First Good Financial Grant Practice Certification in Africa

“We are proud to announce the first GFGP certification in Africa, another huge milestone for us and a great achievement for the Institute of Primate Research.” says Prof Tom Kariuki, the Director of Programmes at the African Academy of Sciences.

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and PwC Kenya (GFGP certification body) supported the Kenyan- based Institute of Primate Research (IPR) to be the first organization in Africa to be certified under the Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) international standard. This follows a recent announcement made by the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance (CGPS) on the first organisation in the world to be certified (the Central Research Laboratory at Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences) based in Bangalore, India.

The GFGP standard is the world’s first international standard in grant management, developed by the African Academy of Sciences’ Global Grant Community through extensive consultation with grantees from across Africa and with support from some of the world’s largest public and private sector funders.

"The GFGP certification on IPR-NMK’s financial and programme capacity is expected to bring increased visibility and potential additional funding to support IPR’s mission of improving human health through advances in basic/discovery and preclinical biomedical research to understand host-pathogen disease mechanisms - leading to development of new therapies, vaccines and diagnostics. IPR also focuses on biodiversity through non-human primate conservation. This standard will be used as part of our pre-award due diligence and it will act as a blueprint in improving our processes, policies and procedures for grant management capabilities. During the audit process we identified areas of weakness in the various functional departments and embarked on improvement strategies informed by the standard,” says Dr George Omondi, Head - Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Center, Institute of Primate Research.

Paula McCabe, Finance Faculty Manager at LSTM says, “We are delighted to have supported the Institute of Primate Research in Kenya with this amazing achievement. This is the 1st accreditation for an African organisation and should act as a springboard to future funding partnerships. The NIHR FAF funding, linked to the larger NIHR funded African Snakebite Research Group, was pivotal in helping to develop long-lasting financial management capacity building.”

Alex Nyaga, Director at PwC Kenya states that, “As a certifying body, our role is to determine whether an organisation follows the GFGP requirements before awarding them with a GFGP Certification. This involves conducting detailed checks on each of the clauses specified the GFGP standard.”

“The first two GFGP certified organizations signify our commitment to strengthen financial governance of organizations at a global scale. We hope that more organizations across Africa will be independently certified under the GFGP Standard and strengthen their financial governance,” says Prof Tom Kariuki, the Director of Programmes at the African Academy of Sciences.

To learn more about how you can get your organisation certified, visit www.globalgrantcommunity.com 

Notes to the editor

About the African Academy of Sciences  
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit pan African organisation whose vision is to see transformed lives on the African continent through science. Our tripartite mandate is recognising excellence through the AAS’ highly prestigious fellowship and award schemes, providing advisory and think tank functions for shaping Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategies and policies and implementing key STI programmes addressing Africa’s developmental challenges. The Academy’s five strategic focus areas include: Environment and climate change; health and wellbeing; natural sciences; policy and governance; and social sciences and humanities. 

Join us on Facebook.com/AASciences and Twitter @AASciences and learn more by visiting www.aasciences.africa

About the Global Grant Community
The Global Grant Community (GGC) is a financial platform of the African Academy of Sciences whose mission is to connect funders with trusted grantees through digitizing, standardizing and de-risking the due diligence process for both funders and grant receivers. The GGC reduces the cost and time taken to connect major state and philanthropic funders with the world’s most trusted grant receivers, that have a proven track record of managing funding effectively. The platform consists of a i) New international standard for Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) developed in collaboration with multiple African and global partners and adopted by the African Organisation for Standardization (ARSO) ii). Portal based pre-certification scheme to the requirements of GFGP and Non GFGP Assurance Framework iii) Global network of audit firms licensed to undertake site audits for certification that an organization’s day to day operational activities are in compliance to the requirements of the GFGP standard. More information about the Global Grant Community and certification bodies can be found on www.globalgrantcommunity.com.

About the Institute of Primate Research
The institute undertakes basic and applied research in biomedical science, primates’ biology and conservations aspects using East African primates. IPR’s mission is to improve human health and biodiversity through advances in basic and preclinical biomedical research and non-human primate conservation. It is a WHO collaborating centre in Human reproduction and Tropical Disease Research. 
For further information please visit www.primateresearch.org 

About Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM)
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is the world's oldest centre of excellence in tropical medicine and international public health. It has been engaged in the fight against infectious, debilitating and disabling diseases since 1898 and continues that tradition today with a research portfolio over £320 million and a teaching programme attracting students from over 65 countries.
For further information please visit www.lstmed.ac.uk 

About PwC
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 157 countries with over 276,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services.
Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com. In East Africa, our member firms in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania work to build trust in society and solve important problems. Our in-depth knowledge and understanding of operating environments in the region enables us to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes and offer truly tailored Tax, Assurance and Advisory solutions to unique business challenges.  

Media Enquiries:
Deborah-Fay Ndlovu, | Communications Manager | African Academy of Sciences
Email: d.ndlovu@aasciences.africa | Tel: +254 709 158 000

Diderik van Halsema I Director of Communications I Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Email: Diderik.vanhalsema@lstmed.ac.uk I Tel: +44 (0)151 705 3104/ +44 (0)7960867337

Collins Waweru I Programme manager I Institute of Primate Research
Email: collinswaweru6@gmail.com I Tel: +254 728-830-556

Alex Nyaga I Director I PwC Kenya
Email: alex.nyaga@pwc.com I Tel: +254 723 226 904