MEFMI Candidate Fellows 11th Intake Undergoes Orientation and Training

The MEFMI Fellows Development Programme (FDP) is the Institute’s flagship programme whose main objective is to develop and sustain a critical mass of regional expertise in the various areas of the macroeconomic, financial sector and sovereign debt management.  Over the years, the FDP has contributed towards bridging the skills gap in MEFMI member countries and  the region at large. This is evident from the number of Fellows produced since its inception close to three decades ago. To date, there are about 200 MEFMI Fellows, the majority of whom are Graduate Fellows, while the rest have gone further to become MEFMI Accredited Fellows.

As part of this effort, MEFMI recruited 12 Candidate Fellows (8 males and 4 females) in October 2020. Before these Candidate Fellows could embark on an 18-month journey of rigorous training and mentoring, they had to go through the orientation workshop which was conducted virtually from 2 to 10 November 2020.

The workshop was officially opened by the MEFMI Acting Executive Director, Mr.  Stanislas Nkhata. In his remarks, Mr. Nkhata stressed the need for Fellows to remain focused, dedicated and to apply critical thinking during their fellowship programme.  He further assured the Candidate Fellows of MEFMI’s support as they stride the challenging but manageable 18-month long Candidate Fellows journey.

The overall objective of the orientation workshop was to introduce the Candidate Fellows to the FDP and also equip them with the requisite knowledge and skills on, among others, technical proposal and technical paper preparation.

The orientation and training workshop was attended by twelve (12) participants drawn from various client institutions in nine (9) MEFMI member countries (Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Based on the positive feedback from the participants, overall, the workshop enhanced their understanding of the Fellows Development Programme and equipped them with the requisite knowledge and skills in research design and methodologies, conducting research and preparing a technical paper which is part of the processes that leads to graduation as a MEFMI Graduate Fellow.

The workshop was facilitated by a team of three (3) resource persons comprising Dr Laban Chesang (Expert in Quantitative Research), Dr Pindai Sithole (Expert in Qualitative Research) and Mr Abednigo Chikanda (Expert in Professional Etiquette and Protocol).

Prepared by Casius  Chuma