About

Introduction

Accounting for International Development (A f I D) offers accountants the opportunity to make a genuine difference while gaining invaluable hands-on experience in the international development sector. Assignments ranging from 2 to 12 weeks form part of an ongoing strategy to build the financial management capacity and long term sustainability of small community based organisations across Africa and Asia. These organisations, which include street kid centres, health clinics and rural schools are doing amazing work to tackle extreme poverty and inequality but are unable to access to these vital skills and services.

Our volunteers provide impartial, non-judgemental one to one support; coaching local people on all matters relating to the organisations finances. This may include budget preparation and analysis, the review and implementation of controls, internal and external reporting, the creation of financial procedures manuals and audit preparation.

The advanced technical and professional profile of our volunteers combined with the specific and universal nature of their objectives means real results can be achieved in a far shorter timeframe than that of traditional voluntary placements. This means volunteering is now a realistic prospect for employed, career minded accountants.

Why now?

In an era of decreasing foreign aid and rising donor scepticism, the amount now being channelled through NGOs operating in developing countries is actually rising. With over a 250,000 now operating across Africa and more than a million in India alone, the most important question in International Development today is how to improve the impact and accountability of these organisations, whilst ensuring the long-term sustainability of their most worthwhile activities. Never has the demand for sound financial management across the sector been greater.

The meltdown of global financial markets combined with a rapid increase in unemployment has led many to reassess their values and embrace a more socially responsible career path. There is now a real desire to give something back to society and to make a difference through active practical involvement.

In many environments accountants need to be able to work with people who have different timeframes, values and cultural beliefs. Having a broad viewpoint, being able to communicate well across all levels and having the ability to take responsibility for delivering results are critical skills in today’s workplace.

Skilled volunteering is both a socially responsible and cost effective way for accountants to develop key skills while at the same time enabling grassroot NGOs to access a vast pool of otherwise unobtainable talent.

Our Origin

The creation of A f I D was inspired by founder Neil Jennings’ voluntary assignment in Rwanda. Neil left his role in an international accountancy recruiter to work as the overseas development director for small Rwandan NGO set up by orphans and refugees of the 1994 genocide.

“While working closely with the local people it became obvious that whilst they’d achieved amazing results with little or no resources, the survival of their activities hung desperately in the balance due to a lack of basic financial planning. Volunteers had come and gone but sadly never really contributing to their long-term development.

After returning to the UK I found the mismatching of volunteer’s skills was commonplace. A lack of expert consultation meant the most relevant skills were frequently overlooked or ignored. There were very few opportunities for highly skilled, employed professionals to share their skills with those that needed them most."

Neil and the staff of CCPRWA, Rwamagana, RWANDA

Where We Work

We are currently supporting 60 partners in 12 African countries, India, Nepal and Cambodia. AfID actively promote a Good Neighbour Strategy whereby both our partners and our volunteers are encouraged to develop close working relationships with other local community organisations; sharing much needed technical skills and resources such as vehicles and accommodation.

Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, South Africa & Ethiopia.

Asia: India, Nepal & Cambodia

Coming Soon: Senegal

The Role of the Volunteer

Each volunteer forms integral part of an ongoing and long term strategy to develop the skills of local people. Assignments typically range from 2 to 12 weeks depending on the agreed objectives, the range and depth of skills required and of course the volunteer’s availability. They will typically have 3 primary areas of focus;

1. Conducting a Financial Health Assessment

2. Developing the accounting skills local NGO staff

3. Assisting with the preparation and analysis of financial plans

Additional responsibilities may include;

· Implementation of new financial controls & procedures

· Assisting with funding proposals and project budgeting

· Teaching English, Sports & Microsoft Excel skills

And finally ...

Championing the role of the Accountant

In many developing countries the role of the accountant is still completely alien to the local population. One of the most fundamental objectives of all of our volunteers is to help elevate the profile of local finance staff, ensuring they have the confidence and the ability to become a key feature in the organisation’s decision making process and helping to create new role models within their local communities.

Our Commitment

Our aim is for all our partners to ultimately have the capacity they need to be self-reliant. We are committed to using a collaborative approach when shaping all our placements, involving all the stakeholders at every level.

We understand that capacity building has to be based on local realities and this can only be achieved if it is led by local people and therefore we will always endeavour to develop the skills, confidence and potential of local people.

The Future

It is our vision that by 2014 we will be supporting over 200 partner organisations, spread across more than 20 countries and assisting more than 200 local people to attain formal accountancy training.

AfID is wholly committed to the technological advancement of its online research and reporting facilities; giving partners, volunteer and donors easy access to a wealth of knowledge and experience. We hope to create a truly interactive cooperative, sharing resources and working together to achieve their development goals.

