CIMA has become the first UK-based accountancy body to enter into an agreement with the World Bank to train finance and accounting employees in its professional accountancy qualification.
CIMA Quality Training Partner status will be awarded to the World Bank, a development body, at a ceremony in Washington DC, US, where the bank is headquartered. This is CIMA’s first Quality Training Partner agreement with an organisation based in the US.
The agreement with the bank’s Resource Management (RM) function, which performs the financial and management accounting role at the bank, complements RM’s existing suite of qualifications and training options. Before the agreement, a team from the World Bank came to the UK to visit existing Quality Training Partners and assess the appropriateness of CIMA and its qualification. Previously, links with UK-based institutes have not included training staff in a professional qualification in the bank’s headquarters.
Building on work in Bangladesh
Charles Tilley, chief executive of CIMA will present a certificate to Mr Fayezul Choudhury, vice president, corporate finance and risk at the World Bank to mark the occasion.
Tilley said: ‘We are delighted with this agreement with the World Bank. This is an organisation with exacting professional standards and it has a critical role in fighting world poverty. We feel the CIMA qualification will give the relevant people in resource management the broad-based business and above all strategic focus that is so essential in the bank’s work in more than a hundred countries. This agreement builds on our previous work with the World Bank, notably in Bangladesh where we are sole expert supplier to strengthen the local accountancy body.'
Choudhury said: ‘The Resource Management (RM) function has a crucial role in making every dollar count for the poor as we support the Bank in maximising its development impact in client countries. This obviously requires finance and accounting professionals that are adept at partnering with operational units and supporting them with decision relevant information and advice. The Quality Training Partner initiative complements a wider effort in further strengthening competencies in the RM community and will serve as a useful benchmark in ensuring that our trainees will be equipped with cutting edge management accounting skills and knowledge. We are pleased to be recognised by CIMA as having the necessary ingredients for training Chartered Management Accountants of the future.’
Glenn Miles, budget director, corporate finance and risk, The World Bank and scheme coordinator said: 'We chose CIMA to support the World Bank RM Fast Track Development Program because of its unique emphasis on combining strategy and financial management disciplines. The World Bank has a complex business model and a critical mission. We want our trainees to be able to “think, act and talk business” both from a strategic as well as from a financial perspective. As the scheme coordinator, I am very much looking forward to getting the best trainees on board and helping them to develop as finance business partners.’