Seven financial trainers graduated from a Training of Financial Trainers (TFT) course at the PLP office in Suva on Friday 10 February. The seven are finance managers in civil society, church-based and private sector organisations in Tonga, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. They underwent a four-day course on sharing financial knowledge with other finance officers in their home communities through creative and interactive training.
The TFT was facilitated by Mango, a UK-based training organisation specialising in practical financial management training for NGO staff and their board members. PLP engaged the services of Mango to build financial management capacities in key finance personnel in partner organisations such as the Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT), Octagon Bible Society of Vanuatu, Development Service Exchange, Vanuatu Association of NGOs (VANGO), the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT).
This is an initiative of PLP that involves supporting partners in enhancing their capacities to manage resources well - and in turn, helping to address the structural barriers that may exist them being able to lead and shape change.
The training imparted skills and techniques for Financial Trainers (FT's) to share financial mangement knowledge in fun, creative and participatory ways to colleagues in their home communities.
"The unique thing about this training is that it does not teach trainers to lecture, but to teach financial skills in a way that is fun, understandable and that gets everyone involved," said Ms Shradha Sharma, PLP Finance Specialist.
"The FT's have also learned to create their own session plans and ensure that their content is delivered to trainees in a timely, comprehensive manner," she added.
The new trainers will not have long to wait before testing their newfound skills. They remain at PLP's Suva office, where they have two days to prepare before they are joined by 16 finance colleagues from their home countries as well as Fiji, who arrive on Wednesday 15 February, to be trained by the FT's on budgeting and reporting. The new trainers will be assisted by Mango facilitator Sara Halloway and Ms Sharma.
"We will also run through workplans with the FT's to ensure that in the coming year, they have opportunities to use their new skills when they return home and go on to share their financial management knowledge," Ms Sharma said.
There are plans for follow-up trainings by Mango in June and September this year, as well as finding opportunities to inter-change FT's throughout the region, giving them exposure to other community contexts and contributing to growing a regional community of practice around financial management for NGOs. Further trainings with non-profit organisation board members will also take place, to ensure they communicate effectively with finance staff and that they understand financial reports enough to analyse them critically.