annual report 2012
Plan International Australia
Our story Plan International is one of the oldest and largest children’s development organisations in the world. We work with communities in 50 developing countries and raise funds to support our work in 21 countries, such as Australia. By actively involving children, and working at a grassroots level with no religious or political agenda, we unite and inspire people around the globe to transform the world for children.
Our vision Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.
Our mission We strive to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of children in developing countries through a process that unites people across cultures and adds meaning and value to their lives by: Cover photo: A woman with a baby on her back in Benin harvests crops in a field. Opposite page: Children ride bicycles to school in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This report sets out Plan International Australia's progress towards our vision and mission between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012. We have referred to this period as '2012'. In this report, the informal name 'Plan in Australia’ refers to Plan International Australia. The terms ‘Plan’ and ‘Plan International’ refer to the global organisation of which Plan International Australia is a part. Please see page 10 for further information on our global network.
»» enabling children, their families and their communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies »» fostering relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries »» promoting the rights and interests of children.
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year at a glance We scaled up our AusAIDANCP funded program portfolio, increasing the number of development projects from 29 to 35, and receiving an increase in our AusAID funding subsidy from $4.1 million to $5.1 million.
july
Our 2011 Because I am a Girl report was launched in Canberra with The Hon. Kevin Rudd and a very special guest – Rubi Begum, a 16-year-old girl from Bangladesh who is a survivor of child marriage and a beneficiary of Plan’s programs.
5-YEAR STRATEGY We officially launched the new 5-year strategy for Plan in Australia, outlining our aspiration to be a leading child rights agency in Australia.
The report, titled ‘So, What about Boys? ’ outlines why girls are fighting a losing battle for gender equality if boys and men don’t join the cause.
september
2011 august
october
Plan’s lobbying at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) directly led to the recognition of early and forced child marriage in the outcomes statement and the encouragement of all Commonwealth states to take action to prevent this violation of human rights. We commenced a 3-month appeal to raise funds for the worsening drought crisis in East Africa. The appeal raised over $1 million from the Australian public.
november december We completed our AusAIDfunded Civil Society Water, Sanitation & Hygiene program across seven developing countries, with the following outcomes over 18 months: We began a new initiative called Mums for Change, which saw 300 mothers’ groups from around Australia sign up to participate in child sponsorship and connect with other groups through a new online community.
Plan in Australia and Pakistan entered into an US$8 million UNICEF ‘Rural Sanitation in Flood Affected Districts’ Project. The project targets 7 million people in 5000 villages across 17 flood-affected districts and has a strong focus on ending the practice of open defecation in rural communities. It also aims to build sanitation markets, so that low-income consumers can build themselves a durable and long-lasting toilet.
78,527 additional people now have access to safe water 279,317 additional people now have access to basic sanitation 144 additional schools with water, sanitation or handwashing facilities
We committed to undertaking a Gender Equality Self Assessment in line with the Plan International Gender Equality policy. A survey was sent out to all staff to get a comprehensive picture of staff perspectives on gender equality in Plan in Australia. It will be followed up by a document analysis to validate responses in FY13 and inform a gender action plan.
May 2012 saw the embedding of the Employee Value Proposition into our work. The new Employee Engagement survey was introduced and some first steps were taken toward defining our Culture and Values with a Board and Senior Management Team focus group.
Our Chief Executive, Ian Wishart spent three days on the street with our faceto-face fundraising team to experience firsthand the work they do to encourage Australians to support Plan.
january
Our second Annual Effectiveness Review was published, providing a frank and detailed analysis of our programming work and a detailed companion document to this Annual Report.
Our From Cup to Crop appeal raised over $400,000 to help Plan deliver much needed food aid in Cambodia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
may
march february
Long-term Plan supporter Ricardo Galvani and a group of 20 friends toured Australia in their classic XK and E-type Jaguars and raised $40,000 to support Plan’s work.
june
Plan International Australia was a top 10 finalist in the 2011 PwC Transparency Awards > $30 million category for our 2011 Annual Report.
top10
More than $46,000 was raised by a group of adventurers who took part in an Inspired Adventures trek to Mount Kilimanjaro.
na i s l
fi
raised $40,000
april
t
2012
Annual Effectiveness Review
By the end of the financial year we exceeded some key financial targets:
75 Years
2012
M
2011
» The number of new regular givers attracted to Plan grew by over 41%, from 9,089 to 12,888.
$2
» Our Major Gifts target was exceeded by $2 million.
Plan International celebrated its 75th anniversary. Around the world Plan staff, children, partners and local communities celebrated with the world’s biggest children’s birthday party. Here in Australia we celebrated by recognising our supporters through a ‘thank you’ video and social media campaign, and highlighting the importance of birth registration for all children – every child’s right to a birthday!
INSIDE 2 Introduction 12 Our Performance 20 Our Work with Children 30 Engaging Australia 40 Our Supporters 54 Our Organisation 70 Our Finances 84 Compliance & Regulation 85 Working Sustainably 89 Acknowledgements 3
From the Chair As I will be departing Plan International Australia at the end of this year, I have been reflecting on the wonderful memories and achievements I have had the privilege of being a part of over the past nine years. During this time Plan in Australia’s income has more than doubled, we have become a powerful voice on the rights of children, had a significant influence on the Australian Government through our partnership with AusAID, and developed an enviable reputation and capacity to deliver child-centered community development programs in areas of need. There have also been significant global developments with Plan International’s new strategy, One Plan, starting to make headway. The core focus of the Plan International strategy is to ensure that the rights of the most marginalised children in the world are met by our development approach continuing to be effective and inclusive. This year will also see something I have personally championed come to fruition – the inaugural International Youth Forum, which will bring about the active participation of young people in the governance and decision making of Plan International. In shaping all these international developments Plan in Australia has had a significant leadership role through the active involvement of our CEO and executive team, delegates to the Members' Assembly and at the International Board level. The personal highlight for me this year was our Board field trip to Zimbabwe – not only was this a great learning opportunity for new members of the Board to see how Plan actually works in the field, but also to witness the leadership and commitment it takes for local Plan staff in addressing the many and varied challenges they face in countries like Zimbabwe. As someone who was on the Plan in Australia Board in the early stages of providing food aid to Zimbabwe, I was delighted to see how this has developed into a sustainable food security program, and the empowering impact this has on local communities. It is a great example of Plan’s commitment to the long-term approach to sustainable development in breaking the cycle of poverty. This year the board focused on improving its governance effectiveness by: reducing the board size, reviewing and commenting on the new not-for-profit reform agenda, conducting a board and director performance review and implementing a very transparent process for the appointment of directors. It has also been a year of transition for the board with the departure of long-serving directors Philip Endersbee, Tim Beresford, Thomas Kane, Russell Gordon and Jeremy Ingall. I thank them wholeheartedly for their leadership, dedication, enthusiasm and contribution to making Plan the organisation it is today. I welcome the new Chair elect, Gerald Hueston and directors Michael Corry, Anne Trimmer and Julie Hood and know that the experience and expertise they bring combined with that of the existing directors will make for a formidable team. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to lead such a wonderfully committed, values-driven organisation, and my special thanks to the leadership of Ian Wishart and his team, the amazingly dedicated staff of Plan in Australia and to all the supporters, donors and volunteers – you are the essence of what makes this organisation great. Anne Skipper, AM Chair, Plan International Australia
