| UNITAR’s
Training in the Legal Aspects of Debt, Financial Management and
Negotiation for Sub-Saharan Africa |
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| Introduction |
| he 1980s
saw many countries in sub-Saharan Africa suffering a severe financial
crisis due to an increasing debt burden. Some of the factors that
contributed to this debt crisis were a lack of sound debt and financial
management techniques and a lack of awareness of the legal procedures
of debt and financial management. In response to this situation,
in 1987 UNITAR decided to provide training to government officials
from English-speaking sub-Saharan African countries in the legal
aspects of debt and financial management. |
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| Objectives
of the Programme |
| The objectives
of the programme are the following: |
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Creating
awareness among senior officers, middle-level debt and finance managers,
law professors and trade officials on the importance of the legal
aspects of debt and financial management; |
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Providing
in-depth training to lawyers and non-lawyers in legal aspects of
debt and financial management; and |
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Strengthening
existing human resources and institutional capacities within these
nations to make them self-reliant in conducting future seminars
and training programmes. |
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| Salient
Features |
All training
is conducted in the partner countries through workshops lasting
one to ten days. The programme brings a multi-disciplinary approach
to the field of debt and financial management since UNITAR believes
that debt management requires an inter-disciplinary training in
economic, financial, accounting and legal functions. Hence, the
training programmes have had participants from various disciplines
from the related ministries in the partner countries.
The programme includes seminars and workshops which are held on
a sub-regional (inviting participants from many countries) or national
basis. All training events are set up to facilitate discussion,
exchange of ideas and experience, practical training and simulation
exercises. The workshops are usually led by national and international
resource persons who have a breadth and depth of experience in the
field of international debt and financial management. As part of
this programme in sub-Saharan African nations, UNITAR is also working
on preparing National Profiles to evaluate the legal infrastructure
of these nations. UNITAR’s training materials have also been disseminated
in these countries and efforts are being made to integrate these
packages into the university curricula. |
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