Overview

Description

In 2008 the IIC signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum to offer business ethics training programs to SMEs. In early 2010 the IIC contacted the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the United States Department of Commerce, which has experience in promoting good business practice and ethics. The IIC proposed partnering with ITA to train business ethics experts.

FINPYME Integrity, which is funded by the Korea-IIC SME Development Trust Fund, has its roots in these agreements and in FINPYME Family Business. Its objective is to encourage improved business ethics for SMEs across the region by helping them develop codes of ethics and foster integrity, transparency, and other ethical procedures and practices. The goal is to help SMEs improve management-employee relations, report to shareholders, prevent fraud, and position themselves as trustworthy partners in the supply chains of large companies with high standards of corporate integrity.

Among the key components of the program are a business ethics knowledge toolkit for training the trainers, the transfer of knowledge to help SMEs adopt good business management and ethics practices, and dissemination of lessons learned.

The program began with the development of a knowledge toolkit for training business ethics experts. In 2010, the first 16 training experts—from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago—took part in a seminar hosted by the IIC in Washington, D.C. In 2011, these trainers will pass on their knowledge as they help SMEs in their home countries improve business ethics.  An evaluation of outcomes upon conclusion of this pilot exercise will determine the potential for disseminating the program more broadly in Latin America.

Donors and Partners

Donor

FINPYME Integrity has been funded to date by the Republic of Korea, through the Korea-IIC SME Development Trust Fund.

Partner

FINPYME Integrity grew from a partnership with the International Trade Administration, a division of the United States Department of Commerce.

FINPYME Integrity is substantially leveraged on its regional partners, who organize most of the events in their home countries and will, going forward, promote ethical business practices. Partnerships are in place with institutions and people who are committed to the program’s goals.

FINPYME Integrity is under way in three countries of the English-speaking Caribbean: Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The institutions taking part in the program are listed below.

Barbados:

Jamaica:

  • Development Partners and Management International
  • Enterprise Development and Market Access Solutions
  • J. Wray & Nephew Limited
  • JAMPRO
  • The Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (coordinator)
  • University of West Indies

Trinidad and Tobago:

  • Caribbean Procurement Institute
  • Corporate Social Responsibility Solutions Limited
  • Syntegra Change Architects
  • Transparency International (coordinator)