Annual Report 2018 Annual Report 2018 Contents
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Annual report 2018 Annual report 2018 Contents 24 32 42 Spotlight on... 24 Disability 32 Neglected tropical diseases 42 Policy campaigning 56 On the cover Advocacy in eye health 70 Five-year-old Filly, from Ruangwa in Tanzania, Our supply chain had been complaining of pain in her eyes. An eye health worker examined her and diagnosed her with 80 trachoma: left untreated, it could have caused her to Fundraising go blind. Luckily, she was given antibiotic ointment to treat the infection and protect her sight. © Sightsavers/Jason J Mulikita 2 www.sightsavers.org 56 70 80 What’s inside? 04 20 68 The context SIM card: measuring Plans for 2019 our progress 08 72 Message from our Chair 23 Structure, governance Strategy map and accountability 10 Strategy, objectives 28 84 and activities Output statistics Review of financial On the cover outcome 2018 12 36 Our portfolio Progress towards 94 planned objectives Key people and suppliers 16 Where we work 60 Risks and challenges 18 A snapshot of what 66 we achieved in 2018 Our challenges in 2018 3 Annual report 2018 1 billion people have some 04/ form of disability, The which is... context • An estimated 36 million people 15% worldwide are blind. The leading cause of this is cataracts. • An estimated 217 million people have moderate to severe visual impairment. The biggest cause of this is uncorrected refractive error. of the world’s • An estimated 1.1 billion people struggle population with near vision and need reading glasses. • More than 75% of all blindness and visual impairment can be prevented or cured. • More than a billion people, about 15% of the world’s population, have some form of disability. Between 110 million and 190 million (2.2% to 3.8%) of people aged 15 and over have significant difficulties in functioning. • Rates of disability are increasing because of the ageing population and a rise in chronic health conditions, among other causes. Without action, the number of people who are blind could rise to 115 million by 2050. This data was published in 2017 to update the figures around visual impairment. 80% The figures were included in the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness of people with (IAPB) Vision Atlas, which Sightsavers helped to fund. This in turn was based on disabilities live in data published in the Lancet. New data is low and middle likely to become available from the World Health Organization in the next 12 months. income countries 4 © Sightsavers/Dominic Nahr/Magnum © Sightsavers/Dominic 89% 36 of people who are visually impaired live million are blind in low and middle income countries 75% of sight loss 217 can be prevented million people or cured have moderate to severe visual impairment ×3 Without action, the More than number of people who are blind could rise to 1 billion 115 million by 2050 people have near- Sources: Bourne RRA, Flaxman SR, Braithwaite T, Cicinelli MV, Das A, Jonas JB, et vision impairments al.; Vision Loss Expert Group. Magnitude, temporal trends, and projections of the global prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Global Health. that can be corrected 2017 Sep;5(9):e888–97. World Health Organization ‘Disability and Health’ fact sheet’ January 2018, with reading glasses available at www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs352/en/ © Sightsavers/Jason J Mulikita © Sightsavers/Jason One-year-old Bibie, from Ruangwa in Tanzania, was found to have the early stages of trachoma and given antibiotics to treat the infection. 6 Our vision Sightsavers’ vision is of a world where no one is blind from avoidable causes and where people with visual impairments and other disabilities participate equally in society. Our mission We are an international organisation working with partners in low and middle income countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equal opportunities for people with disabilities. 7 Annual report 2018 08/ Message from our Chair This is the last time I will write an disability by the UK government of more introduction to the annual report, as my than £40 million. Also in 2018, Sightsavers’ term comes to an end in July 2019 after staff member Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame nearly nine years. It has been a tremendous was elected to the UN committee experience chairing Sightsavers, and I look overseeing the Convention on the Rights back at my time with great pride. of Persons with Disabilities, and DFID announced its new disability strategy. Once again, Sightsavers has had a fantastic year, despite a difficult environment. It has Our work to tackle NTDs also made great been another year of achievement – a major strides, as contracts were signed for a increase in the number of eye operations major programme to eliminate trachoma we have supported, new grants on disability across a swathe of countries in Africa. and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and Donors including the Bill & Melinda