The Productivity and Quality Awareness Programme of the Botswana National Productivity Centre was created to serve as the frontline department of the organization. As a Programme the P &Q has as its goal to promote the adoption of productivity best practices in Botswana and advocate for the improvement of the quality of the workforce to enhance Botswana’s global competitiveness.
The following are some of the recent activities undertaken the P&Q; the joint BNPC-Labour Task Force, creation of the District Improvement Forums, the NPO regional meeting and the national Productivity Week. Each of them shall be dealt with independently.
1. The Labour Task Force- The BNPC Act, among other responsibilities and obligations, states that the Centre has to assist in bringing about sound labour – management practices in Botswana. The BNPC mandate also states that the organization shall, through engaging other institutions and stakeholders raise productivity awareness in all sectors of the Botswana economy. To achieve this part of its legal mandate, the BNPC started a project together with the labour movement during which problem areas in the workplace were identified and viable solutions sought. In close collaboration with the labour movement, the BNPC has also developed a project document, which clearly articulates the manner in which identified problems will be dealt with. It is hoped that when the project has been rolled out successfully, it shall go a long way in addressing the problems that continue to beset the labour movement and impede productivity improvement in the workplace.
2. Productivity Awareness Presentations – These awareness efforts continue to be a cornerstone of the work of the P&Q Programme. They continue to be rendered to institutions, organizations and community based organizations in most areas of the country. Through them, the Programme has come to appreciate productivity and quality related issues in our institutions and relevant materials have been designed and presented to those organizations. Such presentations have also been used to sell and promote other BNPC products and services.
3. District Productivity Improvement Forums (DPIF’s) – These are district level structures created and nurtured by the P&Q Programme. At present they have been created and are functional in five districts such as Kgalagadi north and south, Lobatse, Kgatleng and Kanye. They are made of change agents who are link-pins between the BNPC and their organizations and their main responsibilities are to promote issues of productivity in their workplaces. Many of the members of the DPIFs have been trained in productivity and quality concepts as a way of empowering them to be of use in their localities. These structures are also responsible for spearheading and delivering the activities of the Productivity week.
4. Productivity Week and Vision Month- It is now customary for the BNPC and in particular the P&Q Programme to host the national annual Productivity Week during the last half of every year. This year (2004-2005), Productivity Week was celebrated along with National Vision month following a realization by the leadership of the Vision council and the BNPC that the two are compatible. Productivity Week celebrations brought together various government ministries, departments, parastatals and private sector organizations all coming together to learn from each other, share experiences, network and benchmark against one another.
