Mission East 2019 Annual Report
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ANNUAL REPORT 2019 HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2019 ARMENIA DPRK LEBANON SYRIA TAJIKISTAN IRAQ AFGHANI- STAN NEPAL MYANMAR 2 | MISSION EAST | ANNUAL REPORT 2019 HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2019 In 2019, Mission East continued to work alongside vulnerable populations around the globe. Here is a selection of highlights in each country where we work. AFGHANISTAN 786 drought-affected farmers were able to meet household food needs and construct new irrigation canals in their communities thanks to a new food- for-asset-creation project. ARMENIA Thousands of children with disabilities in Yerevan now have access to inclusive education as Mission East and partner Bridge of Hope completed the second phase of inclusive education roll-out in Armenia. IRAQ Among the thousands of people helped in Iraq in the last year, 1,500 street children and youth in Mosul found a safe space to access support – in Mission East’s first project of this kind in Iraq. MYANMAR Hundreds of farmers in Myanmar are growing vegetables year-round for the first time and uptake of the new sustainable agriculture methods is spreading rapidly beyond project participants. NEPAL Nepali women and girls are making their voices heard! 885 women and girls in remote rural communities are aware of their rights and learned how to advocate for these. DPRK (North Korea) With a new office in Pyongyang, Mission East now has long-term staff based in the country and can more closely follow activities. TAJIKISTAN 1,551 children with disabilities and their families in 3 regions of Tajikistan have a better quality of life as Mission East and its partners concluded 3 years of efforts to help them claim their rights and access services. SYRIA & LEBANON A new project was launched! Syrians and Lebanese affected by the conflict in Syria will benefit from support from Mission East’s new local partners to rebuild their livelihoods and improve their well-being. ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | MISSION EAST | 3 2019 APPROACH & ACHIEVEMENTS Mission East is an international relief and development organisation founded in Denmark. We aim to see people and communities empowered to lift themselves out of crisis, poverty and marginalisation. Working across the relief-development spectrum We engage in short-term responses following disasters, long-term inter- ventions that address root causes of Disaster Rural Community vulnerability, and act flexibly in the Response Development nexus between these. Key approaches Throughout our projects and across all contexts where we work, three key approaches are fundamental to the kind of organisation Mission East aims to be: Accountability Resilience Inclusion & Partnership In 2019 In 2019 In 2019 - Continued to integrate DRR - Continued to mainstream - Maintained certification as and/or climate change adap- inclusion across 9 country compliant with the Core tation (CCA) into 5 country programmes Humanitarian Standard programmes following a mid-term audit - Actively contributed to - Remained committed to promotion of best-practice - Supported 30 local partners linking relief, recovery & among other actors development wherever possible 4 | MISSION EAST | ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Our main sectors Mission East works across six main sectors. In 2019, tens of thousands of people participated in and benefited from out projects within each of these sectors. EMERGENCY WATER & DISASTER RISK RELIEF SANITATION REDUCTION 78,181 56,703 49,081 PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE LIVELIHOODS FOOD DISABILITY & SECURITY INCLUSION 17,271 15,889 20,725 PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE As some projects cover multiple sectors, there may be overlap of beneficiaries between the sectors. OUR VALUES IN ACTION HONESTY ∙ INTEGRITY ∙ COMPASSION RESPECT FOR ALL PEOPLE ∙ VALUING THE INDIVIDUAL ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | MISSION EAST | 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2019 Approach and Achievements 04-05 Foreword 07 Mission East in Action 08-09 We are Mission East 10-11 Finances 12-13 Fundraising and Communications 14 Thank you 15 Afghanistan 16-17 Armenia 18-19 Iraq 20-21 Myanmar 22-23 Nepal 24-25 DPRK 26-27 Tajikistan 28-29 Syria and Lebanon 30-31 Editors Karen Bendix, Communications Manager Kendrah Jespersen, Quality and Learning Manager Ebba Nygren, Operations Team Assistant Ulla Saunte, Communications Officer Peter Drummond Smith, Operations Director Mags Bird, Programme and Strategy Advisor Kim Hartzner, Managing Director Graphic Design Rikke Melson Jürgensen Production Grafisk Trykcenter Front & back page Drawings developed for Mission East’s hygiene awareness sessions in Afghanistan. Photo: Mission East Afghanistan This publication is generously sponsored by: In this report, the names of persons below the age of 18 have been changed to protect their identity. ANNUAL6 | MISSION REPORT EAST 2019 | ANNUAL | MISSION REPORT EAST 2019 | 6 FOREWORD 2019 was another year of which Mission East, our partners and our support- ers can be proud of what we’ve achieved together. Working in consultation and collaboration with