DMS held a 'Train the Trainer' workshop in London on managing external debt using CS-DRMS. The event was opened by Jose Maurel, Director, Special Advisory Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Jose Maurel indicated that the Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management Software (CS-DRMS) which started as a small project in the 1980's has now turned into a flagship application of the Secretariat. He mentioned that the debt management programme of the Secretariat is presently under evaluation to analyse its effectiveness in meeting countries' expectations and to strategically reposition it in terms of direction and scope. Findings of the evaluation exercise indicate that the debt management programme is highly regarded by client countries and has achieved a lasting impact in improving debt management in the Commonwealth. The programme has been assessed as highly relevant, effective, efficient and sustainable.

The Director pointed out that, faced with the increasing use of the CS-DRMS across the globe, the Secretariat is having a challenging task to address growing demands from user countries for training on CS-DRMS. Given the limited resources of the Secretariat, it is becoming increasingly difficult to address such high demands in a timely manner. He announced that the Secretariat will soon be launching an e-learning programme to cover online training in the use of CS-DRMS for recording external debt. There would however, still be a need for face-to-face training. This is where the Train the Trainer course aimed to help by expanding the limited pool of CS-DRMS resources to dispense training and provide in-country support. The Secretariat envisaged making an increasing use of such resources for capacity building at national, regional and pan-Commonwealth levels.

The workshop brought together 14 delegates from 13 countries across the globe. The first two days of the workshop covered soft skills on:

• Preparing for training
• Managing the learning environment
• Structuring training sessions
• Learning processes and styles
• Delivery methods and media
• Managing participants and facilitating group sessions

Participants then applied these soft skills for making presentations on specific CS-DRMS topics during the rest of the workshop.

These topics included:

• Interpretation of loan agreements
• Recording and maintaining various types of loans in CS-DRMS
• Debt Data Validation
• Capturing restructuring agreements
• Analysing and reporting external debt through CS-DRMS

The participants also had the opportunity of facilitating group discussions. The workshop aimed at providing an important opportunity to participants to develop and enhance their capacity for delivering training in CS-DRMS.