We hope that our organisation will form a bridge between the commercial and international development sectors and begin to demonstrate to the overseas NGO community the real benefits of good financial management.

# Case Study 1 - An Accountants Story, Glyn Edbrook ACMA

At first I was apprehensive. Apparently this is not an uncommon experience, but even so, what if they just did not have need for my skills? I mean, qualified accountants may have their uses, but in a small town in Rwanda? Surely they can do their book-keeping without my intervention, what they need is doctors, engineers and water technicians.

Wrong! Yes, there is no shortage of ability among Rwandans, but sometimes the lack of a little expert knowledge can hold them back. All too often, bright and energetic managers and entrepreneurs spend their valuable time trying to muddle through the best they can when a bit of guidance may be obvious to someone with the benefit of a bit of advanced schooling.

This was my value to the guys at my project. If I know one thing, I know accounting, and I was going to help them get their accounts ship shape. They would be able to get a handle on their finances and talk money with sponsors. It was like going back to first principles, and passing it on. Fortunately, I had a copy of Frank Wood's Business Accounting to hand to remind just what the first principles were.

And it was first principles, sorting neatly arranged but random piles of invoices into order, cash books, bank reconciliations, trial balance and a rudimentary revenues and expenses schedule. This was all the sort of work I last covered when Blur and Oasis vied with each other for the number one spot, except now every penny counted.

Going back to my roots like this was one the most satisfying aspects of the work. No longer was I shuffling numbers around in some tiny offshoot of a mega bank where all my efforts would eventually be erased in a rounding adjustment. Here I was in the thick of it, I could view the whole operation from start to finish, I knew the price of petrol in the capital, I knew where to get a local builder, I knew the names of the kids the invoices for beans were feeding. I knew some of those kids had seen things that no child should ever see.

Didn't I attend a dreary seminar once where they called that empowerment? Now there's a buzzword easily thrown around, but knowing that my opinion counted made me more aware of my professional status if you like. I could see what I was doing and the effect it was having on the project, on my colleagues and indeed that my efforts might actually have some sort of legacy.

All this AND the wonderful adventure of living in Rwanda with all its amazing sights, sounds and smells. At the end of my time there, my host and new friend Innocent Hodali thanked me for my efforts

"You have a big heart" he said

"Think nothing of it, for everything I have given you I have received back tenfold” I replied."

CCPRWA (Children’s Care and Protection in Rwanda) was formed following the 1994 Genocide, by a small group of Rwandans refugees who grew up as orphans in Uganda. They run a number of different programmes supporting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the region.

# Case Study 2 - All Ears Cambodia, Steven Wadley ACA

Deafness affects over a billion people worldwide; it is one of the most severe and least recognised disabilities. All Ears Cambodia works with the young and disabled in a country gripped by intractable poverty, from newborns to the elderly – helping them to hear and putting an end to children dying needlessly from chronic ear infections.

The responsibility for the financial management of AEC rested with Director and Chief Audiologist Glyn Vaughan who had no prior accountancy training and up until October 2009 had little or no access to vital accounting skills or services. There was an urgent need for AEC to have a properly prepared set of financial statements as AEC’s inability to submit appropriate documentation to large charitable bodies meant potential funding that could secure the future of the organisation was being lost. There was also another social cost as any time Glyn spent on preparing accounting information took him away from his principal role in providing audiology help to the people of Cambodia.

Steven worked closely with Glyn to create a comprehensive strategy that would improve the impact, performance and accountability of the organisation, whilst ensuring the long-term sustainability of their most worthwhile activities. Together they set out a list of objectives that they hoped to achieve by the end of Steven’s placement. The objectives set out were as follows;

1. Develop the accounting and financial reporting skills of medical staff

2. Provide accounting training to AEC’s clinical staff

3. Review and/or prepare AEC’s financial statements

4. Provide ongoing support to the AEC Director with the preparation of financial statements.

Steven prepared the charity’s financial statements in accordance with applicable international standards, trained clinical staff in basic accounting concepts and prepared accounting guidance to ensure the charity continued to prepare future financial statements, funding proposals and forecasts on a consistent basis. Steven helped create and review comprehensive, workable and easy to understand financial plans and budgets; providing guidance on monitoring and variance analysis for the team at AEC.

With Cambodian GAAP still in its infancy, there was negligible local guidance available as to the basis on which a charity operating in Cambodia should prepare its financial statements. Upon his arrival in Phnom Penh, Steven quickly arranged a meeting with a representative of the Cambodian government’s National Accounting Council to seek clarification. At the meeting Steven discussed the current Cambodian accounting standards and the direction the Council expected reporting requirements to developments. Using this information Steven was able to prepare a set of financial statements that could be prepared by Glyn on a consistent basis for the next few years.

