SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (Fire Awards)
Nov 21, 2013
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is an international capacity development support organisation, working in 38 countries across the world.
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is an international capacity development support organisation, working in 38 countries across the world. SNV started working in Uganda 24 years ago and currently supports interventions in agriculture, renewable energy and water, sanitation and hygiene, in 98 districts across Uganda.
They do not offer funding but rather specialise in supporting the resourcefulness of development actors. For example, they help alleviate poverty by focusing on increasing people’s income and employment opportunities in specific productive sectors, as well as improving their access to basic services including water, sanitation and hygiene, and renewable energy.
Gilbert Kidimu spoke to Michael Tugyetwena Country controller SNV about the Financial Reporting Awards recognition.
QUESTION: You emerged 2nd runner’s up in the recent FiRe Awards. Were you expecting to win?
ANSWER: As part of a global organisation, we always strive to uphold the highest level of professionalism by employing highly skilled staff. We ensure that our finance staff participate in the Institute’s CPD programmes so as to keep abreast with emerging industry best practices.
As first time entrants in the FiRe awards, our objective, however, was to use the opportunity to benchmark and get feedback so as to improve on our financial reporting. Emerging 2nd runner thus came as a pleasant surprise and an added bonus to us.
Q: Why is it critical for every institution to have good financial records?
A: We receive funding from various stakeholders like The Netherlands Government, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Government of Uganda, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, EKN, the International Water and Sanitation Centre, and others.
By having good and comprehensive financial reports, we are able to give assurance to our development partners that we are a partner that they can trust to optimally and effectively use the money they have entrusted to us. When it comes to resource mobilisation this track record speaks for us and helps us raise more resources for sustainable poverty alleviation.
Q: What in your view is the major challenge organisations face in financial reporting?
A: Ensuring that all the various sections of the organisation are on board when preparing the financial report. Often times
this function is erroneously left to the accounting and finance departments to the detriment of the organisation.
A financial report is more than just figures, it is an accountability tool to your stakeholders where you report back how you performed in that year with demonstrated results backed up by figures. As professionals, we need to continuously work on the mindset of our colleagues so that all can appreciate the importance of actively contributing to the organisation’s financial report.