• The Centre
• SCFMC Board of Directors
• Management team
• Partners

The Centre

The Small Countries Financial Management Centre (SCFMC) was established as a charity (company limited by guarantee) in the Isle of Man in June 2009. Its purpose is to contribute to the growth and prosperity of small countries through capacity building in the government financial sector.

The SCFMC achieves this through the provision of targeted executive education programmes conducted by practitioners and academics to provide improved skills, deeper understanding and best practice around financial regulation, risk management, and broader management of government financial activities.

The Centre was established through a generous financial commitment from the government of the Isle of Man. This funding enabled it to develop and implement two-week core programmes in 2009 and 2010, which benefited a total of 53 officials from small countries, with the third annual session scheduled for August- September, 2011. The World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat were both key partners in the establishment of the Centre and have also contributed funding to its initial annual programmes.

The governance of the Centre is based on multilateral principles. The chairman of the Board of Directors (currently a former senior official of HM Treasury) is independent of any official body or government. Developing small countries are represented on the board by senior government officials elected by participants in the 2009 programme, with one each from the Caribbean (Grenada), the Pacific (Samoa), and from Africa and the rest of the world (Mauritius). The chairman of the Small States Network for Economic Development (currently from Barbados) also serves ex officio on the board. Donor countries and organisations are represented by an official from the Isle of Man Treasury and by an official of the World Bank. The Executive Director, a former World Bank official, is also a member of the Board. Additional seats on the board remain available for other donors as further resources are mobilized. The chairman, board directors, and executive director all contribute their services unpaid.

The Isle of Man government provides further in-kind support, notably through the provision of the facilities of the International Business School.

The financial management of the Centre is provided by KPMG LLC, the global accounting firm, and major administrative support for programme planning and implementation is provided by PDMS Ltd, the leading business systems company. Both of these companies are providing their invaluable support on a pro bono basis.

In addition to its close working relationship with the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Centre is indebted to a number of international bodies and governments, which have provided advice and guidance on the priorities for the content of the annual Small Countries Financial Management Programme. The Programme Director, who has led the design and implantation of the curriculum, is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School (SBS) at the University of Oxford, as is the Executive Director of the Centre. Several other members of the SCFMP faculty teach at SBS or in other entities at the University of Oxford.

The first week of the annual core programme is held in the Isle of Man and second in Oxford. The faculty represents a blend of leading academics and practitioners.

Plans are underway to expand the scope of the SCFMC's work through annual short implementation workshops in the Caribbean, Africa/Indian Ocean, and the Pacific, to which participants from the core programme can return six, 18, and 30 months after they have been in the Isle of Man and Oxford.  The workshops will be designed to give continued guidance and the further sharing of experiences on the new approaches to their work engendered during the original programme to ensure that the lessons from the programme are embedded and sustained. These planned workshops will also facilitate the inclusion of a geographic dimension by drawing on specialized regional expertise.

The Centre also facilitates networking and sharing of best practice among officials who have participated in its programmes and, in the future, the it plans to commission research and disseminate knowledge products on small countries financial management and regulatory issues.

The centre is located at the Isle of Man International Business School, a unique higher education institution specialising in offshore business, banking and insurance. The International Business School is situated just outside Douglas, the Island's capital, and its peaceful surroundings are ideally suited to executive education.