The most significant change that occurred for the client as result of Steven’s placement with AEC was that Glyn increased his awareness of basic accounting principles and terms and this has enabled him to discuss AEC’s financial position and accounting assumptions with donors.

‘‘Working in partnership with AfID has been thoroughly enjoyable. Steven’s capacity to improve and professionalize our current accountancy methods has been quite extraordinary, his insight, technical precision and ingenuity consistently produced work of the highest quality’

Glyn Vaughan, Audiologist & Director

All Ears Cambodia, Phnom Penh

# Case Study 3 - Reflections, Jeffrey Chesters ACA

I think I must have opted for one of the shortest volunteer visits for AfID, namely a two week assignment from 21 June to 2 July, 2010. I travelled to Gulu to represent International Refugee Trust (IRT) who are financing projects managed by a local NGO called Comboni Samaritans of Gulu, (CSG.)

Time ... I was concerned how best to use my time effectively. However, it is worth remembering that time, in different parts of the world, has different meaning to different people. ‘Time’ in many African countries is different to our time. That’s a bit of a cliché but it’s worth thinking about. Our sense of urgency during the working day is different. We want to ‘ get things done. ‘ We are used to accounting for our time to ourselves and to others. It can be a bit difficult for us when we meet people who have different perceptions of time and of urgency.

I was left kicking my heels once or twice when I needed something or someone. I’ll just go and get it. An hour and a bit later they return with it. In the middle of going through a document with someone their mobile rings. They leave the room to talk to someone and don’t come back. Or perhaps, we’ll leave in five minutes, they say. Fifty minutes later they turn up. You’re trying to accomplish a particular task and such interruptions and delays do occur. You get churned up inside because you know time’s short. You look at your watch. Then you say, 'oh, blow it. There’s nothing I can do about it.' And there isn’t. Sometimes, in some places, this is the way it is. It’s worth remembering this. In other words, you may not be able to achieve everything you set out to do.

Did I achieve anything? This is a normal question to ask but sometimes a difficult one to answer in a development context. In professional life you’ve got a pretty good idea whether or not you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. For me in Northern Uganda, it wasn’t so clear. Staff at the NGO were grateful for my visit and for the time I spent with them. I think they appreciated the voluntary nature of my assignment and were thankful for it. But, did I achieve anything ? Looking back, I think that’s a fruitless question. To answer it I might be led to try to measure everything and some things aren’t that measurable.

I was told once or twice, and I think it was sincere, how important my presence was there. Just being there, working alongside the accounts staff, encouraging them and perhaps correcting their work. Explaining, pointing things out, suggesting how things could perhaps be improved, answering questions, and so on. It’s hard to measure your contribution at the end of a day like this. Some evenings I felt down and was left wondering if I’d done anything at all of value ; but, the next day someone might say something which lifted me back up again. It’s an unusual context, and, on your own, you can get discouraged from time to time. I did. But, looking back, I needn’t have.

Project visit to a primary school : Headmaster (left)

Both the head and the chairman of the PTA were effusive in their thanks for my visit. They said it meant so much that I’d travelled so far to look at their school, and that it was a real boost to them. Later that day I received a similar reminder from the leader of the school beekeeping project, ( see ‘photo below. ) He said the visit was so important to him. 'When people don’t come, he said, he worries that it’s either because they’re not interested in the project, or that people think he might be doing it all wrong.'

Nevertheless, there were times when I wondered if some of the things I had been talking about were sinking in. The accounts staff were qualified ( B.Comms in Accounting or in Business and so on, ) and seemed quite competent in what was required of them. I began to consider this in a different light one day when I was talking with one of the Italian sisters, who was asking me how I was getting on.

She reminded me that I should not expect too much from some of the staff. She talked about the long war which, until 2006/2007 ravaged all of this part of the country, the killings and the atrocities and the legacy of the war in different people’s lives. Apart from this, many people have long journies to work, struggle to make ends meet and are not strong. I asked what she meant by not strong. She referred to poverty and the poor diet many people have and their vulnerability to illness. I should have thought about this. Had I been expecting too much ? I don’t know. Perhaps I had. After that talk with the sister I went about my work with them in a slightly different way.

So, would I do anything differently next time? Well, the main thing would be to spend more time before setting off in correspondence with the finance manager, trying to nail down in more detail shortlist of things I would work on, and try to get her to lay such things out on the table ready for my arrival.

I felt a bit under pressure because of the short two week visit and the above could have helped. In this respect I think AfID have it right to offer volunteers assignments from as little as two weeks. This is unique and for me is a key feature of this work. Nevertheless, a two week assignment needs a different approach to a 6 week one or a three month one. Apart from that, well, no, not really. I am happy with the way things went and with the outcomes. I should perhaps have reminded myself of the local context, past and present, when approaching my work, and not have expected too much of people.