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From the CEO Looking back on 2012, one of the most powerful experiences for me has been seeing firsthand Plan’s work in Chiredzi, in southern Zimbabwe. Sitting out under a tree in the hot African sun, I was inspired by the young women we met who, in order to continue their education, rise at 4am to complete chores and walk the three hours to reach their school. I met sponsored children and their families and personally witnessed what a positive difference this longterm strategic investment is making by keeping kids in school and providing the basic building blocks for families to live with dignity. I was impressed by the alumni of former sponsored children I met who have organised themselves to pass on skills and experiences to the younger ones. I also heard from families who no longer rely on food aid or consider themselves poor because, as a result of agricultural training, they now have the skills to grow crops suited to local conditions. What I saw was what we know to be true – Plan’s work is having real impact by addressing both immediate needs and the longer term causes of poverty at the local level. The strength and hope of these children and their families striving to improve their lives is both impressive and inspiring. Their stories spur us on to even greater efforts. Scaling up our efforts is at the heart of our new strategy to become the ‘Champion for Child Rights’. The strategy is an ambitious one and sets out how we aim to double our income, influence and positive impact with children from 2012 to 2016. In this first year we have grown our income from $41.8m to $49.3m, even with the environment for raising funds remaining challenging. Despite the strength of the Australian economy, an uncertain global economy and poor financial performance (especially in the retail sector) have led many people to remain cautious in their spending, including in charitable giving. In terms of influence, we continue to ramp up our groundbreaking global campaign, Because I am a Girl, which is breaking the barriers to girls’ education so millions of girls can move from poverty to opportunity. This year we had a great achievement in successfully lobbying the international community to have October 11 declared the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. I’ve also been greatly encouraged that Plan in Australia has formally involved the passion and enthusiasm of a group of fantastic young people through our new Youth Project Team here in Melbourne. The team is helping us to tackle poverty and injustice and I look forward to us working together and also to involving more young Australians in the work of Plan. I remain thankful to the many supporters, staff, volunteers and Board members who have made this year a success for children around the world. I look forward to working together over the coming year to scale up our efforts so that Plan in Australia can become the Champion for Child Rights that we aspire to be. Ian Wishart CEO, Plan International Australia
PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
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about us Our history Plan was founded in 1937 by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge. Originally named ‘Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain’, the aim was to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War. Langdon-Davies conceived the idea of a personal relationship between a child and a sponsor – a model that puts the child at the centre, and today remains the core of what we do. Two girls sit in a classroom at a primary school in Dili, Timor-Leste.
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PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
Since that time, our approach to humanitarian assistance has evolved from wartime relief activities, to post-war support, to long-term community development and emergency assistance that helps children, their families and their communities in developing countries.
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Plan has operated in Australia for forty years, first setting up in 1971. Plan globally has been working with children, families and communities for 75 years, and has established a longstanding reputation of being a highly ethical, effective and committed global development agency.
Our approach Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Child Centred Community Development is a rights-based approach that translates this vision into the practice of international development. Children are at the heart of everything we do. Our work focuses on children who are living in poverty, children who are excluded and marginalised, and children affected by conflict and disasters.
PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
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Our work is guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which spells out the human rights of all children. Listening to what children have to say about their rights and concerns is critical to our approach. We encourage them to take part in decisions that affect their lives, to speak out, and to have their voices heard. We work from the perspective that all children hold equal rights, so protecting children from discrimination – including gender discrimination – is a key principle of Child Centred Community Development. We’re committed to working for, with, and on behalf of children to claim their rights and to hold duty bearers, such as governments, to account to respect these rights. Child Centred Community Development principles at a glance: 1. Children are at the centre of everything we do 2. We’re guided by human rights and their principles 3. We champion child rights and hold duty bearers (including ourselves) to account 4. All children hold equal rights – we work to protect children from discrimination 5. We promote gender equality 6. Children are active participants in their own development By applying these principles we can focus on long-term, sustainable, positive changes rather than just short-term interventions. This means we will not only have a great impact on today’s children but also the children of the future.
Our work » Long-term community development Our grassroots development projects address specific problems and issues in communities that contribute to ongoing poverty and affect children’s rights. Our work is designed to bring long-term, sustainable, positive change to communities.
» Campaigning and advocacy Our campaigning and advocacy work is about collective action to improve the lives of children. Plan campaigns raise awareness and support for people who are often disregarded or who have difficulty having their opinions heard.
» Disaster and humanitarian response When Plan responds to emergencies, we work with governments, other agencies and local communities to ensure children and young people are protected and that their immediate and long-term needs are met. In addition to disaster relief, Plan has an ongoing partnership with the UN World Food Programme to provide food relief to communities across the developing world.
Accountability » Scan
to find out more
Plan seeks to honour its position of trust through a high level of accountability.
» Accountability to children Our first accountability is to children – particularly those who are most vulnerable. Our accountability to achieving results for and with these children is demonstrated through the publication of our annual Program Effectiveness Review, which can be viewed at plan.org.au/whoweare/accountability.
» Child protection Plan considers child abuse unacceptable in all circumstances and is committed to ensuring the protection of all children we work with. We have clear policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure the children we work with are respected, protected, empowered and active in their own protection; and to ensure our staff are confident, competent and well supported in meeting their protection responsibilities. In addition, Plan has Child Protection Advisors and Officers appointed at national, regional and international levels – all of whom make up Plan’s Child Protection Advisory Network that is part of international and cross-organisational alliances such as the Keeping Children Safe Coalition.
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» Financial accountability Plan in Australia operates on a public and government funding platform. The majority of our funds are sourced from child sponsorship and public donations, as well as grants from the Australian Government’s overseas aid program, through AusAID. We endeavour to achieve the maximum impact and efficiency of these funds, directing them to overseas projects while minimising our overhead costs.
» Stakeholders We recognise that a large number of people have an interest in our work. We therefore seek to be accountable in multiple ways to our many stakeholders, including children, families and communities overseas, host governments, Plan International, corporate members, our Board, ACFID, ASIC, the ATO, our sponsors, donors and partners, and children in Australia. More details can be found on our website: plan.org.au/whoweare/accountability. Also see ‘Compliance & Regulation’ on page 84.
