The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability. The mission of UNIDO, as described in the Lima Declaration adopted at the fifteenth session of the UNIDO General Conference in 2013 as well as the Abu Dhabi Declaration adopted at the eighteenth session of UNIDO General Conference in 2019, is to promote and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in Member States. The relevance of ISID as an integrated approach to all three pillars of sustainable development is recognized by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will frame United Nations and country efforts towards sustainable development. UNIDO’s mandate is fully recognized in SDG-9, which calls to “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”. The relevance of ISID, however, applies in greater or lesser extent to all SDGs. Accordingly, the Organization’s programmatic focus is structured in four strategic priorities: Creating shared prosperity; Advancing economic competitiveness; Safeguarding the environment; and Strengthening knowledge and institutions.

Each of these programmatic fields of activity contains a number of individual programmes, which are implemented in a holistic manner to achieve effective outcomes and impacts through UNIDO’s four enabling functions: (i) technical cooperation; (ii) analytical and research functions and policy advisory services; (iii) normative functions and standards and quality-related activities; and (iv) convening and partnerships for knowledge transfer, networking and industrial cooperation. Such core functions are carried out in Departments/Offices in its Headquarters, Regional Offices and Hubs and Country Offices.

The Directorate of SDG Innovation and Economic Transformation (IET) houses the Divisions of Coordination and Integration Support (IET/CIS), Quality, Impact and Accountability (IET/QUA), Agribusiness and Infrastructure Development (IET/AGR), Innovative Finance and International Financial Institutions (IET/IFI), Fair Production, Sustainability Standards and Trade (IET/PST), Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), and Climate and Technology Partnerships (CTP). The Directorate also ensures close coordination and collaboration among the Divisions and relevant entities in the Directorate of Global Partnerships and External Relations (GLO) and the Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development (TCS).

The Division of Agribusiness and Infrastructure Development provides technical cooperation services to assist the modernization of agriculture and agroindustry, especially in less-developed countries, ensuring that enterprises add value to primary agricultural production, substitute the imports of food and other value-added agricultural products, and participate effectively in local, regional and global value chains. Where needed, it will develop infrastructure and agroindustrial parks and capacities for agro-industrialization, value addition, quality assurance and food safety. It will also bring innovative approaches to Member States to fully benefit from carbon-neutral and biodiversityenhancing agricultural and agro-industrial production and development opportunities in the green and blue bioeconomy

The Food Security and Food Systems Unit (IET/AGR/FSS) promotes the development of food industries and food value chains and the production of local food products in less-developed countries to end hunger and ensure food and nutrition security while generating income and employment adhering to principles of sustainable industrial development. It provides a range of technical assistance services that allow food enterprises – including in the informal sector and especially SMEs – to extend their production, improve their products, comply with quality and other standards, become more competitive and deliver adequate and nutritious food to local populations and for export. Where opportune, it also promotes the development of food safety compliance infrastructure and building related food safety systems capacities.

PROJECT CONTEXT t/UNIDO Project Summary/Project Purpose>

The project for Expanding the Kaizen Initiative through Enhancing Sustainable Agri-business” (ID: 210255). The government of Ghana has long tackled to enhance MSMEs’ sustainable performance improvement for economic development and job creation. The country has introduced Kaizen – a Japanese methodology and philosophy for continuous quality and productivity improvement at shop floor level – over the last decades to achieve its goals.

The Ghanaian government’s responsible institution for MSME promotion is Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA). GEA has been working on Kaizen dissemination for more than a decade, with support of international donors including Japan. To date, GEA and its field offices (Business Advisory Centers, BAC) have received Kaizen training and provided Kaizen services to numerous Ghanaian enterprises across the country. On the other hand, however, the impact of Kaizen at the industry level is still limited and many MSMEs continue to struggle to improve their enterprise performance at the basic level. Public systems to disseminate Kaizen to MSMEs are also still under development, due to the limited financial and human resources as well as lack of accumulation of institutional knowledge.

In response to the request of the Government of Ghana, UNIDO will support the scaling up of its national Kaizen initiatives. In the context of Ghana, given the country’s relatively higher capacity and capability in the region, UNIDO will introduce the approach “Smart and Sustainable Agri-Business” (SSAB). SSAB approach addresses not only the productivity aspects but also resource efficiency (including environmental sustainability), food safety and compliance, and social welfare aspects, thereby enabling the enterprises to maximize their performance while minimizing the cost and environmental load. SSAB will be conducted by measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the aspects mentioned above from the workplace, visualizing them on SSAB Digital Dashboard, and identifying the rooms for improvement.

Since SSAB collects and measure the KPIs in a digital manner, it allows the enterprises to conduct Kaizen activities in a sustainable manner. This will also enable the government to centrally manage the industry’s Kaizen effort and thereby measure SSAB’s impacts at the industry level.