CEO message
Welcome to the website of Concern Worldwide. Since its inception a number of years ago, this website has proven to be an invaluable resource in helping us to communicate our work in the least developed countries, to our supporters, international organisations, and interested members of the general public.
As you will see on the website, Concern works in emergency response, long term development and advocacy. We work with local organisations and partners in 28 developed countries to implement programmes across four main priority areas – health, education, HIV/AIDS, and livelihoods. Our two priority advocacy themes of hunger and emergencies provide the framework for translating our work on the ground to recommendations for pro-poor policy change.
Our current five year Strategic Plan (2006 - 2010) commits Concern to working towards what we call the Three Is – Innovation, Influence and Impact. I will illustrate below what we mean by this.
Innovation
We are committed to identifying new and innovative approaches to meet the needs of our target group. We have already achieved some significant success in developing innovative approaches to problems.The best example is the development of our approach to tackling acute malnutrition – Community-based Therapeutic Care – (CTC) - in partnership with Valid International. CTC involves use of a specially formulated ready to use food – plumpynut – which is oil based, made using locally available ingredients and draws on community and health system resources. CTC has achieved very significant results over the past number of years, and is increasingly being adopted by major international donors, governments in developing countries, and other NGOs.
Influence
One of Concern's most important roles is to inform key decision makers about how national and international policies affect the lives of the communities we work with and to advocate for effective pro-poor policies.
This advocacy work takes place at a number of levels: directly with local and national governments in developing countries; with the governments in donor countries such as Ireland, the UK and the US; at EU level in Brussels; and also amongst international institutions such as the UN. My own membership of both the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and formerly with the UN’s Hunger Task Force (2003-2005) has been useful in informing top decision makers about Concern’s work.
In 2006 we held two major conferences on the subject of hunger, bringing together experts and practitioners from the field, and internationally influential figures such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. These conferences have established a dialogue on the importance of tackling hunger effectively, highlighting what needs to be done in the short-term to alleviate suffering, and outlining the unique contribution which Ireland and the Irish people – scientists, business figures, academics and members of the public - can make in helping to eradicate hunger in the long-term, given our own well-documented experience of it.
Impact
Concern affects the lives of the poor directly and indirectly through the impact of its programme work and through influencing policy change in favour of the poor. In 2004 we estimated that almost 4.4 million people benefited directly from our work with some 12.8 million benefiting indirectly. Such beneficiaries included the victims of conflict, as in Darfur; those affected by malnutrition and illness in the Horn of Africa; and those affected by hunger, the most tangible manifestation of absolute poverty.
Thanks to our supporters
All of the work we do can only take place with the continued backing of our supporters who time after time amaze us with their generosity – both in giving their time and their finances. We also acknowledge the support of governments and donor agencies for our work. This support, allied to the tremendous commitment of our 4,000 staff around the world, enables us to make the type of difference we make to the lives of the poorest every day.
Conclusion
I would now encourage you to explore our website in more detail to find out about our work in the least developed countries, and to see how you can get involved with our activities in your local area. I would also encourage you to contact us – through the feedback section - with any comments or questions you may have about our work.
Thank you for caring and for showing your concern.
Tom Arnold
Chief Executive