» Feedback and complaints Plan in Australia has formal processes for addressing feedback and complaints. The ‘Send us a Message’ page on our website provides a convenient way for supporters to provide any comments or lodge complaints. We also receive feedback by mail and directly through our call centre. In each case, feedback is directed to the relevant staff or department for consideration and resolution. Performance reports are generated monthly and reviewed by management to determine the type of feedback or complaint and the way it was resolved. Trends are identified and actions taken accordingly to resolve issues.
Plan staff from various countries attend a three-day training workshop in Bangkok focused on strengthening child protection and disability inclusion in ECCD.
CANADA
UNITED STATES
HAITI GUATEMALA EL SALVADOR
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
HONDURAS NICARAGUA
COLOMBIA ECUADOR
PERU
BRAZIL
BOLIVIA PARAGUAY
Our global network Plan in Australia is part of Plan International, one of the world’s largest children’s development organisations. By being part of a global network we can have greater impact in addressing the global causes of poverty and transforming the world for children.
» A global force for change Plan works in 50 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas where our programs equip communities with the tools and skills to overcome poverty. To support this work we raise funds in 21 countries, including Australia, where we serve as links between sponsors, donors and the children, families and communities Plan works with. Plan’s headquarters in the United Kingdom guide the network’s overall efforts for children.
» Our role in the global network As an independent member organisation of Plan, Plan in Australia supports the global Plan network by:
A girl attends a Plan-supported preschool in Timor-Leste.
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PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
helping to fund, direct and deliver community development projects in collaboration with other Plan member organisations – thanks to our supporters through child sponsorship;
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
designing and delivering our own projects in Africa and Asia that match our experience and expertise; and
responding to emergencies around the world and helping communities to better prepare for future crises.
NORWAY SWEDEN UNITED KINGDOM
FINLAND
DENMARK
IRELAND
NETHERLANDS BELGIUM
GERMANY
FRANCE SWITZERLAND SPAIN
SOUTH KOREA
JAPAN
CHINA PAKISTAN
NEPAL
EGYPT INDIA
MYANMAR
MALI
NIGER
VIETNAM CAMBODIA
BURKINA FASO
GUINEA SIERRA LEONE LIBERIA
HONG KONG
LAOS
SUDAN
SENEGAL GUINEA-BISSAU
BANGLADESH
GHANA BENIN
SOUTH SUDAN
TOGO
CAMEROON
ETHIOPIA
PHILIPPINES
THAILAND
SRI LANKA
KENYA UGANDA RWANDA INDONESIA
TANZANIA
TIMOR-LESTE MALAWI ZAMBIA
MOZAMBIQUE
ZIMBABWE
AUSTRALIA
Plan National Offices
Plan Country Offices
Program countries with Priority Projects funded by Plan in Australia
National OfďŹ ces: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States Program Countries: Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Colombia*, Timor-Leste, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India*, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe Program countries with Priority Projects funded by Plan in Australia: Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Niger, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe *India and Colombia are primarily Program Countries, but also operate as fundraising countries.
Americas
West Africa
Eastern & Southern Africa
Asia
No. of children sponsored by Plan supporters worldwide
334,486
258,112
291,690
318,304
No. of children sponsored by Australian Plan supporters
7,498
7,649
12,388
16,568
No. of projects designed and managed by Plan globally
1,386
1,628
854
2,277
No. of projects designed and managed by Plan in Australia
3
4
20
36
10
8
5
13
1
2
4
1
No. of emergencies Plan responded to globally No. of emergencies Plan in Australia responded to
These figures include projects that were active during the financial year.
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our performance
12
13
Becoming a Champion for Child Rights In 2012 Plan in Australia was guided by a new five-year organisational strategy, titled ‘Champion for Child Rights’. The strategy was developed and signed off by the Board of Directors in May 2011. It outlines Plan in Australia’s potential for further and sustained growth, emphasising quality impact and influence to benefit children, while recognising that growth in income and organisational identity are essential to achieve this.
» Scan
to find out more
Child rights sits at the centre of our strategy. While it has long been the basis of our programming efforts, child rights is now also the overarching theme of our engagement with the general public, donors and other institutions, enabling Plan to educate the public on the importance of child rights, and be recognised as a leading child rights agency in Australia. The diagram opposite shows how this strategy is structured. The key commitments of the strategy are: »» We will ensure that child rights is at the centre of all our development projects. »» We will educate and engage the public about child rights.
Previous page: Children play in the yard of a Plan-supported school in Ghana.
»» We will develop the child rights knowledge of all Plan staff and partners. The information on pages 16–17 contains a reference guide and summary of our progress this year against the high level and supporting goals of the strategy.
Children attend a child-to-child education centre in Timor-Leste.
A complete summary of the strategy can be viewed at plan.org.au/mediacentre/publications/strategy.
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PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
» our Strategy Our 2012–2016 Strategic Framework is comprised of a set of organisational goals and enablers.
ASPIRATION
»» HIGH LEVEL GOALS The high level goals set targets for the most important outcomes of our work: increasing our impact and influence.
»» ASPIRATION The aspiration crystallises our work around the central idea of being a champion for child rights. This aspiration inspires each level and initiative within the overall strategy.
HIGH LEVEL GOALS
SUPPORTING GOALS
»» SUPPORTING GOALS The supporting goals set targets for the delivery areas (identity and income) that enable the higher level goals to be achieved.
ENABLERS
»» ENABLERS The enablers establish the environment that makes achievement of the goals possible. The structure of goals and enablers is based on a modified Balanced Score Card approach for Not for Profits.
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Performance Summary Goal 1 » Impact Plan in Australia will have a significant and lasting impact on the fulfillment of child rights for more children around the world.
See Our Work
with Children
pages
22–29
Specifically we have set out to increase the scale and reach of our programming and to deepen the quality of the interaction with children, families, communities and program partners over the life of the strategy.
people
Objective » By 2016 the number of children reached by Plan in Australia will more than double from 1.2 million to 2.5 million, and we will increase the total number of people we reach in communities from 2.8 million to 5.6 million. »» In the first year of our strategy we exceeded this five-year objective through one program in Pakistan where we reached 7 million people. »» In 2012 our projects doubled to 63 projects across four regions.
Asia-Pacific
7m. See Reducing Risk page
29
» Plan in Australia programs will be operational in at least two additional regions around the world.
Objective
»» This year saw the commencement of our new Climate Change Adaptation program in Asia-Pacific, signalling Plan’s entry into working in Pacific nations such as Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Solomon Islands.
» By 2016 a greater proportion of our Plan in Australia programs will target significantly marginalised groups, and gender equality and disability inclusion will be apparent in all of our programs.
Objective See
Emergencies page
27
»» We formalised a three-year partnership with CMB-Nossal Institute for Disability Inclusive Development.
3-year partnership
18–19
See Working Effectively page
Goal 2 » Influence Plan in Australia will have a tangible influence on the perceptions, policies and practices that uphold child rights. Specifically we have set out to double our influence by achieving the following:
child
Objective » We will improve the understanding of child rights among our
rights
staff, supporters and donors.
