By Tommaso Scali, International Relations Manager, CIPFA
In June, over 1,200 delegates from 58 African nations and four continents gathered in Marrakech, Morocco for
this year’s ACOA conference, including CIPFA President Carolyn Williamson, our Head of International Relations Salema Hafiz and International Relations Manager Tommaso Scali.
Always an inspiring event, the theme this year was ‘For a Successful Public Sector Performance in Africa’ and the CIPFA team enjoyed hearing from government representatives, leaders in industry, regional economic groupings and other leading figures from across the professional accounting sector.
Carolyn herself was invited to speak in a panel session on public finance reforms in Africa, which explored ways of improving public sector performance through the reconfiguration of organic laws. She took the opportunity to highlight that the design of a financial management system would ideally be tailored to suit the local context, and that implementation would be progressive.
CIPFA supports the adoption and implementation of a more effective approach to public financial management and Carolyn showed how our
Whole Systems Approach – which provides a framework that enables effective and efficient public service delivery to citizens – could be effectively applied in emerging markets like Africa.
With the conference focused on achieving successful public sector performance, there was also a chance for the team to talk directly with delegates about our International Public Financial Management (IPFM) programme, the IPSAS certificates and diplomas, our international financial crime investigation and management qualifications and other training courses.
Having worked on public financial management capacity development projects and implemented public sector accounting standards in countries such as Zimbabwe, Somalia, Ghana, Uganda and Lesotho, it was great to share with the delegates, how these qualifications and training courses could transform the financial management of their organisations and give a real boost to their professional standing.
We’re already looking forward to next year’s event.