Project News

Twenty government officials and mid-level hospital managers from eleven countries of Africa visited Tanzania recently as part of JICA'S Training and Dialogue Programmes on "Quality Improvement of Health Services by 5S-KAIZEN-TQM". A Delegation from five francophone countries (Benin, Niger, Senegal, DRC, Burundi) was the first to come on 20-26 October and another Delegation from six Anglophone countries (Uganda, Egypt, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania) came on 1-7 December 2013. Both groups visited selected hospitals in and out of Dar es Salaam, observed successful cases of 5S-KAIZEN-TQM activities, and had opportunities of exchange and sharing of experiences and lessons with Tanzania's medical / health professionals.

JICA launched the training program called Asia Africa Knowledge Co-Creation Program - Total Quality Management for Better Hospital Services (AAKCP-Hospital TQM) in 2007, and 15 African countries participated in this program. Tanzania was among the 15 countries and introduced 5S-KAIZEN-TQM approaches to the public hospitals since 2007. A pilot project was implemented in Mbeya Referral Hospital since 2007, and scaling-up of its good practices and outcome to other public hospitals started since 2008. Since the beginning of the current Project in 2010, more hospital were added and currently 67 hospitals are practicing 5S and 13 hospitals are in the stage of KAIZEN.

Tanzania is one of the leading countries of practicing and scaling-up of 5S-KAIZEN-TQM approaches. There is an increasing demand from other countries as they hear about the good work done in Tanzania. A proposal was thus formulated to visit Tanzania to observe and learn from Tanzania's experiences.

The participants were impressed by the strong leadership and commitment of not only the top management of the hospitals, but also the mid-level managers and by the fact that 5S-KAIZEN-TQM was "owned" by the entire team of these hospitals. The visit made the participants think how they would develop their own leadership when they go back home, i.e., a real leader with strong communication from top to bottom and from bottom to top, with a quality to share common objectives to persuade his or her colleagues, and build a good team, going so far as knowing them closely.

The commitment and leadership of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) was another factor of success in Tanzania. In 2008, the MoHSW officially adopted 5S-KAIZEN-TQM concepts as a foundation of all quality improvement approaches. With the policy backup, the MoHSW is committed to disseminate the concepts with strong leadership and regular visits and evaluation of 5S progress are undertaken.

There is a need for supporting the initiatives of these countries after they have gone home, but not only from JICA but also from each other. As such, creation of a network was proposed for sharing information. As Tanzania receives more visitors and the Delegations, they learn many things too; what advantages they have compared to other countries, what similar challenges they share with other countries, among other things. We, at the Project too, will continue to support the efforts of Tanzania and other countries.