»» We produced Common Threads – designed to educate Australian students about the importance of child rights. See Engaging the Government page
34
»» 14,285 Australian students saw the presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons for Youth – delivered by GPP in partnership with Plan. »» Our Board of Directors visited Plan projects in Zimbabwe to see firsthand how children can overcome poverty through accessing their rights.
Objective » We will increase the number of child rights issues that we take up on behalf of children with decision-makers, policy makers and influencers with good quality public policy positions.
end
child marriage
16
Zimbabwe
gender
»» We lobbied at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), successfully securing a commitment by CHOGM leaders to end child marriage. »» Engaged directly with more than a dozen parliamentarians regarding child rights, aid effectiveness and gender equality.
equality
Objective » Plan in Australia will become the leader among peer agencies and within the Plan family for advocating on behalf of child rights. »» We appointed a Senior Child Rights Specialist to lead and promote child rights principles in Plan and the sector.
171%
20 Plan offices
»» We established a Disability Inclusion Working Group, drawing together 20 Plan offices to advocate for the rights of children with disabilities.
Objective » By 2016 we will double the number of people that are engaged with Plan’s work as advocates and campaigners from a little over 100,000 to more than 250,000. »» Our Facebook followers increased by 171%. »» We initiated Women For Girls – a movement of passionate, engaged women who will work to raise awareness of girls’ rights and funds for Plan’s gender equality programs. »» We reached out to over 300,000 potential new supporters through our partnership with Intrepid Travel.
Goal 3 » Income
274%
Plan in Australia will strengthen our income portfolio to support our expanded child rights programming for children.
» We will double the size of our income over the five years of the strategy from $41 million to $82 million, with an aspiration to become a $100 million agency through a focus on innovation and efficiency.
Objective
Community Support income from 2010 – 2012: 2012 $28,165,079 2011 $26,197,421 2010 $25,217,697
»» Our income from Community Support continued to grow steadily, reaching over $28 million.
DONATE
»» In 2012 our total revenue increased by 18% from the previous year. »» Donations to our work to help girls reach their full potential increased 274% this year.
See Results page
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Goal 4 » Identity Plan in Australia will establish a strong identity as the leading child rights agency in Australia. See Coverage in the Media page
37
Each year, Plan in Australia undertakes a brand equity study to assess the health of the Plan brand. The June 2011 Plan benchmark research undertaken by Newspoll and analysed by Business Research Associates gave us a baseline for the commencement of our strategy. Objective
double
» Over the course of the strategy we intend to:
»» increase our unprompted recall from 1% to between 8 and 10%; »» double our total awareness from 22% at the commencement of the strategy to 40% plus;
our awareness
»» increase the degree to which Plan is associated with promoting child rights and supporting equality for women and girls.
800 people
»» We reached out to over 800 people in the Australian business community through lunches in Melbourne and Sydney. »» We commenced a significant re-branding project to align the Plan brand with our child rights focus.
AT OUR LUNCHES 17
Working effectively Plan in Australia recognises that the key to achieving our strategic goals does not just lie with what we do, but with how well we do it. This involves making improvements in both our international programs and our internal processes and capacity.
Annual Effectiveness Review 2011 Plan International Australia
Information about improvements in our systems, culture and working environment can be found on pages 58–61 of this Annual Report. Our work in program quality and continuous improvement is well documented in the Annual Effectiveness Review 2011, which can be viewed at plan.org.au/mediacentre.
Plan International Australia Annual Effectiveness Review 2011
1
Below, we report on three important areas of our work that traverse both our external impact and internal function: gender equality, inclusion, and child protection. In 2012 we made solid progress in all three areas, which has contributed significantly to our ability as an organisation to both be efficient and work effectively.
» Promoting gender equality Gender equality is central to achieving our vision for change in a world in which all children, both girls and boys, can achieve their full potential. While girls and boys have the same rights, our research and practical experience in the communities where we work show that girls and boys are not able to realise their rights to the same degree. While both face challenges in realising their rights, girls face disproportionate forms of discrimination based on gender discrimination. In many countries girls continue to occupy a lower status in society compared to boys. This is due to a wide range of social and cultural attitudes that deny them their rights and limit their opportunities and ability to participate on an equal footing with boys. Leading up to 2012, our Board endorsed the new Plan International policy Gender Equality: Building an Equal World for all Children. The policy requires the organisation to make gender equality a core part of all Plan programs and operations. During 2012 we undertook a range of work to learn more about how and to what extent our programs are contributing to gender equality and to further strengthen the knowledge and skills of Plan staff. We conducted an internal review of our WASH projects and the CLTS (Community Led Total Sanitation) approach, particularly in Tanzania and Vietnam. The review highlighted several project-specific gender challenges, including the lack of a simple monitoring process to measure changes relating to gender. To address this, we developed a gender and WASH monitoring tool to measure gender outcomes and changes, including simple gender quality indicators. These include shared workload in regular household WASH activities; women’s role (leadership) in community WASH activities; and shared roles in decisionmaking in the household. Some of the practical benefits most evident in Plan in Australia’s WASH projects include: »» a significant reduction in women’s time and labour for carrying water (with many subsequent positive effects); »» an increased level of women’s involvement in household WASH decision-making and community meetings alongside men; »» increased sharing of domestic WASH work; »» some reduction in violence against women in Vietnam; »» increased self-confidence among women and girls and changes in community attitudes to the rights and status of women and girls; »» changes in households including in the gender division of labour and an increased interest by men in women’s and children’s health. Gender equality was also the major theme for our recent Reflective Annual Process, as documented in the Annual Effectiveness Review. Plan believes we can’t advocate for gender equality in our programs and in the communities in which we work without demonstrating our willingness to promote gender equality in our own environment and organisation. Please see page 59 for more information.
» Focusing on inclusion Every child has the same rights but some are at risk of not being able to achieve their rights, because of belonging to a particular group or minority. Some children are particularly at risk – those from poor families; those in remote rural communities; girls; children with disabilities; children infected with or affected by HIV; working children; children from ethnic or other minority groups and those in countries affected by conflict or natural disaster.
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Including these vulnerable children in the process of community development is an essential component of a rights-based approach and in 2012 has become a key focus of our programs. In 2011 we appointed a Disability Advisor, and this year we have continued to strengthen our focus on inclusion by formalising a three-year partnership with the CBM-Nossal Institute for Disability Inclusive Development. This innovative partnership, discussed in detail in the Annual Effectiveness Review 2011, aims to build Plan in Australia’s capacity as well as to provide technical expertise and share learning. This year the focus of our disability inclusive programming has been on Emergencies and Child Development. One example is a pilot project on disability inclusive Disaster Risk Management in Ethiopia, supported by Plan and CBM-Nossal. The project aims to increase the number of children with disabilities accessing nutrition screening. Initial results from the pilot show that teams conducting the nutritional screening have been able to ensure children with disabilities are included in response programs, and these teams are now applying disability inclusion strategies in other programs as well. Plan in Australia has also been influential in establishing a Disability Inclusion Working Group within Plan International, drawing together 20 Plan offices globally to share and learn from each other’s experiences in disability inclusion.
