The Adoption in 2015 of the African Union Agenda 2063 – “The Africa We Want”, provides a robust and shared strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the African Continent over the next 40 years and the realisation of the 21st Century as the African Century. The Agenda 2063 sets a strategic framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development that builds upon Africa’s recent positive performance in the economic, social and political fields to put the continent on a new positive trajectory of growth, peace and prosperity. The Agenda 2063 also calls for “enhancing the Productivity Agenda for Africa, as an essential engine for industrialization, progressively enhancing competitiveness of the continent in the global economy”.
Based on this Agenda 2063 some existing National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in African countries came together to establish the Pan African Productivity Association (PAPA) with the objective of providing the necessary technical support, building the capacity of NPOs and acting as a forum for disseminating and sharing information to strengthen the productivity movement continent wide. Since PAPA’s inception in 1990, the Association has identified its core focus as facilitating and advocating for the establishment of NPOs in every country on the continent, and in Ghana, the National Productivity Organization is the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI).
PAPA is a continental body established through a declaration by delegations representing six African countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Africa) at the 7th World Productivity Congress in Malaysia in 1990. The declaration recognised the close relationship between productivity enhancement and sustained economic development. This initiative had the full support of the World Productivity Confederation of Productivity Science (WCPS).
The Membership of PAPA is opened to all AU member states who would represent the NPO or a department within a government unit. The membership is as follows:
- SADC Region – Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe;
- EAC Region – Kenya
- ECOWAS Region – Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria. Burkina Faso is the only French speaking country on PAPA.
PAPA discharges its mandate by promoting the following objectives: to provide a forum for promoting and sharing ideas and experience on strategies, techniques and practices for productivity enhancement. To encourage and nurture the development of a productivity culture in African economies and also foster co-operation and collaboration between national productivity organisations and other related bodies in Africa and Internationally.
PAPA have outlined the following approaches to achieve its stated objectives:
- Organising productivity seminars and workshops.
- Promoting and monitoring research studies on productivity, and facilitate the dissemination of the findings to African economies.
- Serving as a Pan-African clearing house for information for productivity enhancement in Africa.
Based on this background, PAPA is organizing a Productivity Awareness Seminar in Kenya under the theme: ‘Building a Productive and Competitive Africa through National Productivity Organizations’, the seminar is hybrid and participants could join virtually through the Zoom link that will be provided, it will start at 0900hrs and ends 1630hrs Eastern African time. Presentations to be delivered includes the role of NPO in fostering socio economic development, strategic partnership between PAPA and AUDA-NEPAD and ILO’s Productivity Ecosystem for Decent Work. Also there will be a briefing on the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking and adoption of the index as a measurement tool for Productivity and Competitiveness in Africa.