As we launch our 2019 Annual Report on our work in and on fragility, the COVID-19 pandemic makes us realize we are all fragile and united. Within this context, I look back on a year of positive impact around the world, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals and a year of organizational change for subsidiarity, shifting power to our Country Offices.
I am very proud of the results achieved, which include fighting HIV, TB and malaria with the Congolese Ministry of Health; improving education for 618,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo; supporting small businesses in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia, as well as 15,000 (mostly female) farmers in Uganda; providing food, legal aid and sanitation facilities to Venezuelan refugees; working with young game changers in various fragile and conflict-affected countries. In September, I much enjoyed meeting our team in Ethiopia when we engaged with Ethiopian Health and Government Authorities during the launch of yet another Health Systems Strengthening programme at scale in Jimma Province.
I am also very happy about the achievements of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA), which we chaired during 2019. By special request of the other participating organizations in the DRA, we have extended our chair role until July 2020.
Cordaid always strives to be a temporary presence in a country. That is why we always need to carefully navigate across local communities, civil society organizations, government bodies and other stakeholders. We cannot determine what is the best course of action locally in the South from a huge distance in the North or West. In 2019, we continued to shift power to these local actors, transferring control and decision-making authority to our country teams and local partners in fragile and conflict-affected countries. Based on the subsidiarity principle and the respect for local expertise and ownership, we continued the implementation of our project-based way of working. This led to a new organizational structure. As a result, we had to let go of 30 people towards the end of 2019. This weighs on me, making us feel less of a family.
In November, we were all shocked by the news of sexual abuse by the ex-director of one of our partner organizations in the Central African Republic. This affects us all tremendously and our trust has been severely damaged. We are shocked, but also motivated to do everything in our power to find the truth, to bring justice to those who have been affected and to avoid such criminal behaviour of partner organizations in the future.
In order to deliver on our goals and commitments, we need an effective and financially solid organization. In 2019, we realised a balanced budget, compensating the loss incurred in operations with the positive results on our impact investments.
I invite you to read about our results – and challenges – in our 2019 Annual Report. I am grateful for the positive impact delivered through ever-growing southern leadership. And I look forward to continued collaboration and partnership with people from within and outside our organization in the year ahead. (Message from the CEO, Kees Zevenbergen)