Over the past several decades, IAQ members and others have delivered quality training in underdeveloped countries—filling a vital gap when no formal education was available. While that role was once central, the landscape is changing. Many universities now teach quality topics, but often in a theoretical way, disconnected from real-world application. Others still offer no quality education at all. In both cases, education remains a means—not an end—and fails to drive sustained improvement.

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Meanwhile, many well-intentioned organizations work to improve quality of life across the developing world, focusing on health, education, and infrastructure. Yet few apply quality tools and systems thinking to diagnose root causes, reduce variation, or improve outcomes. This is where the QiDCTT approach stands apart.

We believe quality should not only be taught—it must be lived, practiced, and owned.

 

In a past pilot, our Co-Chair partnered with a Peruvian university where students were invited to conduct improvement projects. While the intent was strong, implementations were either weak or lacked practical implementation. There was no clear purpose, and the final report became more important than the actual use of quality tools. The insight was clear: lasting impact requires collaboration at the institutional level. Projects must be embedded in curriculum, supported by faculty, and connected to organizational goals—not positioned as regular end of term assignments.

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These lessons have shaped our model:

• When education is needed, it must serve as a launchpad for applied action.

• Projects must be co-designed with universities, professors, and institutions.

• Quality must be contextualized, coached, and sustained—not just delivered.

• Build a global coalition to link IAQ expertise with developing-country needs.

• Create a repository of projects, research, and initiatives demonstrating how quality supports human and economic development.

• Design and deploy the LIFT Framework (Listen, Integrate, Facilitate, Transform) to guide localized quality development programs.

• Seek partnerships with national quality organizations, local governments and educational institutions.

• Launch pilot projects in 2026 to measure and showcase the impact of quality-based development interventions.

• Launch the LIFT Platform to build quality capability through practice and dialog (LIFT Circles & Cards / LIFT Forum)

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Additional Information (if have):

Despite decades of progress, enormous disparities persist between developed and developing nations. These disparities manifest not only in income, education, and infrastructure but also in access to quality knowledge and systems.

Current analysis of 195 countries reveals that:
• Only 88 countries have national quality awards — and 76 of these belong to nations classified as High or Very High Human Development (UNDP HDI 2022).
• No country classified as Low Income or Low Human Development currently operates a national quality award program.
• Consequently, more than 100 countries lack a recognizable quality infrastructure.

The human cost of this gap is staggering:
• The average GDP per capita of the top 10 HDI countries exceeds USD 61,000, compared to less than USD 800 for the bottom 10.
• The life expectancy gap between these same groups is more than 22 years (83.4 vs 60.9 years).

As quality professionals, we recognize that quality tools, concepts, and philosophies are proven enablers of economic development. Yet these tools are unevenly distributed and insufficiently localized. The lack of education, institutional capacity, and leadership in developing nations continues to limit their application.

Over the past several decades, IAQ members and others have delivered quality training in underdeveloped countries—filling a vital gap when no formal education was available. While that role was once central, the landscape is changing. Many universities now teach quality topics, but often in a theoretical way, disconnected from real-world application. Others still offer no quality education at all. In both cases, education remains a means—not an end—and fails to drive sustained improvement.

​

Meanwhile, many well-intentioned organizations work to improve quality of life across the developing world, focusing on health, education, and infrastructure. Yet few apply quality tools and systems thinking to diagnose root causes, reduce variation, or improve outcomes. This is where the QiDCTT approach stands apart.

​

We believe quality should not only be taught—it must be lived, practiced, and owned.

​

In a past pilot, our Co-Chair partnered with a Peruvian university where students were invited to conduct improvement projects. While the intent was strong, implementations were either weak or lacked practical implementation. There was no clear purpose, and the final report became more important than the actual use of quality tools. The insight was clear: lasting impact requires collaboration at the institutional level. Projects must be embedded in curriculum, supported by faculty, and connected to organizational goals—not positioned as regular end of term assignments.

​

These lessons have shaped our model:

• When education is needed, it must serve as a launchpad for applied action.

• Projects must be co-designed with universities, professors, and institutions.

• Quality must be contextualized, coached, and sustained—not just delivered.

In a more recent TT pilot, the TT partnered with the San Carlos local campus of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology where we collaborated with professors to enable industrial production engineering students to develop quality improvement projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), strengthening the link between academia and the productive sector by solving real challenges in companies in the Huetar Norte region. 

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The main result of the initiative was the development of quality improvement projects led by students and co-tutored by specialists from IAQ and TEC, aimed at optimizing production and service processes in SMEs in San Carlos.

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As part of the project's closing, two representatives from IAQ visited the San Carlos Local Technology Campus to participate in the final project exhibition, evaluate the presented works, and award a prize to the project with the best performance.

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One of the most relevant elements of the experience was its internationalization and educational innovation component, since one of the two participating groups developed the course entirely in English, strengthening the linguistic, technical and professional skills of the students in an international collaboration environment.

For Professor Erick Pérez Murillo, this type of alliance represents a strategic opportunity for student training and for the institutional strengthening of TEC.

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"In my opinion, these kinds of partnerships are very important for students' professional development. The International Academy for Quality is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that makes significant contributions to advancing quality through its highly qualified professionals. The students received support, mentorship, and feedback from some of these specialists during the development of their projects, which strengthens their training and brings them closer to the reality they will face once they obtain their engineering degrees," said Pérez.

Projects developed

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The following projects were carried out during the semester:

• Analysis of the impact of the portioning method on productivity while maintaining dough weight conformity in baguette production (IAQ Best Project Award).

• Improving Customer Service Quality in the Pre-Sales, Order Preparation, and Invoicing Process at HC Lácteos .

• Diagnosis of the Cheese-Making Process Using Quality Control Tools .

• Standardization of the dessert menu and quality control.

• Design of specific quality controls that allow for consistency of the final product using the DMAP methodology.

• Analysis of the factors that cause premature decomposition of cheese in order to reduce the amount of damaged product.      

QiDCTT aims to bridge the gap between knowledge and action, aligning global expertise with local systems to build capability where it matters most.