Annual Report and Financial Statements 31 December 2011
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Annual Report and Financial Statements 31 December 2011 www.sightsavers.org Registered charity numbers 207544 & SCO38110 Contents 4 The challenge, vision and mission 4 Our values 5 Our strategy 6 The Sightsavers SIM Card 7 Objectives and activities 8 A snapshot of what we achieved in 2011 13 Progress towards SIM card objectives 26 Plans for 2012 28 Structure, governance and risk management 29 Review of financial outcome 2011 32 Key people and suppliers 34 Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind 36 Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities 37 Balance Sheets 38 Consolidated Cash Flow Statement 39 Notes to the accounts 62 Income and expenditure at a glance Annual Accounts 2011 The challenge Our values According to the World Health Organisation Blindness is an important cause and effect (WHO): of poverty. l 285 million people are blind or visually We work with poor and marginalised impaired, and 80% of this is treatable or communities in developing countries. preventable. We achieve much more when we collaborate. l Of these 285 million people, 9 million are blind. We forge alliances and partnerships to ensure a positive and long term impact on l 90% of people who are blind or visually people’s lives. impaired live in developing countries. l Over 1 billion people are affected by People should not go blind unnecessarily. neglected tropical diseases (which include We prevent, treat and cure avoidable blindness the blinding conditions trachoma and and promote eye health. onchocerciasis). We also know that: People with visual impairment should be able to develop their potential to the full. l Two thirds of blind people are women. We work with disabled people and others to l There is a shortage of 1.5 million health promote equal rights and opportunities. workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. l In Africa, less than 10% of disabled children With the right resources, people can find their go to school. own solutions. l 1 in 5 of the world’s poorest people has We strengthen organisations and communities a disability. to develop practical and enduring solutions. Learning and innovation are essential in order to improve the quality of what we do. Our vision and mission We underpin our work with the best available evidence and research. Sightsavers’ vision is of a world where no one Our supporters are a key part of the solution. is blind from avoidable causes and where We work together to accomplish our goals. visually impaired people participate equally in society. We are an international organisation working with partners in developing countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. Annual Accounts 2011 Our strategy Our strategy was launched at the beginning of A message from our Chair 2009 and refreshed in 2011. We have extended 2011 has been a very it to 2018, recognising that the aims are very successful year for ambitious and will take time to be achieved in Sightsavers despite the all the countries where we expect to work. At economic situation, and the heart of our strategy are our four change the difficulties in some of themes, which set out the ultimate and shorter the countries where we term aims we have which will help us achieve work. There were three key our vision and mission. These are based factors in this success: around health, education, social inclusion and community development. We articulate The first is that we are Lord Crisp, our objectives and the way we will measure collaborating with others Chairman progress by using our SIM card, or Strategy more now than ever Implementation and Monitoring Card. This is before. In times like these, collaboration is a based on the balanced scorecard methodology prerequisite for success. As ever, our partners and includes a strategy map and a scorecard and supporters have been amazing, and of indicators and targets. without them we would have achieved very little. Our longstanding partners (Standard The SIM card has four perspectives Chartered and the Ministries of Health and l What we must deliver for our beneficiaries Education in the countries where we work) are of course uppermost in our minds, but there l What we must excel at to do this are many new relationships to celebrate. Our – our capacities new Programme Partnership Arrangement with l What we must invest in to excel DFID, the collaborations with Comic Relief and – our learning and growth objectives the Financial Times, and partnerships with a number of international agencies such as The l How do we ensure we are properly Fred Hollows Foundation and Helen Keller resourced. International helped us make great progress. Each perspective has a series of objectives, Secondly, we launched ambitious new plans in with indicators to measure progress. These trachoma and onchocerciasis – moving from indicators have targets set each year. control to elimination. The issue of neglected The strategy map is shown overleaf. Data for tropical diseases attracted