Page 49 - AERC Strategic Plan 2 July2020

THE AERC 2020–2025 STRATEGIC PLAN

The Secretariat

The AERC Secretariat, based in Nairobi, Kenya, is the executive and administrative
arm, mandated to execute the strategies that it formulates subject to Board approval.
It coordinates all the activities of the Consortium, including the administration and
management of the resources. The Executive Director is the chief executive officer
of the Consortium, reporting to the Board and sitting on the Board ex-officio. The
organization has four departments: Research, Training, Finance and Administration, and
Communications. These are headed by the Director of Research; Director of Training;
Chief Finance Officer; and Chief Communication Officer respectively, who all report to the
Executive Director.

The Secretariat has a lean and skilled staff complement of 32 and will continue to align
its structure to be able to fully support implementation of this strategy. An assessment of
staff roles will be carried out to examine the current composite of skills and competency
levels. AERC will also continue to hire and engage personnel who will contribute to the
strategic and operational mandate of the organization. The AERC Secretariat organization
structure is presented in Chart 4.

Financial Management

AERC has been able to maintain a robust financial management system that has seen
unqualified audit reports and clean donor-commissioned audits through all the years of
AERC existence. This has been complemented by introduction of an Audit Risk Committee
and Internal Audit function. This has strengthened existing internal-control systems,
which are complemented by sound financial policies and procedures. Investment in
enterprise resource planning (ERP) has increased efficiency and financial reporting. AERC
will continue to adopt best practices to strengthen its financial systems and internal
controls. Risks will be managed through an integrated risk management framework
approach and strategic risks are monitored and reviewed continuously.

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