The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) and Latin American risk management association ALARYS yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly promote the FERMA rimap® risk management certification programme. The agreement allows ALARYS to offer the FERMA certification to its members in Latin American and Caribbean islands.    

ALARYS will now develop a rimap preparation course for certification candidates, and its educational activities will be eligible for rimap continuing professional development (CPD) points. Rimap holders must earn CPD points every two years to renew their certification as part of the rimap lifelong learning principle.

The Presidents of the two organisations, Jo Willaert of FERMA and Jorge Luzzi of ALARYS, signed the agreement at the FERMA General Assembly in Brussels. FERMA has also agreed mutual recognition of CPD activities with the US risk management association RIMS, the Pan-Asia Association PARIMA, and IRMSA in South Africa, in addition to ALARYS.

Said Jo Willaert: “FERMA has long had close connections with ALARYS, especially through the two associations’ joint members, Spain’s AGERS and Portugal’s APOGERIS. This agreement underlines the strength of that relationship and also shows that FERMA rimap is receiving broader international as well as European recognition.”  

Jorge Luzzi, a former President of FERMA, said: “This agreement expresses the strong interest of the Latin American and Caribbean risk management community to harmonise professional skills and best practices with those developed in Europe. We also believe that risk managers in Europe with strong connections to our region will gain from the closer links between our two organisations and our education and training programmes.”