Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, toFrom 09 to 11 March 2011, some 15 members of the Ethiopian press visited pilot projects implemented under the Kaizen, Health, Education and Agriculture sectors assisted by the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The first visit, 9 March, toured the kaizen projects being implemented in the Maru Metal Industry and Zenith Gebs Eshet Eth. Ltd. private companies. The Japanese “Kaizen” concept refers to a philosophy or methodology that focuses on eliminating waste by emphasizing continuous improvement of process in manufacturing, management and business practices. Experts from the Kaizen Unit at the Ministry of Trade and Industry explained the rationale for Kaizen to the visiting journalists. About 30 companies from 5 sectors are currently implementing Kaizen. Meanwhile, Managing Director of the Zenith Gebs Eshet Eth., Gebregzi Tsehaye told the visiting journalists that his company has managed to double production after the implementation of Kaizen.
The visiting journalists also visited the Aba Woldetensay Health Station established with the assistance of the Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP). Since 1989, the Embassy of Japan has financed over 270 GGP projects throughout the country.
On 10 March, the journalists were briefed by Mr. Takashi Nobe, Chief Advisor of School Management for the Project on Improving Access to Quality Primary Education through Community Participation. The project is known as the Ho! ManaBU project. It is a technical cooperation project between the Oromiya Education Bureau (OEB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project aims to improve school management through collaboration among schools, community members, Cluster Resource Centers (CRCs) and local government administration. “Ho!” is a nickname after Hoggansa, an Oromo expression for management, and ManaBU stands for community based school. ManaBU also means “to learn” in Japanese, Takashi told the visiting journalists.
According to him, the main objective of the project is to “meet the smile” of children by creating awareness among the stakeholders on school related problems epecially school drop outs. In an interactive training package demonstrated in one of the pilot CRCs (Assela Primary School), parents were seen training with colorful cards, pictures and games. These types of training increased participation of parents who are not familiar with orthodox ‘chalk and talk’. Sister Sofia Kolle, who played Chaltu (a character that represents a school dropout), said that she essentially understood the problem of dropouts. “It is a good lesson for me to experience the life of students and their challenges”, Sofia added. Jamal of the other dropout character was played by Adanu Fiqre. “I played dropouts. I learned that kids dropout because of the cumulative effect of different challenges. I understand that the community must help dropouts”, Adane said. Mesfin Asres for his part commented that the training on the game sheet was a play but it basically exhibited all of the problems in his house.
The final destination of the visit for the journalists was the Central Rift Valley where Farmers Research Groups (FRG) has been implemented at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) under the consortium of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Oromiya Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The purpose of this approach is to empower innovation by farmers through participatory research. Endeshaw Habte is a coordinator of the Agricultural Economics Research working on Extension and Farmer Linkage at MARC. He said that the idea behind FRG is to empower farmers and link them with technology transfer. In Melkassa, farmers are taking risks and trying new things. About this, Endeshaw said the innovation capacities of the farmers are remarkable. “Here in the Middle Rift Valley, we are witnessing good outputs. As you can see from the farmlands, farmers are very successful. For instance, in the research output for onions, a certain centimeter gap was advised by our researcher when planting. The farmers took the advice and by combining their own age-old experience, they have achieved amazing production”, Endeshaw said.
Speaking on the support of JICA, Endeshaw told journalists the effectiveness of technical cooperation with JICA. “On top of the financial assistances, JICA supported us build physical facilities and provided us with training opportunities in Japan and other countries”, he added. tam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit, amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur?
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