» Strengthening child protection As a child-centred organisation, child protection is critical to our operations and we constantly seek to improve our capacity to lead the charge in protecting children everywhere. In 2012 our Protection and Inclusion team, with support from child protection specialist Stephanie Delany, developed a Child Protection Resource Manual and Training Guide for Early Childhood Care and Development staff. This resource will enable parents, educators and communities to establish and manage integrated Child Development programs in areas where there are no established programs, or to strengthen existing programs. The first formal training using this resource pack is scheduled for delivery to twelve countries in eastern and southern Africa during November 2012. We began work on a Strengthening Cyber Safety in Plan program, producing two research reports and a draft user guide that will inform the participatory design, involving young people, of a cyber safety project for young people participating in Plan’s programs. The aim of this program is to make sure that while Plan continues to take advantage of information communication technologies in its program delivery, we are ensuring the safety of the children and young people participating. Building our child protection capacity internally continued to be a focus in 2012, with 75 Plan in Australia staff and volunteers undertaking child protection training on our revised Child Protection Policy and Procedures.
A woman from an ethnic community speaks at a communal meeting in Vietnam, where Plan in Australia’s WASH projects focus on involving women in community WASH activities, decision-making and meetings alongside men.
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our work with children 21
Our global programs Plan in Australia works in Asia and South-East Africa; implementing projects that bring meaningful, long lasting change in the lives of children and their communities. These projects focus on eight key issues that align with both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Plan International’s global child rights framework. Our work across these eight issues is supported by our expertise and capacity in community development programs, disaster management and preparedness, and program effectiveness. Our program strategy integrates a child rights-based approach with social inclusion strategies for women and girls, people with disabilities, young people, and the poorest and most marginalised.
initiated
The past year has been one of growth for Plan in Australia, with the number of projects designed and managed by the organisation almost doubling to 63 projects in 24 countries across four regions. Further, we initiated 8 emergency responses, including providing critical relief to the widespread and devastating East Africa drought and food crises.
8 emergency responses
The following information summarises our program work across the eight key issues of Education; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; Making a Living; Food & Families; Emergencies; Child Development; Rights in the Community; and Reducing Risk.
The Challenge It is estimated that one third of all children under five in the developing world, or over 200 million children, are not attaining their developmental potential.1 Plan’s work aims to directly address this alarming statistic. Our projects seek to ensure that children are physically healthy, intellectually engaged, emotionally resilient and socially competent. This will ensure their overall wellbeing now and provide the foundation for their becoming socially responsible, intellectually vibrant and economically productive adults. Our work focuses on eight key issues that affect children: Education Globally, one in three girls is denied a secondary education.2 When children miss out on going to school, they're not able to gain the skills they need to lead productive lives. Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Diarrhoea is the biggest killer of children in Africa, killing more children than malaria, measles and AIDS combined.3 Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene means children are more likely to fall ill, miss school or die from preventable causes. Making a Living 15,000 young people enter the workforce each year in Timor-Leste, but only 800 new jobs are created. In many countries, people with little education or skills have limited means of earning an income and become stuck in a cycle of debt. Food & Families 870 million people do not have enough food to eat and 98% of them live in developing countries.4 When children are hungry, they find it difficult to concentrate on their schoolwork and are likely to not attend school. Emergencies From 1970–2008, over 95% of natural disaster-related deaths occurred in developing countries. In the aftermath of disasters and emergencies, children are particularly vulnerable due to the limited availability of basic supplies and the high risk of being emotionally affected. Child Development In Bangladesh, just 23% of children receive any early childhood education. Where there is a lack of early learning programs and support for parents, children are often unprepared for school. Rights in the Community In Minh Hoa district in Vietnam, 54% of people live in poverty due to geographic isolation, with limited access to and influence over local planning. Where people are unable to voice their needs and concerns, they are unable to actively input into the decision-making processes that affect them. Previous page: Thinn Thinn, age 6, plays on a swing in a temporary school building in Myanmar.
Reducing Risk (DRR) As sea levels continue to rise, the chances of land erosion, flooding and tsunamis increase. Where communities are not prepared for disasters, the recovery process is prolonged and the chances of victims being emotionally affected are higher.
Opposite page: A Plan staff member in the Philippines presents one of the storybooks created in partnership with Mangyan tribal communities.
These are just some of the issues facing children in developing countries today. In 2012, through programs that address these and other issues, Plan in Australia empowered thousands of families and communities in Asia and Africa to enable their children to access their fundamental human rights.
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Achievements in 2012 » Education Plan in Australia’s approach to Education is to focus on hard-to-reach groups of children and to work with teachers and governments to improve the quality of learning in the classroom. Through this, girls and boys can gain relevant skills that help them in later life. In 2012 Plan in Australia supported two education projects – one in the Philippines and one in Bangladesh. Our project in the Philippines is situated in remote communities with indigenous Mangyan tribes. The program’s goal is to contribute to all Mangyan indigenous peoples attaining functional literacy and numeracy, as well as the development of a dynamic, culturally appropriate approach and education curriculum for these communities. In 2012 the project achieved the following: »» It reached 22 communities and engaged 1800 tribal community members; »» 50 instructional managers were trained to deliver learning sessions to children; »» 29 basic literacy modules were translated into 7 tribal languages; »» 13 tribal storybooks were published; »» A basic literacy approach was developed that incorporates indigenous knowledge systems. As part of the project, children learn in locally built learning centres and are taught by specially trained instructional managers. Asked about the impact of this project on her, Rosita Montajes, a trained instructional manager from the community of Ilya, told Plan: “We are very happy now because we have a learning centre where we conduct our learning sessions. When the learning centre was established, the community said that the program is indeed for real and the teacher really wants to serve in educating the tribal children. With the new structure, additional learners have enrolled. From 60 learners during the makeshift centre, the learners have now doubled and there are now 112 including the elders”.
