AN independent evaluation has rated the Small Countries Financial Management Programme (SCFMP) as excellent in three out of four key areas.
The programme brings together officials from finance ministries, central banks and regulatory bodies in small developing countries for a two-week executive education programme designed to stimulate fresh approaches to the challenges they and their countries face.
The evaluation focused on changes in economic and financial management in 29 small countries after participants from the first three annual programmes returned home and put into practice what they had learned in the Isle of Man and at Oxford University.
In three out of four areas – relevance, effectiveness and efficiency – the programme was given the top rating.
But in the area of sustainability it was rated as modest, with concerns raised that the programme was ‘not yet on a firm financial footing’.
Small Countries Financial Management Centre executive director Tim Cullen, a former senior World Bank official, welcomed the results, saying: ‘An evaluation of this thoroughness and independence is the norm for institutions like the World Bank, the IMF and regional development banks, but is rare amongst charities and NGOs and is almost unheard of for executive education programmes at major universities and business schools.
‘The results are a tremendous endorsement for the programme and really justify the confidence that the government here and the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat have shown in what we are doing through their strong financial and other support.’