major international the indicators is collected via a web based interest in 2011, and Sightsavers is playing a dashboard, which is available to all staff, and leading role in this area. This has helped to will be on our website from September 2012. raise the profile of the organisation and given us extra leverage in pursuing our mission of eliminating avoidable blindness. Finally, I wish to pay tribute to our employees, many of whom have worked long hours, some in risky conditions. We made some difficult decisions last year in the interests of efficiency, closing one of our regional offices and reducing administrative costs at our headquarters. Times of economic uncertainty are never easy, and the Council is well aware that we would not have had such an excellent year without their professionalism and dedication. Annual Accounts 2011 5 6 The Sightsavers SIM Card Annual Accounts 2011 Annual Accounts 2011 (Strategy Implementation and Monitoring Card) Sightsavers’ strategy map Our vision: No one is blind from avoidable causes; visually impaired people participate equally in society Our mission: To eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people Visually impaired people are People actively seek eye care Governments ensure quality Governments ensure all equal members of society and services and enjoy a change Ultimate eye care is universally available disabled children receive a governments implement in quality of life through as an integral part of wider quality education within the obligations under international community development aims health systems wider education system conventions for disabled people programmes 1 2 3 4 Benefi ciaries Demonstrate scalable Demonstrate scalable cost- Ensure all eye care Enable BPOs* and DPOs** (What must we cost-effective approaches to effective approaches to the and social inclusion to advocate effectively for eye care which strengthen education of visually impaired programmes are rooted in achieve for our their members’ rights benefi ciaries?) health systems children in their local context community development 5 6 7 8 Capacities (What do we need to Develop effective Ensure high quality Develop effective and Establish strong strategic excel at to deliver for partnerships programmes joined-up advocacy networks and alliances our benefi ciaries?) 9 10 11 12 Learning and growth (Where do we need Develop country/area level Ensure adequate specialist/ Gather and disseminate Establish effective information to invest in order to teams technical expertise sound research and evidence sharing systems excel?) 13 14 Resources Fund our work through Use resources strategically (How do we ensure growth and diversifi cation and effi ciently we are resourced of income adequately?) *BPO: Blind People’s Organisation **DPO: Disabled People’s Organisation Belize Jamaica Guyana Haiti Antigua St Lucia St Guinea Bissau Guinea The Gambia The Sierra Leone Sierra Senegal Guinea Cote d’Ivoire Liberia Mali Cameroon Congo Republic of Democratic Faso Burkina Ghana Zambia Togo Benin Nigeria Niger Chad Sudan Mozambique Zimbabwe Malawi Kenya Uganda Tanzania Republic Central African Sudan South India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka Objectives and activities We work with partners towards the We gather evidence to ensure that our achievement of our goals as a matter of programmes make an impact and are cost principle, building relationships with the effective, so the advocacy we undertake has relevant Ministries in country, as well as a strong foundation. organisations of blind and/or disabled people. We are significantly ramping up our We partner with other local Non Government work in NTDs, two of which are blinding Organisations (NGOs) (eg community (onchocerciasis and trachoma). International based organisations) and increasingly with focus on NTDs has dramatically increased international NGOs (INGOs), both in bilateral and moved to elimination – with the emphasis partnerships and in wider coalitions, as this (particularly from Ministries of Health) now on enables us to avoid duplication and be more co-implementation rather than vertical, single effective – especially in our advocacy work. disease programmes. We aim to be leading This includes formal coalitions such as the players in this sector, and our approach using International Agency for the Prevention of community directed treatments is being taken Blindness, which works together with the up widely. WHO on the VISION 2020 programme and the recently formed UK Coalition against We now do NTD work in a number of countries Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). via INGO partnerships which enables us to work without the requirement to set up a We are determined to ensure that our work country office – this is particularly cost effective strengthens health and education systems when looking at an elimination programme. – so whilst service delivery will always be an important part of our work, we are looking to We now work in countries (and have achieve systemic change, not just short term 26 country offices).