those facing crisis and hardship, we continued to provide relevant assistance to people in some of the hardest-to-reach places, often in parts of the world forgotten or not-served by other organisations. Once more, Mission East and our dedicated local partners reached out with emergency relief to populations suffering from conflict and disasters and continued to build the long-term resilience of vulnerable communities in the ongoing fight against poverty and marginalisation. Tens of thousands of individuals bene- fited from our assistance; delivered by staff and partners who are always pre- pared to put in incredible efforts to help those in difficult circumstances. In 2019 we are particularly proud to have begun programming with new part- ners in Syria and Lebanon, recognising the continuing acute level of need aris- ing from the Syrian crisis. Another milestone in 2019 was the opening of a Mission East office in North Korea, which will enable closer involvement in responding to the needs there. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Mission East contin- ued to balance working on long-term solutions with responses to immediate needs, in two continually volatile contexts. And in Armenia, Tajikistan, Myan- mar and Nepal, we began working with a multi-country programme approach in 2019, benefiting from synergies between similar programmes working through civil society, engaging governments, and empowering marginalised groups to promote inclusion and resilience. As we write this in 2020, Mission East is once again rising to the challenge of exceptional circumstances – this time the COVID-19 crisis. While our col- leagues across the world are themselves confronted by the challenge of lock- down and fragmented teams working from home in many places, they remain dedicated to adapting existing programmes in response to this new crisis. New initiatives are being rolled out to equip communities to reduce the impact the virus might otherwise have in contexts where populations are already vulner- able due to poverty, hunger and little access to viable healthcare. This makes us proud to be part of Mission East. We want to extend our deepest thanks to all our supporters, donors and part- ners who make this important work possible – and most importantly, to the communities and individuals who give us their trust in the places where we work. Torben Andersen Peter Drummond Smith Chair of the Board Interim Managing Director ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | MISSION EAST | 7 MISSION EAST IN ACTION “When I was a young farmer, we had good weather. But now you can’t pre- dict the rains. It makes farming very difficult.” Zobei is one of the subsistence farmers living in a remote community of Chin State, Myanmar, where climate change threatens their very survival. Photo: Kendrah Jespersen A helping hand in a changing world The places Mission East works in are, by nature, included winterisation support for displaced people challenging contexts. They are generally sub- in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as food assistance ject to extreme poverty and often affected by to DPRK. When responding to humanitarian crises, conflict and instability. Things can change fast. Mission East’s professional staff and dedicated In 2019, Mission East continued to demonstrate partners are central to ensuring we can adapt our flexibility and apply innovative approaches to work to meet the needs of the situation. They are reach out to those most in need. constantly adjusting programming, reassessing priorities, and putting in the extra effort to move Rapid and flexible response where needed fast into new activities. In Afghanistan, the result Mission East continued to combine our dedication of this flexible approach was that at the end of the to sustainable development for vulnerable comm- year, preparations were in place for 35,700 people unities and groups in the countries we work in, with displaced from their homes by conflict to receive a commitment to provide emergency aid in times heaters and fuel in the new year to help them get of crisis. Timely humanitarian assistance in 2019 through the harsh winter. 8 | MISSION EAST | ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Adjusting our modes of work and extending Mission East’s concept of innovation also embraces geographic reach new approaches. Sometimes this takes the form of Mission East’s international programme portfolio introducing a community to a new way of doing things. also saw some changes in 2019. After several years Ensuring that traditionally stigmatized groups such of managing programmes in DPRK from a distance as women, Dalits, and people with disabilities, have with periodic visits for assessments, monitoring and a voice and can be socially and economically active expert input, in 2019 Mission East opened its own is an approach that is experienced as truly innova- office in Pyongyang. This enables closer cooperation tive in some communities, and like all innovations to a population which is difficult to reach but in need has to be ‘tested’ by the users to make sure it ‘works’. of assistance. We also extended our geographic scope in 2019 in the form of our first intervention in At other times, Mission East, and its fellow NGOs the Syrian crisis.