Happy New Year 2011, from volunteer accountant Permjeet Brar in Cambodia

Happy New Year 2011, from volunteer accountant Permjeet Brar in Cambodia

Accounting for International Development is a new social enterprise placing experienced accounting professionals as temporary volunteers with NGOs across Africa and Asia. After 10 long years in the city founder of AfiD Neil Jennings left his position as Regional Director for the international accountancy recruiter Robert Half International and went in search of that mythical work-life balance'. Whilst he had been very successful and certainly very privileged he felt that his life had become just like Bill Murray's in Groundhog Day different day, same people and same old problems. Neil found a placement as overseas development director for a small Rwandan non-governmental organisation (NGO), set up by orphans and refugees of the 1994 war and genocide. He had always wanted to make a difference and felt where better to start than in Africa. While working closely with the Rwandans it became apparent that, while the NGO achieved amazing results with little or no resources, the survival of their activities hung desperately in the balance due to a lack of basic financial planning and management. After returning to the UK many skilled people mentioned to Jennings that they would love to volunteer abroad but couldn't spare the time from their business or family commitments. This is what inspired him to create Accounting for International Development (AfID) a new social enterprise placing experienced accounting professionals as temporary volunteers with NGOs across Africa and Asia. These assignments typically last from 2 to 12 weeks and form part of a long term coaching and mentoring programme. The programme is designed to build financial management and planning capacity within small grass root projects such as street child centres, health clinics, enterprise initiatives and rural cooperatives. AfiD hopes to make volunteering a realistic prospect for tenured professionals, either as part of a staff development programme or simply as part of their annual leave. For AfID's partners in Africa and Asia it will provide access to a vast pool of talent. The idea is to champion best practice, accountability and encourage cooperation and a commitment to long-term sustainability.

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