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Onze projecten
Una gestión financiera más saludable para cooperativas Peruanas
1 dec. 2011-31 dec. 2012
Especially in 2009 and 2010 a lot of attention was given to the strengthening of financial management of Agriterra's clients. Seven successful trainings were organised together with British specialists of Mango in Kenya, India, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Congo, Niger and the Philippines. These trainings are developed around the financial management Health Check, an assessment tool which measures the financial health of farmer organisations by using a broad range of statements of best “healthy” practice. Making analysis in terms of outreach and gender does not have an added value for this work area, because the impact of financial management improvements cannot to be measured by the amount of persons participating in a training, but will definitely be shown by healthy practices all staff within the organisation regarding the 4 blocks of financial management:
1. Budgeting
2. Accounting Records
3. Financial Monitoring
4. Internal Controls
Healthy practices mean that activities relating to these blocks are executed according to the 7 financial management principles that are applied by Agriterra:
1. Consistency
2. Accountability
3. Transparency
4. Viability
5. Integrity
6. Stewardship
7. Accounting Standards
These blocks and principles combined with the ability of the organisation to always provide correct, complete, timely and relevant financial information will assure member farmers that their organisation is reliable and financially sustainable on the long term, which of course also counts for agencies like Agriterra that support these farmer organisations.
In Central America, Tanzania, Congo and Niger, several organisations that participated in the trainings received tailor-made advisory that supports them in improving their financial health. These follow-up trajectories included a joint analysis of their financial statements and qualitative assessments of their financial management practices, using the Health Check tool. The score of the organisation is categorized as low risk, medium risk or high risk and is visualized in a spider diagram.
These scorings combined with a list of practical recommendations towards the improvement of the financial management practices of the farmer organisation are then translated into an action plan with clear goals and deadlines. Implementation of these action plans need financial and advisory/ skills related resources, and sufficient follow-up and continued support and measurement. The already demonstrated impact is that employees and representatives of farmer organisations that participated in trainings and follow-up missions become much more critical towards the financial management practices of their organisations and their specific roles, increased awareness and understanding regarding essential financial management issues, and that they show willingness to improve on their deficiencies.
Parallel activities in 2010 included the organisation of a “training of finance trainers” event and a training on analysing financial statements for Agriterra staff, both facilitated by Mango. In this “training of finance trainers”, 12 professionals from regional and national farmer organisations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and from Agriterra were trained in this methodology which facilitates its future dissemination by the participants in their respective regions and countries, training member farmer organisations at lower levels.