FOOTNOTES 1. Grantham-McGregor S, Cheung YB, Cueto S, Glewwe P, Richter L, Strupp B. ‘Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries’. Lancet 2007; 369: 60–70 2. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, ‘EFA Global Monitoring Report’, Geneva, 2011 3. World Health Organisation, 'Economic and health effects of increasing coverage of low cost household drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to countries off-track to meet MDG target 10’, Geneva, 2007 4. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, ‘Globally almost 870 million chronically undernourished - new hunger report’ press release, Geneva, 2012
» Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Plan in Australia’s approach to Water, Sanitation & Hygiene issues (WASH) is to support and empower children and their families to lead their own improvements, and to specifically focus upon girls, women and people living with disabilities so that the benefits are experienced by all. Central to our approach is the concept that sustainable improvements must be led by behaviour change. This is exemplified through our highly successful ‘Community Led Total Sanitation’ programs, where Plan supports communities to identify the WASH problems, determine solutions, and implement their own behaviour and infrastructure improvements. In 2012 Plan in Australia supported ten WASH projects in Laos, Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. The year was marked in particular by the end of Plan’s AusAID Civil Society WASH fund grant in seven countries which resulted, among other things, in 71,965 people gaining access to water and 142 schools gaining water, sanitation and hand-washing facilities. The evidence from schools and children who have participated in these projects clearly indicates significant improvements in hygiene behavior. School children are also taking their WASH learning home with them, with many constructing simple tippy taps5 at home and encouraging siblings and parents to practice hand washing for hygiene. The outcomes of these improvements for children and their families are multiple and wide-reaching. Apart from the immediate positive results of our work in 2012, there are many expected long-term outcomes. Most importantly, improved hygiene and sanitation behavior results in a reduction in the incidence of diarrhea, one of the main causes of death among children in the developing world. With improved health, and close access to a reliable water supply, children have the health and time to be able to attend school and focus upon their education. At school, hygienic and age-appropriate separate toilet facilities for girls and boys also provide girls with the privacy and comfort that they crave in order enjoy their school environment. For women, Plan’s WASH projects also bring benefits: men are encouraged to share the burden of WASH responsibilities, e.g. water collection, and women are empowered to express their opinions to influence the WASH interventions in their community.
» Making a Living In 2012 Plan in Australia supported two projects that assisted families to make a living by increasing and diversifying their household income sources. Our approach involves working with families to identify pathways for change, and providing training in vocational and entrepreneurial skills so individuals and families can build their own businesses.
“Now I have skills and knowledge, I will use those skills to start my own small business. Plan has shown me the way to get my dreams.” Dirce Fernandez
Each year in Timor-Leste, 15,000 young people enter the labour force yet there are only 800 new formal jobs created, resulting in high rates of youth unemployment. In 2012 Plan in Australia’s Youth Livelihoods project trained 118 young people in vocational skills such as tailoring, horticulture and machine maintenance. Plan also provided book-keeping and organisational management training for more than 100 young people who had previously attended vocational training courses. They have now established small business enterprises in various sectors, including breeding chickens, fish farming, horticulture, coffee processing, food production, hospitality and furniture making. One of the participants was Dirce Fernandez, a young woman of 22 and the oldest of six siblings. Her family has struggled to survive since her father passed away three years ago, but Dirce was unable to find a job. With Plan’s support, Dirce took a tailoring course, graduating in December 2011. Now employed in a tailoring business, she is able to help support her family. Dirce says: “Now I have skills and knowledge, I will use those skills to start my own small business. Plan has shown me the way to get my dreams.” The Empowering Families in Cambodia program has demonstrated the broader benefits of our ‘household strengthening’ approach to livelihoods. By working closely with families to help them identify their own strengths, challenges and opportunities for improvement, the program has empowered families to increase their incomes and resources through developing sustainable small businesses – but it has also led to improved access to education, increased personal confidence, self-reliance and satisfaction, and better health, hygiene, and sanitation. There are also positive outcomes at the community level – including better access to local (government) services (particularly health centres and hospitals) and increased social inclusion in terms of interactions with neighbours, access to leaders, and participation in community processes. Over the year the program achieved the following:
Dirce sews clothes after completing a tailoring course in Timor-Leste.
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»» 750 families were trained in health and hygiene practices. They now use mosquito nets to prevent malaria, boil the water they drink and are able to maintain clean living environments.
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
»» 434 families improved their skills in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry, providing them with a stable source of income. »» 20 Village Livestock Agents received training to ensure that animal husbandry support services are locally available, including vaccination and treatment of animal diseases. »» 52 young men and women were trained in handicrafts, soap production and motor mechanics, providing them with a stable source of income. »» 165 families participated in savings and loans groups, enabling them to save money and establish and expand new businesses.
» Food & Families Plan in Australia’s food and nutrition projects enable children to have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all times. In 2012 Plan in Australia supported seven projects of this kind in Indonesia, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Our work to ensure food access to children in need was strengthened in 2012 by our partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for several important projects. In Cambodia, we commenced a joint project which aims to increase the number of children staying in school. The project is supporting the delivery of daily meals to 447 schools, reaching more than 74,000 boys and girls and ensuring those children have at least one nutritious meal during the school day. These regular nutritious meals are helping to ensure these children stay healthy and are able to concentrate in class. In the newly established state of South Sudan, our partnership with WFP enabled the distribution of food rations to 150,603 children, young people, women and men who have been displaced by conflict. Plan has also supported a number of projects that seek to address long-term food security and good nutrition for children and their families. This year in eastern Indonesia, our Community Managed Nutrition project trained 310 health workers in child nutrition monitoring and nutritional education for parents and carers. As a result of this investment, 746 children who had previously been identified as severely malnourished showed improved nutritional status and were taken off the register of children classified as malnourished.
FOOTNOTES 5. A tippy tap is a very simply hand-washing facility made out of locally available materials. It can be easily constructed and maintained by households and schools and thus represents a sustainable hand-washing solution. James, age 13, is the president of a primary school in South Sudan which participates in a school feeding program.
case study
School breakfasts: a vital start to lasting education
Just minutes away from the central tourist district in Siem Reap, hungry children line up waiting for breakfast that will help them to stay at school. “The breakfast here can help me to concentrate on my study,” says Heng, who is one of an estimated 80,000 students who will benefit from the school breakfast program being run by the UN World Food Programme in partnership with Plan. Heng, who is in grade 5, lives with his mother, two brothers and one sister in a single room house. When
his father passed away Dirce Fernandez Picsix years ago, his mother was left as the sole provider for her children and Heng’s older siblings were forced to leave Lyn is following up with CO school for to find work to support the family. high-res versions. Ket Chanto, the Learning and Education Specialist at Plan Cambodia, says that this is a common story for
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families in Siem Reap who live in rural areas and depend on farming for their livelihoods. “The children here are in the most difficult circumstances and many drop out of school because their families cannot support them.” Heng is very aware of the situation facing children at his school. “A student in another class did have to drop out of school because they have to migrate for finding job in the city, because their family is poor – that is why they have to help the family,” he says. With Heng receiving breakfast at school, there is less pressure on his mother to find additional food for him, which gives Heng a better chance of finishing primary school and moving into secondary education.
