Concern Worldwide
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Concern (or Concern Worldwide), is a charitable organisation focused on providing emergency humanitarian aid and development aid to combat extreme poverty primarily in developing countries.
Head quartered in Dublin, Ireland, Concern Worldwide was set-up in the late 1960s to aid famine victims in Biafra.
Concern Worldwide has more than 38 years of experience of working in development and relief. Concern Worldwide currently works in 30 of the poorest countries in the world, and is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Tom Arnold (economist) is the Chief Executive Officer.
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[edit] Concern Worldwide’s Main Areas of Work
Concern Worldwide engages in long term development work, responds to emergency situations, and seeks to address the root causes of poverty through their development education and advocacy work. Their five key programme areas are;
- Education: To strengthen formal education provision among the poorer sections of society by addressing the obstacles that hinder access to and successful completion of, formal primary education.
- Health: To contribute to the achievement of health and nutrition security of the poor within the context of the health related Millennium Development Goals and Millennium Development Targets. (primary health care, nutrition, water, sanitation)
- HIV/AIDS: To reduce the prevalence of HIV and to minimise the impact of AIDS on the poorest communities, that comprise the Concern Worldwide target populations, in all of our emergency and development programmes
- Livelihoods: Poor households achieve adequate and sustainable access to and control over resources to enable them to achieve their livelihood rights without undermining the natural resource base. (agricultural production, microfinance and income generation)
- Emergency: To ensure a coherent approach to emergency programming that incorporates, mitigation, preparedness and response
Concern Worldwide’s cross cutting themes that run throughout their work are advocacy, sustainability, equality, environment, HIV & AIDS and social protection. These issues must be addressed in the analysis, design and on-going programme management of all Concern's programmes.
[edit] Organisational Aims and Objectives
Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Concern's mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives which last and spread without ongoing support from Concern Worldwide. Concern's central core value is that extreme poverty must be targeted.
[edit] Concern Worldwide’s Vision
Concern Worldwide carries out this work because our vision is of a world where no-one lives in poverty, fear or oppression; where all have access to a decent standard of living and the opportunities and choices essential to a long, healthy and creative life; a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
[edit] Targeting and Participation
Concern Worldwide recognises that socially excluded households, and hence the extreme poor, all too often miss out on development processes because of who they are and where they live. Unless specific policies and processes are put in place households will continue to be excluded and discriminated against. Concern Worldwide intends to focus funding on the most excluded, that is, the poorest 10% of households as defined through participatory processes.
[edit] Working in Partnership
Concern Worldwide’s relationships with their ‘Southern’ civil society partners are based on mutual respect. Roles, responsibilities, authority and access to assets are negotiated with their partners and recorded in a partnership agreement. Procedures for amending the agreement are also agreed so that the relationship can evolve. Concern Worldwide’s partnerships are important in four key ways:
- Positively affecting the lives of poor people by harnessing and combining the respective skills, resources and experiences of Concern Worldwide and their partners;
- Capacity building to improve Concern's partners practice, governance and disaster preparedness whilst ensuring the sustainability of those partners and their work;
- Building linkages between grass roots organisations, local and national government so that marginalised people can begin to participate in social affairs and influence policies at local and national levels;
- Knowledge gained from partners, and from the poor communities with which they work, informs Concern's development education and advocacy campaigns at a local, national and global level.
[edit] Concern Worldwide's Income & Expenditure
[edit] Income 2005
| €'m | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Income from fundraising activities | 75.8 | 63% |
| Grants from governments/co-funders | 38.4 | 32% |
| Other Income | 1.5 | 1% |
| Donations in Kind | 5.3 | 4% |
[edit] Expenditure 2005
| €'m | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Relief & Development | 92.1 | 84% |
| Development Education | 3.3 | 3% |
| Fundraising (including promotion/trading) | 13.3 | 12% |
| Management and administration | 1.2 | 1% |
