Research Institute's publication titled "For Inclusive and Dynamic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa" (April, 2013): Chapter 13: "South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sub-Saharan Africa's Development - With special emphasis on knowledge exchange and co-creation" by Shunichiro Honda, Hiroshi Kato and Yukimi Shimoda
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