With support from German Cooperation, 272 Ghanaian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have benefited from the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme.

The SCORE training programme, which ran for six months to increase SMEs’ productivity and resource efficiency, was signed off with a certification ceremony in Accra to mark the success and official closure of the programme.

SCORE is a global training programme that seeks to improve workplace organisation, cooperation, and safety in SMEs and promote resource-efficient and cleaner production.

SCORE combines practical classroom sessions with in-factory consulting and demonstrates the best international practices in the manufacturing and service sectors. This ultimately leads to the growth of enterprises, job creation and economic development.

The SCORE training programme was implemented by the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), a sub-vented agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), within the framework of the Special Initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition.”

In 2021, GIZ, signed a first grant agreement with the MDPI to train 60 SMEs with the SCORE methodology. A second grant agreement was signed in August 2022 to train an additional 74
SMEs.

Given the high impacts observed in the last few years, the recently completed phase extended the SCORE programme to 272 additional SMEs and administrative regions where the programme hasn’t been implemented before, including Bono, Bono East, Northern, and Savannah Regions.

Speaking at the event, Team Leader Mr. John Duti from GIZ emphasised that small improvements matter.

Team Leader Mr. John Duti from GIZ

“Improving inventory management, optimizing water consumption, neatly organising the workplace, ensuring the consequent utilisation of protective equipment, listening to the feedback of customers and the concerns of co-workers – all these little things add up to big changes, and this is what SCORE seeks to achieve.”

Ms. Bernice Adjei, Director General of MDPI

Ms. Bernice Adjei, Director General of MDPI, expressed that she is “looking forward to the impact the newly trained enterprises will have on the Ghanaian economy as they apply international standards and other good practices in their operations for growth and sustainability.”

Present at the certification ceremony were representatives from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ministry of Trade and Industries, the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Trade Unions, SCORE Implementing Partners (IPs) and selected enterprises.