Heng, a grade 5 student, eats breakfast in his classroom in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The Vice-Principle at Heng’s school has seen firsthand the positive impact of school breakfasts for the students. “The number of children that drop out of school has decreased, and more and more students are happy to go to school, because when they go to school they can have breakfast,” he says. This message is echoed through the schoolyard. After Heng eats breakfast he plays with his friends, he has energy, and is happy to return to the classroom, where he can concentrate and gain an education – his universal right.
» Emergencies In 2012 Plan in Australia initiated eight emergency responses in Africa and Asia, focusing on nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene and livelihoods recovery. Plan’s Horn of Africa famine response was supported by AusAID in both Kenya and Ethiopia in 2012. Specifically in Ethiopia our focus was on the provision of urgent nutritional support for malnourished boys and girls and pregnant and lactating women. The project also supported families to rebuild their livelihoods and assets through the provision of livestock and opportunities to participate in cash for work programs, which helped to rehabilitate or install water catchments. We also deployed specialist Disability Inclusion Advisors to assist with the response and to ensure that people with disabilities were not excluded from receiving immediate aid and recovery support. This project was able to reach over 75,000 people overall during its 12-month operation, of which 12% were people with disabilities.
» Child Development Plan in Australia’s approach to child development is guided by international best practice to ensure that children aged 0–8 have the best outcomes in terms of physical, social and emotional development as well as language development and learning. We work with families to make sure that children grow up happy and healthy and ready to learn. We also work with communities, schools and governments to help them to support practice and policy for child development. In 2012, Plan in Australia supported seven child development projects in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Laos, India, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. Our Community-Led Action for Children project in Indonesia is working with children aged 0–8, along with their families and communities in 31 villages in eastern Indonesia. The project supports improved parenting through parenting groups that meet regularly, quality early learning centres with low cost, locally made learning materials and activities that support successful transition to primary school. The project works through community health centres which are present in every village and reach all families of young children. In 2012 the project achieved the following: »» 75 parenting groups were supported by trained community health workers. Through these groups 1500 parents had the opportunity to learn from one another and to increase their knowledge and skills to respond to the developmental needs of their children. »» 13 Early Learning centres in very resource-poor communities received support, enabling them to provide children aged 4–6 with early learning opportunities, and equipping them with low cost, locally made toys and materials. »» 39 caregivers from the 13 Early Learning centres received training. This ensures the caregivers have the skills to provide a stimulating, age-appropriate learning environment for the children. Next year we plan to scale the project up to an additional five villages.
» Rights in the Community Plan in Australia works to promote and protect peoples’ rights within their communities, while influencing governments which are responsible for the protection of rights in line with international human rights commitments and national law. In 2012 Plan in Australia supported seven rights-focused projects. The Promoting Rights and Accountabilities in African Communities (PRAAC) program is promoting legal rights and services in Uganda; rights to health and health services in Kenya; and rights to freedom from violence and services relating to gender-based violence in Zimbabwe. The program aims to promote social inclusion and rights of marginalised people and groups, particularly women and young people aged from 10 to 24 years. As part of the program, Proscovia Kajabi from Kanyanya Parish in Uganda has received training and knowledge on child rights, domestic violence laws, land law, human rights, and marriage laws and succession. Proscovia told Plan about the impact of the project on her: “Before I interfaced with this project, I had never attended any training on human rights or participated in any way in NGO work. I even didn’t know what my rights were and how to defend and demand them. I used to see a lot of acts of violence against women and children but I didn’t do anything about it; I thought that was normal life. This is because I lacked knowledge and capacity to give a helping hand. I am now using the knowledge acquired to sensitize women to open their eyes and protect their rights. I am now so alert on women's and children's rights unlike before I got engaged”. (Proscovia Kajabi, Kanyanya Parish – Wampamba zone, Uganda, July 2012).
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case study
Children leading the way to good health
Before Plan’s WASH program began in her community, Lillian’s family had virtually no understanding of just how important good hygiene and sanitation was to their health. As a result, Lillian and her siblings were often sick. “We used to not wash our hands after visiting the latrine at our home because we did not know the importance and the benefits of washing hands with soap,” she says. But Lillian’s health improved drastically after attending Plan’s child-to-child training activity – part of Plan’s WASH program in Uganda. To begin with, she learnt about simple changes such as washing her hands with soap or ash. Then she also learnt how to build a ‘Tippy Tap’ at home, to make it easier for her family to wash their hands. Lillian encouraged her family to improve their hygiene and sanitation: “I talked to my father and he put in place a bath shelter, dug a pit-latrine and constructed a kitchen.” She also used her new understanding to help other children and families in her local community to improve their health.
Lillian washes her hands using a tippy tap in Uganda.
“I used the knowledge I got from the training to teach four girls in the neighbourhood, who attend another school, the importance of washing hands after visiting the latrine,” she says. Today, Lillian is passionate about creating real and lasting change in her community. “I am so grateful to Plan for the good work in my school,” she says. “Most children in my school have learnt how to wash their hands after visiting the latrine. I believe children from our community will now be healthier.”
» Reducing Risk Preparation can make all the difference when disasters strike. Our approach is to work with children, their communities and governments to identify disaster risks and strengthen their resilience. We make sure they acquire the knowledge and skills they need to better understand the risks they face and take appropriate action to make their communities safer. In 2012 our Child-Centred Climate Change Adaptation program was implemented in seven south-east Asian and Pacific countries: Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tonga. The program facilitates a role for children in assessing, planning and monitoring local climate smart solutions that are relevant to their lives and futures. It also encourages children to advocate for change with their peers as well as their community and local and national decision-makers. In Quang Tri province of Vietnam, the program has so far trained 218 primary and secondary school students to become peer educators on climate change and disaster risk in their community, where the impact of climate change is already being felt with early typhoons, higher flood levels and increased temperatures in the dry season. The training has taught these children how to assess and address potential hazards through risk mapping, drawing, modelling, and village walks. As a result of the training, these children are enhancing their knowledge on the risks of disasters and climate change and how to respond.
