Training

I am in Sub–Saharan Africa to facilitate five days of finance training for the managers and accountants from nine of SCIAF’s partners in the Great Lakes Region (Burundi, Rwanda and the eastern Democratice Republic of Congo). 18 people were invited, but only 16 will come – two of the accountants from Burundi are heavily pregnant and can not travel all the way to Rwanda.

The purpose of this training – which will be carried out entirely in French - is to help our local partners improve the financial management and effectiveness within their organisations.

Six of our partner organisations in the Great Lakes have been granted almost 2 million Euros from the European Commission (EC) which they will receive in instalments over the next three years.

The money will be used to help bring peace to the war-weary region by tackling sexual and gender based violence which is a very serious and growing problem. Some of these partners are small organisations who are not used to dealing with such large sums of money so it is important that we give them the support they need to make the best possible use of this funding and help them to follow the guidelines and conditions set down by the EC.

Everyone is eager to learn and has played an active role in the training.