Thirty senior public service officials from four West African countries are in Accra for a capacity-building programme based on the Japanese efficiency model, Kaizen, to enhance their delivery as public servants.
The second cohort of the Third Country Training Programme for English-speaking West African countries will enable the participants to become change agents within their respective institutions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana.
The training, on “Kaizen for enhanced public service delivery”, forms part of ongoing efforts to build a regional hub for public sector capacity development using the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement to promote efficiency, accountability and responsiveness in public institutions.
The course, which was facilitated by the Civil Service Training Centre (CSTC), in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is a two-week in-person course after a four-week online module.
Leadership, continuous improvement
The Head of the Civil Service, Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, underscored the central role of a dynamic public sector in national development and regional competitiveness, saying countries that had made significant economic progress had done so at the back of a vital, very dynamic public sector.
He said the Kaizen philosophy of change for the better showed that improvement in the public service was not an event, but a continual journey driven by discipline, collaboration and innovation, and urged participants to use the training to strengthen leadership within their services.
Dr Aggrey-Darkoh encouraged the participants to approach the course with curiosity and openness to learning, noting that effective public service depended on building and sustaining citizens’ trust in state institutions.
The Chief Representative of JICA Ghana, Momoko Suzuki, said JICA has worked closely with the CSTC for over 15 years to strengthen public service development through institutional capacity building, enhanced training functions, and human resource development.
“Today, CSTC stands not only as a national institution, but a growing centre of excellence for the West African sub-region,” she said.
She said the second cohort represented more than the start of another training cycle, but a celebration of regional partnership and shared learning.
She said public sector challenges such as inefficiency, service delays and resource constraints were common across borders and, therefore, required collaborative solutions, including deeper engagement with civil service commissions, training institutions and ministries and continued collaboration with the missions of participating countries in the country.
To participants
The Principal of the CSTC, Dora Dei-Tumi, said the Third Country Training Programme on Kaizen was designed as “a practical, people-centred and open-minded intervention” to strengthen institutions and advance a more efficient public service across participating countries.
She urged the participants to embrace the programme with intellectual humility and a focus on lasting institutional impact, adding that each officer would be required to develop an action plan for applying Kaizen in their home institutions, which the CSTC would follow up on three months after the course.