Gates new donors coming on board (through the Foundation, the Children’s Investment Audacious programme as well as People’s Fund Foundation, ELMA Foundation and Postcode Lottery). Virgin Unite, as well as the Commonwealth Summit fund, have committed more than It has been a particularly strong year £100 million in total. We have also agreed a for disability, with the first ever Global further contract with DFID, called Ascend, Disability Summit held in the UK, sponsored for more than £90 million (with an option by the governments of the UK and Kenya, for DFID to extend to up to £150 million) and the International Disability Alliance. for an integrated NTD programme across Sightsavers worked hard to make this a West Africa and Democratic Republic success, and we will continue to work with of Congo. These contracts represent a stakeholders to ensure the commitments huge change in investment in our NTD made are delivered. Two major contracts programmes for the next five years. from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) were announced at During the year, Ghana became the first the summit – one for Disability Inclusive country in sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate Development, and the other called trachoma as a public health problem, as ‘Inclusion Works’, one of DFID’s Aid validated by the World Health Organization. Connect grants. We are leading consortia This shows what is possible with investment, on these, representing an investment in determination and partnership working. 8 www.sightsavers.org We were pleased to see large increases in staff survey, in which 95% of staff said the number of eye operations performed, they were incredibly engaged with mainly for cataracts, although we are still Sightsavers’ mission. We were pleased struggling to gather data to show the wider to see such positive responses to the impact we are having on eye health. One questions about trust in the leadership of of our worries is how to increase funding the organisation, and those about ethical for eye health work, which seems to have behaviour. In the current climate, this is been less attractive than our NTD and a very important touchstone to ensure disability work, particularly to institutional we have a positive culture. donors. Some corporates and foundations are closing their eye health funding streams When I look back over my time at (notably Standard Chartered), so finding Sightsavers, there are some magical new funding will be a challenge. moments to remember: watching Professor Stephen Hawking speak at our NTD event We remain concerned about the impact in Cambridge in 2017, not long before of conflict and civil unrest in the countries he died; seeing us build an ever-stronger where we work. In several areas the relationship with DFID, not just in terms of situation has deteriorated, for example grants, but in terms of policy engagement; in Cameroon. Natural disasters have also and seeing the organisation grow in caused serious problems: as I write, the full confidence and influence. But the most implications of Cyclone Idai for Mozambique, touching moment for me was witnessing an Zimbabwe and Malawi are unclear. elderly man in Mozambique regain his sight after a cataract operation, enabling him to It was a record year for voluntary income, see his family for the first time in 22 years. with growth in all our markets. Given the I cannot remember a moment that better backdrop of continuing media negativity demonstrates why I feel Sightsavers’ work about foreign aid, of ongoing safeguarding is so important. issues, and of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, this is a really strong performance. So thank you to all who have made the achievements possible – supporters, Great efforts were made to improve our partners, staff and, of course, my fellow regulatory compliance and achieve value for trustees. I also feel fortunate to have money. Ensuring our GDPR responsibilities worked with such an outstanding CEO as were met, and that our response to Caroline Harper, who continues to lead the safeguarding issues was professional and organisation with extraordinary energy, robust, as well as securing our licence dynamism and creative flair. from the Medicines & Health Regulatory Authority, were all vital to maintain our Finally I wish my successor, Sir Clive Jones, credibility and integrity. Early in 2019, we all the best and have no doubt that the achieved 100% compliance with DFID’s organisation will continue to go from Supplier Code. We undertook a major strength to strength under his leadership. revamp of our procurement processes, which will significantly improve value for money. Martin Dinham None of this could have been achieved Chair without our magnificent staff. As a board, we were delighted with the results of the 9 Annual report 2018 10/ Strategy, objectives and activities Our strategy was conceived in 2008, then objectives, and is about people with reviewed and refreshed in 2011 and 2014, disabilities being able to seek healthcare.