Our partner is a Holland-based civic society organisation, originally set up to support sustainable change in the lives of children in rural areas by combining social business, civic driven change and investing in children’s safety. More recently, having undergone a strategic review, our partner has begun a transition and are changing their focus to support agricultural enterprises. The purpose of this is to improve income and food security for households. They started support for enterprises with a maize production business in Kenya in 2013; this is up and running relatively well. Since then, they have expanded and invested in another agribusiness in Kenya, and two in Tanzania.
This year they have undergone further organisational changes, including seeking alternate donors/investors to reduce government funding. They have found that this has been more readily available for their East African programmes, and with their programmes now in the format of social businesses, they have also been able to attract investment funding. The businesses have been hugely successful and they have increased their turnover by 100% annually. This is contrasted by the need to reduce staff and overheads in their Dutch office, as a result of the reduction in government funding.
This has two consequences: firstly this rapid growth has cemented the need for proper documentation. They do have procedures in place, but these are not properly documented, and this has led to critical reports from auditors. There is also the need for proper checks and balances within the local businesses, however, with the reduction in staff, they do not have time to undertake internal audits of the businesses and make recommendations on improvements. This is compounded by the fact that most of their staff have purely NGO backgrounds, and are not used to focussing on financial controls, sustainability and profits.
They have requested the support of a volunteer to undertake an internal audit of their businesses. This might entail some time spent in their Dutch office, and then time spent in Kenya and Tanzania,
The placement will last between 6-8 weeks; the partner will cover 50% of accommodation costs, visa, and travel between Kenya & Tanzania.
Please note that overseas assignments, in this case Kenya and Tanzania, will incur a placement fee as per the AfID Tailored Volunteer Programme fee scale (see website for more details).
Do something incredible, volunteer. Contact us on +44 (0) 208 741 7000 or email volunteers@afid.org.uk to find out more. See more similar opportunities.
