ISMM delegation attends IFPSM World Summit in Barcelona

The International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM) held its bi-annual World Summit in 2015 at NH Collection Constanza hotel in Barcelona, Spain on 18-19 September. 

Prior to the summit, IFPSM held its Board and Council meetings on 16 and 17 September respectively. The Federation is an international body of national associations who work together to improve the practice of procurement connected to 45 member associations and 250,000 members globally. The World Summit is a key event in bringing associations together to share knowledge and experience so that they can better serve their membership in their home countries. The Associación Española de Profesionales de Compras, Contratacióny Aprovisionamientos (AERCE) hosted the IFPSM World Summit this year. The Institute of Supply and Materials Management (ISMM) is a member of the Federation since 1980.

The ISMM delegation consisting of President and Senior Delegate Noel Wickremasinghe, Vice Presidents Nalin Silva and Gayani de Alwis, General Secretary Sarath Gamage and Assistant General Secretary Jayantha Gallahewa attended the summit from Sri Lanka. The theme for the summit was ‘Unlocking the Potential of Association’. The key highlight of the summit were the plenaries on global and procurement mega trends and education, training and market trends. 

The Founder of Procurement Professional presented key insights on innovative use of social media for marketing associations. These sessions were followed by workshops on different themes. Vice President Gayani de Alwis was an invited speaker at the summit where she spoke at the workshop session on ‘Developing a fully inclusive membership strategy for your association’ by sharing a case study on ‘Women in procurement’. 

Gayani mentioned that although there is 51% women globally at tertiary education level, the global average of women in employment is at 41% and the global average for women at senior management level is 24%. It shows that it is difficult to retain women at mid career level and beyond she said. The fact that the perception of procurement and supply chain as not very feminine professions and considered highly male-dominated with lack of policies to support women at mid-career level prevents women joining this profession she added. 

She stressed the need to have mentors and role models, support for mid-career women with measures such as flexible working locations and times, withmale counterparts understandingand senior management sponsorship as key measures to improve gender diversity in procurement work environment. The talk was well received and it was followed by a case study from Andreas Takacs from Swedish Association on the inclusion of young professionals. 

IFPSM CEO Malcolm Youngson reiterated that this agenda will be taken up at the next board meeting to infuse young blood and to make the association more gender diverse and inclusive.

The next IFPSM World Summit will be held in Taipei, Taiwan from 22 to 23 September 2017 hosted by Supply Managment Instutute Taiwan (SMIT).

ISMM is a leading professional body in Sri Lanka associated with the procurement, logistics and supply chain profession. It was established in 1972 and was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1981. The institute was admitted to OPA in 1976. ISMM is affiliated to the International Trade Centre (ITC) Geneva and is the only licensed institute to conduct their Modular Learning Supply Chain (MLS) programs in Sri Lanka since 2001. They are also registered under the Tertiary & Vocational Education Commission (TVEC). 

ISMM is the pioneer in purchasing and supply chain management education for more than three decades and so far have trained over 13,000 professionals in the country. ISMM received ISO 900 certification in 2014. In recognition of the increasingly crucial role played by the institute to the profession, the Department of Public Administration by its circular No. 46/90 (i) of 20.06.1994 has given full recognition to the Corporate Membership of ISMM which is recognised as equivalent to a 1st Class or 2nd Class Honours Degree relevant to the field of Supply and Materials Management awarded by a recognised university for diplomates with three years’ experience at Executive Capacity in a reputed organisation. For more details on ISMM, visit their web page http://www.ismmsrilanka.com/.