UNITAR and WAIFEM Sign an Agreement to Jointly Conduct Diploma Courses on Macroeconomic Policy Management

UNITAR and WAIFEM sign an agreement 24 November 2015, Geneva, Switzerland – The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) have signed an agreement to jointly conduct Diploma Courses on finance and debt-related topics for the WAIFEM-member countries in West Africa and beyond.

During the signing session in Geneva, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNITAR, Mr. Nikhil Seth, warmly welcomed the Director General of WAIFEM, Professor Akpan Ekpo, and thanked him for WAIFEM’s continued trust and reassured him of UNITAR’s sustained support in the long and fruitful collaboration between the two institutions. The meeting was also attended by Mr Baba Musa, the Director of WAIFEM’s Debt Management Department and the Public Finance and Trade Programme staff of UNITAR.

UNITAR and WAIFEM conclude an agreement “With the new partnership, UNITAR and WAIFEM will be able to jointly share their expertise to deliver the diploma courses in West Africa as well as globally. This is part of our vision to position WAIFEM as the best regional capacity building institution in macroeconomic policy management”, said Professor Ekpo.

Over the next 12 months, the partnership aims to leverage the comparative advantage of both institutions by transforming WAIFEM content and content-related expertise into online learning products and services. Specifically, the agreement will deliver two Diploma Courses on Public Sector Debt Management as well as delivering training in French for WAIFEM beneficiaries.

Mr. Musa commented,

“the first Diploma Course on Public Sector Debt Management will allow participants to understand the functional requirements of a debt management officer and allow the participant to be able to contribute fully to the overall objectives of their Ministry or Central Bank in their country”.

In addition, “the French course is a priority area of our capacity development activities to allow seamless interaction, integration and sharing of good practices - in French and English - among the staff of the WAIFEM member states “, continued Mr. Musa.

Long standing and successful collaboration

UNITAR and WAIFEM conclude an agreement WAIFEM is a regional capacity building organization established in 1996 by the Central Banks of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. It aims to develop, on a sustainable basis, capacities in the fields of macroeconomic, debt, and financial management among the staff of central banks, ministries of finance and economic planning, as well as other public sector and private institutions.

Since 1998, WAIFEM and UNITAR’s Public Finance and Trade Programme have been actively working together on capacity development activities in West Africa via face-to-face training. As of 2007, the partnership has shifted to delivering online training in order to achieve greater outreach and cost-effectiveness. Over the past 17 years, WAIFEM and UNITAR have successfully trained over 560 beneficiaries from the WAIFEM-member states.

Leveraging technology for greater outreach and knowledge exchange

UNITAR and WAIFEM successful collaboration In one recent joint e-Learning course on Debt Sustainability Analysis which was successfully completed by 76 participants, 98% of the participants would recommend the course to a colleague. One participant commented that “the course was one of the best I have had in many years. UNITAR has been a great source of help in upgrading my career, and now WAIFEM has added to that. I thank both institutions”.

With e-Learning, participants also value the easy access to online mentoring and solid content that relates directly to national and regional settings. In one of the many feedback received by the organizers, one participant indicated that “the value of the (online) course cannot be quantified. For us, facing debt burdens, this is a good platform to develop a better understanding of the situation in our countries. I think the mentors and the administrators did an extremely good job, thank you all for helping us”.

Both UNITAR and WAIFEM are keen to continue to leverage the use of information and communication technologies to deliver training. It allows for the delivery of up-to-date and relevant training modules to the beneficiaries and it enables the organizers to quantify the achievement of the learning objectives.

With greater flexibility, participants can now fully participate and be eligible for a Diploma with minimal disruption to their professional activities.

WAIFEM plans to offer a full scholarship to the first batch of 30 participants from Ministries of Finance, Economic Planning, and Central Banks of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

If you are interested to know more about the joint WAIFEM/UNITAR Diploma Courses, please send an email to waifem@unitar.org. We will send you free additional information within the next 3 to 4 weeks.

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