In a bid to encourage transparency and entrench governance in grant funding, the African Academy of Sciences (The AAS) has unveiled the Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) in South Africa.
The GFGP standard which was initially created as an African standard was developed in collaboration with the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO). It is the first such tool developed in Africa for international use.
The promoters of the standard believe it will impact research development in different sectors on the continent as it builds confidence in grant makers and ensures that researchers are focused on the projects they applied for.
“To make real impacts on health, it is vital we continue to strengthen the African research system,” said Simon Kay, head of international operations and partnerships at Wellcome. “Having a strong research and grant support is key to this, allowing researchers to focus on science, rather than lose time navigating complex and unclear administration.”
Kay disclosed that Wellcome has so far committed over £250 million to fund health research and build research capacity in Africa. The organisation has also partnered with the African Academy of Sciences to pursue a systematic approach to strengthening support.
The Wellcome Trust Programme has 20 funders with different auditing process demands. The GFGP enables the streamline or audit and reporting process for these funders.
The GFGP standard allows community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, research and academic institutions of any size to rate their capability to receive and manage grants. It achieves this by providing an online self-assessment tool covering four grant management practice areas – financial management, human resources, procurement and governance – adopted by ARSO to promote transparency in the use of funds by local organisations to mitigate the risk of fraud and corruption.
The institutions are benchmarked on a cumulative four-tier assessment – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum – that rate their capabilities to manage grants with the goal of assuring grant makers that their funds are going to recipient organisations with certified capabilities to manage grants, reducing the resource burden of grantees by streamlining the audit process; and mitigating the risk of corruption and fraud.
“This is a game-changer,” said Felix Dapare Dokora, president of The AAS, “It will strengthen the ability of local organisations to receive and manage funds to make them even more attractive to funders and to help them recognise potential areas of greater growth that can be addressed by developing appropriate methods for capacity building.
