Facilitating debate, budget transparency, and financial management
Funding provided by Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)
Charities and NGOs rely heavily on the funds provided by donor agencies, but many donors in Ghana express frustration at the lack of financial transparency and information about how their funds are used.
To begin to resolve these issues, AFAWI hosted a week-long workshop for managers of 16 NGOs in the Ga East District, to provide them with training on financial management, budget transparency and project management.
Delegates of the workshop were given training in decision-making, planning and evaluation as well as accounting systems such as bookkeeping, budgeting and financial frameworks for NGO management.
In order to stress the importance of financial management and budget transparency, particularly within NGOs, the managers were taught basic budget models and were encouraged to involve their entire team when creating and reporting on budgets and to report on all funding activities not accounted for in their organization’s budget.
Finally, participants were taught the benefits of healthy debate as well as project and team management techniques.
The skills and knowledge that the participants gained during the workshop will be put to direct use at their individual organizations. It is hoped that we will be able to organize a similar program for larger groups in the future, to reach organizations outside of the Ga East District and Greater Accra Region.
