The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) Secretariat yesterday signed an agreement of cooperation to develop and implement a public-finance-management capacity-building programme for development finance institutions in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Sudan and Rwanda.

Discussions on the need for adequate public financial management in the region began last year between the three organisations, based on the findings from a number of research studies undertaken in the region, which indicated that there was a severe lack of public finance management skills.

Further, the studies suggested, and governments, businesses and civil groups in the region confirm, that a resultant shortage of small, micro and medium-sized enterprise (SMME) and infrastructure development was a significant constraint to socioeconomic development in the region, Nepad Secretariat deputy director-general Cunningham Ngcukana said.

He added that skills shortages in project management, financial management and project-feasibility studies, in particular, presented key challenges to development in the region.

The training programme, which will include delegates from a number of SADC countries, as well as from Sudan and Rwanda, will be held at the DBSA's Vulindlela Academy in Johannesburg and will form part of Jica's existing Third Country Training programme.

Jica will be responsible for implementation, and expects to complete the programme by March next year, the agency's resident representative Norio Shimomura said.

DBSA executive manager for private sector and international investments, Lewis Musasike, said that he was confident that the programme would raise the importance of SMMEs in SADC, as well as the other two countries, which represent key societies on the continent as they emerge from long periods of conflict.

“Africa has been found wanting in the area of building sustainable institutions for development,” he said.

“We hope that this initiative will go a long way in building a strong learning network, facilitating knowledge exchange and improving the pool of skilled personnel in development institutions.”

Japanese Ambassador to South Africa Toshinori Shigeie added that the initiative was the result of a strong relationship between Japan and South Africa.

He emphasised that the programme had been established and would be implemented in accordance with Japan's policy of supporting developing countries on the basis of their efforts towards good governance.