Effective management of donor funds key—Kuwali

ActionAid Malawi executive director Pamela Kuwali has urged organisations to ensure effective management of donor funds to sustain their operations and earn confidence.

She said this on Thursday in Salima during a training workshop on financial and project management for donor-funded projects organised by Acca Malawi.

Kuwali said organisations should ensure that they recruit right and also develop skills of the available staff through training.

She said: “Non-governmental organisations are key players in the socio- economic development of the country and they receive funding from development partners, therefore, they must thrive to retain that funding trust.

“As institutions, you need to support efforts to attain knowledge and put project management and finance management as the backbone of institutional sustainability.”

Kuwali called on organisations to be innovative and creative to attract high level funding, adding that they also need to retain institutional reputation through proper finance management skills.

Acca Malawi head Alinane Khonje thanked the participants for attending the training workshop and employers for funding their employees.

“I want to encourage participants to use the knowledge acquired because knowledge is power. But knowledge is not power until it is utilised for the rightful purpose,” she said.

Some of the presenters during the two-day training workshop included Christopher Chirambo, who is senior consultant at David Hastings Associates, Chisomo Kapulula, who made a presentation on NGO Amendment Act and Impact on Financial and Operations of NGOs and Kenneth Msiska spoke on the Introduction to Agile Project Management.

At the end of the training workshop, participants were, among others, expected to design and implement financial management systems for effective control of donor projects.