West Africa Civil Society Institute wacsi.org

WACSI to train YMCA staff from 10 African Countries

From Monday October 1 – Wednesday October 3, 2012, in Lome Togo, WACSI will be delivering a tailor-made training on Financial Management for finance staff of YMCA country offices of 10 African countries.

The training is intended to enable the finance staff to harmonise all financial systems in YMCA, and empower them with knowledge and skills to carry out their duties of financial reporting to meet internationally acceptable standards. The training will enable them to acquire techniques of reporting explicitly and objectively, stating all costs related to project activities.

The training will be delivered using a learner-centred approach that would enable the trainees to better understand YMCA’s essential financial standards and how to incorporate these in reporting during or after project.

In a meeting to prepare towards this debut collaboration between WACSI and YMCA, Mr. Kwabena Nketia Addae, National General Secretary of YMCA Ghana and Mr. Simon Lazarre Badiane, Executive Secretary for Leadership and Organizational Development, Africa Alliances of YMCA expressed their hope to see that this training strengthens the finance departments of the targeted YMCA country offices which include Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo and Senegal. According to Mr. Badiane, “this training should enable the staff to be more strategic in terms of financial management and should be able to understand their roles in providing explicit finance reports for projects, and effectively relate with project directors”.

Mr. Charles Vandyck, Capacity Building Officer of WACSI assured the YMCA team that the training content will be developed and delivered to meet the needs of the YMCA staff who are taking part in the training. He explained that the needs assessment conducted for this purpose will strategically inform the content of the training, and enable the trainer to understand the current challenges faced by the participants who will benefit from this training. Mr. Vandyck emphasized that the trainer assigned to deliver this training is bilingual and experienced, and based on WACSI’s training standards, would use contextual exercises, create experience sharing opportunities and promote discussions on recommended standards for financial reporting for civil society organisations.

YMCA is a youth focused organisation that was created in 1977 and works in 24 African countries and its activities benefit over 7 million Africans. This training seeks to ensure that financial aspects of YMCA’s projects are reported with finesse and satisfactory professional standards to boost the organisation’s credibility.

WACSI was recommended to YMCA by a former beneficiary of one of WACSI’s training courses, Mr. Christian Camara, who took part in a training on Policy Advocacy and Engagement in Sierra Leone, organised in 2011.