Japanese Technologies for COVID-19 Measures

Throughout 2021, UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) Tokyo has partnered with 12 Japanese companies to introduce their technologies to 10 selected countries in Africa and Asia, under the “Sustainable Technology Promotion Platform (STePP) Demonstration Project” that strengthens the capacity of developing countries to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through appropriate technology transfer from Japan, funded by the Government of Japan.

One such example is Kinsei Sangyo Co. Ltd., a company from Gunma, Japan that installed a medical waste incinerator at Mutuini Sub-Regional Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. When Japanese engineers were unable to travel to Kenya due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the country, Kinsei utilized various online technologies to provide instructions to Kenyan engineers. Technical training on the incinerator and a workshop to introduce the technology to local partners were also conducted respectively online, with many hospital staff members’ participations.

As a result of the installation of the incinerator, Mutuini Hospital is now able to safely incinerate infectious waste on a daily basis, greatly reducing the risk of secondary infections to their hospital staff and transport personnel. In addition, after the online technical training, the incinerator can now be operated continuously by hospital staff only.

At a webinar co-organized by UNIDO and the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna for this project in March 2022, Tabu Irina, Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to Japan remarked “We would like to thank all the stakeholders for your great support in the three technology transfer projects carried out in Kenya”. Also, Takeshi Hikihara, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan to UNIDO, stated “The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus is a global humanitarian crisis. This project contributed to strengthening the capacity of developing countries even under such difficult situation with lots of restrictions”.

Read the Annual Report 2021 here. Visit the website of UNIDO ITPO Tokyo here and STePP Demo Project Result Page here.

For further information contact UNIDO ITPO Tokyo (itpo.tokyo [at] unido.org)