+ 1. How this guide can help

This guide can help you create an effective staff training program on policies and regulations to build skills and knowledge, improve performance, and increase staff engagement and autonomy.

While this Guide uses digital financial services (DFS) policy and regulation as an example, the overall approach can be applied in a wide variety of policy and regulatory context. Please tailor the following steps to the needs of your country or region, organization, and objectives.

+ 2. Examples of when to use this guide

You can refer to this guide at any stage in the policymaking process.

For example, you could offer training for staff before you select a policy option (e.g., to build familiarity with business models, technologies, or customer behavior).

Alternatively, you could offer training after you select a policy option and move into the implementation and supervision phase (e.g., to assess new e-money issuer applications or conduct data analysis).

Depending upon regulatory and supervisory responsibilities in your country or region, training could include staff in financial authorities (such as central banks) and/or telecommunications, consumer protection, and competition authorities. For example, you could offer opportunities to staff who:

• Develop policy documents such as economic development plans or financial inclusion strategies.

• Draft regulations related to e-money, agents, customer due diligence, and consumer protection.

• Assess applications for mobile money licenses, products, and services.

• Supervise e-money issuers, oversee payment systems, or are responsible for other prudential and/or market conduct supervision.

This Guide walks you through seven key steps to design and implement a staff training program. We have also created a user-friendly template that can help organize your efforts. Available for download (Word) in English and French.

+ 3. Getting started

Step 1: Identify clear regulatory goals from the start and design your learning plan accordingly

Capacity-building is more than just a tool for relationship-building and individual professional development; it can help build institutional momentum and conditions for regulatory change.

In establishing clear regulatory goals up front, you can define your training objectives in terms of the specific knowledge and skills necessary to create the institutional foundation and momentum required for a given regulatory change. Trainings will also be most effective when their delivery is timed to coincide with specific regulatory initiatives taking place so that the capacity gained is of immediate applicability to the regulatory process at hand.

Step 2: Identify the key stakeholders (internal and external) required to achieve the desired outcomes.

Resilient regulatory change requires a holistic and inclusive engagement strategy which brings together all stakeholders required to see reforms through. It is critical that you identify the institutions, departments, and individuals whose buy-in and inputs are required for each regulatory initiative. Trainings can then be used as an opportunity for stakeholders to co-create the frameworks, policies, and plans that they will use “outside of the classroom” to accelerate the regulatory changes they hope to implement.

Tip: Remember to actively and intentionally recruit female colleagues and external stakeholders to participate in every training. Women are often underrepresented at all levels of government, including central banks. Being gender intentional regarding the makeup of the training cohort is an integral component of the regulatory work.

Step 3: Assess the capacity gaps and needs of the stakeholders identified

Having identified the regulatory goal of the training initiative and the stakeholders required to make it happen, it is important to understand the current gaps in knowledge and capacity to effect the regulatory change. Before you can identify the types of trainings to deploy, you may choose to survey the identified stakeholders to better understand their needs. This template, available for download in English and French, includes a section on capacity building needs assessment which you can use as an initial framework to better understand their needs.

Tip: People learn in different ways (e.g., “VARK” or visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic). Learners are more likely to remember (and enjoy) content when they are engaged and motivated.

+ 4. Building your learning agenda

Step 4: Identify internal trainers (if available)

Experienced internal staff members are cost-effective and integral to building organizational memory. Ask these staff to create training materials to transfer knowledge and skills to others.

Delivery options include: 

• Presentations 

• On-the-job training 

• Simulation-based workshops (e.g., review sample e-money issuer license applications)

Examples of training materials include: 

• Resources for staff to consume on their own time (especially before training sessions), such as reports/academic paper excerpts, news articles, blog posts, videos, and podcasts. 

• Exercises for staff to complete before or during training sessions. 

• Presentation slides, including activities and questions for group discussions.  

Step 5: Identify external training options

This can be useful if your organization has gaps in its in-house expertise and/or an external person could provide a fresh perspective or accelerate processes. Different training modalities have different costs and benefits, some of which are briefly summarized below:

In-person training  such as Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion

• Pros: Great as a convening forum and for workshop-type activities. Highly interactive, engaging, and often high completion rates. Encourages networking and peer-to-peer exchanges. Often participants’ preferred method of learning.
• Cons: Expensive. Large participant numbers can be hard to manage. Requires time away from work.

Online training such as Digital Frontiers Institute courses  

• Pros: Cost-effective, flexible, perfect for specific and highly technical topics, as it allows participants to review the materials as many times as needed.
• Cons: Often suffers from poor participation and completion rates (especially compared to in-person trainings).  

Targeted peer exchanges with financial authorities in other countries or regions  

• Pros: Learn best practices from similar experiences, engage in on-the-job training, foster regional and international coordination/cooperation, great networking opportunity.
• Cons: Expensive. Difficult to organize, time-consuming, requires time away from work.

Online discussion platforms such as FinEquity  

• Pros: Cost-effective. Broad audience and reach.  Encourages networking and peer-to-peer exchanges.
• Cons: Not suitable for in-depth discussions requiring local knowledge nor for broad exposure to multiple issues.  

Conferences such as the AFI Global Policy Forum  

• Pros: Great as a convening forum, highly interactive. Encourages networking and peer-to-peer exchanges. Great for exposure to contemporary issues and solutions.
• Cons: Expensive. Difficult and time-consuming to organize.

Step 6: Secure Approval and Budget Allocation from senior management

Senior management approval may be necessary to ensure training is a top priority and to encourage staff attendance. Additionally, many training opportunities can be expensive and require budget approval and allocation. Senior managers may want to review a proposal or formal memo that includes:  

• Topic
• Learning outcomes
• Time commitment
• Dates
• Cost
• Attendees
• Justification for training, including return on investment  

Tip: Many of the external courses offer scholarships. Additionally, development partners such as UNCDF can often provide funding for capacity-building initiatives.

Step 7: Enrolment and follow-up plans

If proceeding with external training options, once the training has been approved the participants will need to be registered and enrolled in the program. Note that some programs have application processes and will only accept a few applicants, while others simply require an enrolment and payment to guarantee participation. Make sure to always check the participation requirements and application deadlines. Finally, if enrolling a large number of participants in one training, it is worth contacting the training provider in advance to discuss any special accommodations, rates, and registration processes.

The most critical component of a successful capacity-building intervention is having a clearly articulated follow-up plan with the participants and linking it to specific deliverables. The follow-up engagement should be designed to facilitate the application of the learning content to the regulatory goal identified at the start of the process. It should set a clear agenda from the completion of the training to the targeted regulatory goal.

Finally, it is important to survey the participants to help you evaluate the quality of the training received and identify areas where further training may be needed. You may also choose to have participants of different courses share back what they have learned with the team to ensure greater sustainability and institutional knowledge transfer.