Customized for Humanitarian, Donor-Funded & Government Institutions

Introduction

Humanitarian agencies, donor-funded projects, and government institutions manage large volumes of sensitive documents including proposals, contracts, reports, financial records, policies, and beneficiary data. Poor document management exposes organizations to compliance risks, audit failures, data loss, and inefficiencies.

This training equips participants with practical skills to design, implement, and manage Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) that meet donor compliance requirements, public sector regulations, and humanitarian accountability standards, while supporting transparency, efficiency, and institutional memory.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

1. Establish an EDMS aligned with humanitarian, donor, and government requirements
2. Apply document lifecycle management across programs and departments
3. Design classification systems for projects, grants, and public records
4. Implement document security, access control, and audit trails
5. Ensure compliance with donor, legal, and regulatory frameworks
6. Automate workflows for approvals, reporting, and correspondence
7. Implement retention, archiving, and disposal policies
8. Support audits, evaluations, and inspections through structured document systems

Important Dates
Classroom Training Calendar

Online Training Calendar

Course Outline

Day 1: EDMS Fundamentals for Institutional Environments

• Role of document management in humanitarian and public institutions
• Risks of poor document and records management
• EDMS concepts and benefits
• Document lifecycle in donor-funded and government contexts
• Overview of international standards: ISO 15489 (Records Management), ISO 27001 (Information Security)
• Case studies: NGOs, ministries, and donor-funded projects

Day 2: Classification, Metadata, and Digitization

• Designing classification structures for: Projects and grants, Policies and administrative records
• Financial and procurement documents
• Metadata standards for retrieval and reporting
• File naming conventions for compliance and audits
• Digitization of paper records
• OCR and document quality assurance
• Practical exercise: building a donor-compliant document structure

Day 3: Security, Access Control, and Compliance

• Managing sensitive and confidential documents
• Role-based access control and segregation of duties
• Version control and document integrity
• Audit trails and compliance evidence
• Data protection and privacy regulations
• Donor and government compliance requirements: USAID, EU, UN, World Bank (overview), Public sector records laws
• Business continuity and disaster recovery

Day 4: Workflow Automation and Institutional Integration

• Mapping institutional workflows
• Automating approvals and document routing
• Managing correspondence, contracts, and reports
• Integration with: Financial systems, HR systems, M&E and project management systems
• Change management and staff adoption
• Selecting EDMS platforms (open-source and enterprise)
• Practical exercise: workflow design for a donor-funded project

Day 5: Records Retention, Archiving, and Sustainability

• Records retention schedules for: Donor-funded projects, Government records, Legal and financial documents
• Archiving inactive records
• Disposal and destruction policies
• Supporting audits, evaluations, and inspections
• Governance structures for EDMS
• Developing an institutional EDMS roadmap
• Course review and action planning

Targeted Participants

This training is designed for:

• Humanitarian and NGO Program Staff
• Grants and Compliance Officers
• Government Records and Registry Officers
• Project and Program Managers
• Finance and Procurement Officers
• Monitoring & Evaluation Specialists
• ICT and Systems Administrators
• Policy and Administrative Officers

Key Institutional Benefits

• Improved donor and regulatory compliance
• Faster document retrieval during audits
• Reduced risk of data loss and non-compliance
• Enhanced transparency and accountability
• Strengthened institutional memory
• Support for digital transformation initiatives