Challenges & Priorities 2012 has been a good year for Plan in Australia and our programs, but as with everything in life, there have been challenges! A key challenge that cuts across all of our programs is the need to ensure that the benefits of our projects are realised by all, including those who are the most marginalised (often people with disabilities, girls, and children from ethnic minorities). Plan in Australia is increasingly focusing our support on those children who are the poorest and most vulnerable, but sometimes even Plan staff are not able to identify those children who are ‘invisible’ to all except those that know them – for example, physically disabled children who rarely get to leave the house. We are steadily trying to contribute to an increased understanding within Plan and the communities in which Plan works about the importance of inclusion, but all too often this results in the easier ‘solutions’ such as ensuring that infrastructure is accessible to people with disabilities, rather than the much harder issue of addressing entrenched community attitudes and practices. This is a challenge that Plan in Australia has identified as a priority in our five-year Program Strategy (2012–2016) and social inclusion represents a common feature across all of our programs. A very practical and operational challenge for Plan in Australia this year has been to transition from a large number of relatively small grant projects, to a smaller, more manageable number of projects where we can have maximum impact and influence. Being one year into our five-year Programs Strategy, we are very clear about where we need to work and what we should use our funds to support. In this regard, in 2012 we commenced a process in which we hope to support a smaller number of larger projects that directly align to our geographic and thematic priorities. Plan in Australia’s future priorities include continuing to increase our focus upon supporting marginalised young people, particularly young girls. Specifically, this has resulted in the completion of a five-year program design for a Youth Empowerment project in Timor-Leste, scheduled to begin in 2013, as well as the commencement of a program design process for a similar project in Cambodia. Reaching the poorest and most marginalised in all of our projects is a central focus as we move forward. An example of this is our Education project in Bangladesh, which up until now has focused on supporting children who are already attending school to reach their full potential. The project will enter a new phase in 2013 where we will work with those children who are not in formal schooling and try to better support their educational needs. A final priority for Plan in Australia is to ensure that more of our projects are gender transformative, and by this we mean that our projects, irrespective of their particular focus, have an explicit intention to transform unequal gender power relations and the root causes of inequality. At present, while all of our projects seek to improve the daily conditions of women and girls by addressing practical gender issues, they do not necessarily result in a change in gender relations.
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ENGAGING AUSTRALIA
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Campaigns & Advocacy » Because I am a Girl Because I am a Girl (BIAAG) is Plan International’s long-term global campaign advocating for the rights of girls and promoting gender equality. It commenced in 2007 with the launch of Plan’s research report The State of the World’s Girls. Since then the campaign has evolved to integrate compelling advocacy and community engagement activities with mainstream publicity and fundraising. As part of the global campaign, each year Plan International builds on its gender equality expertise with the publication of a new report that explores a specific issue related to girls’ ability to access their rights. Here in Australia we have established strong foundations for the continued development of the BIAAG campaign. We have sought to place the issues faced by the world’s girls on the agenda for all Australians, through a range of channels including corporate and community engagement, donor fundraising, public relations and media activities as well as lobbying decision makers who hold the power to bring about change. The global aim of BIAAG is to build support at every level to ensure that all girls are empowered to reach their full potential, principally by supporting millions of girls to get the education and skills they need to move from poverty to opportunity.
Previous page: Celebrity chef Manu Feildel visits a refugee camp in northern Niger, where Plan and the UNHCR distributed food to 12,000 refugees.
In November 2011 Plan launched the 2011 report, titled So, What About Boys? in Canberra with the support of the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Kevin Rudd. Also attending the launch was Rubi – a young girl from Bangladesh who is a survivor of child marriage and a beneficiary of Plan’s programs. Rubi’s story is remarkable. At the age of 14 she was promised to a young man to be married. They hadn’t met before, other than to pass by one another in their village, but with a large family to feed and little income, her parents thought marriage would be the best chance for a secure future for Rubi. However, having grasped the value of education early, Rubi felt differently and through her involvement with Plan youth groups, learned of the hazards of getting married at such a young age, including dropping out of school and early pregnancy. She knew that her outlook if she married would increasingly narrow. Rubi sought the assistance of her teachers, school principal and community elders to convince her parents to change their minds. Together they were successful in switching Rubi’s family to an alternative path and today Rubi continues her study along with her siblings.
This page: Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd meets Rubi, a survivor of child marriage in Canberra at the launch of the Because I am a Girl 2011 report.
Achieving awareness of the issue of child marriage through publicity and advocacy and raising funds for action is a priority for Plan in Australia over the next year. October 11, 2012 is to be the first official UN International Day of the Girl; an opportunity to stage a range of activities that will enable more girls to reach their potential from 2013 and beyond. Plan will be implementing a major campaign in late 2012 and 2013 to ensure that this opportunity to highlight the plight of the world’s girls is not missed.
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case study
Rubi and Elisabeth
I have always been passionate about gender equality. It may have something to do with having a mother who would tell me bedtime stories that would end with the princess being empowered to leave her beloved prince to get an education. We all have moments in our lives – stories we are told or people we come into contact with that shape our interests, our outlooks and our passions. For the students at Westbourne Grammar – who met Rubi from Bangladesh and Elisabeth from Zambia during Plan in Australia’s Because I am a Girl campaign – I hope this was one such experience.
I was honoured last year to be involved in the campaign and accompany Rubi and Elisabeth to Westbourne Grammar. The girls visited the school to speak about their personal journeys and their passion for the empowerment of women. Watching these inspiring young women share their stories and seeing the Westbourne students share their own experiences in return, demonstrated to me the continued passion that young people have for gender equality. The teachers and Plan staff facilitated some great activities for the girls and students in the more formal classroom setting, however, when lunch break arrived all sense of structure and order went out the window. While we as staff worried about the girls feeling uncomfortable over lunch – in the face of hundreds of questions and inquisitive looks – Rubi and Elisabeth were wondering off hand-in-hand with the students. They talked about all the things they had been itching to ask each other – that no amount of structured activity could facilitate. The opportunity to have these young women come to Australia was, in my opinion, the cornerstone of the campaign in 2012. This visit exemplified all we stand for as an organisation and beautifully illustrates the poignant messages articulated through this unique campaign. A very special thank you is, of course, due to the wonderful staff and students of Westbourne Grammar for accommodating this visit along with a thank you to the wonderful and ever inspiring Rubi and Elisabeth.
Rubi from Bangladesh and Elisabeth from Zambia meet with students from Westbourne Grammar during their visit to Australia for the launch of Plan’s Because I am a Girl 2011 report.
Charlotte Gourley, Youth Coordinator at Plan in Australia
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Engaging the government There are clear indications that Plan in Australia’s child focused advocacy has contributed to influencing the policy and approach of the Australian Government.
In keeping with our newly developed framework for policy engagement and advocacy, 2012 included several key engagements with the Australian Government and at global levels on issues central to Plan in Australia’s work. We engaged directly with a range of parliamentarians regarding child rights and aid effectiveness. In addition to providing advice and support to AusAID on such areas as Early Childhood Care and Development and Child Protection, Plan in Australia was a high profile partner to the Australian Government during the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Korea. As a founding member of the Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium, Plan in Australia played an active role in encouraging Australia’s participation in a global summit on Family Planning. In partnership with other agencies we provided input into AusAID’s new thematic strategies and worked on a review of child rights issues within AusAID’s wider policy framework. There are clear indications that Plan in Australia’s child focused advocacy has contributed to influencing the policy and approach of the Australian Government: sector policies have stronger child protection elements and position children and issues of exclusion more centrally in the aid program. Perhaps most notably, during 2012 Plan in Australia worked in partnership with Plan UK and the Royal Commonwealth Society to lobby for attention on the critical issue of child marriage. A well planned and executed advocacy campaign at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Perth in October 2011 led to attention on this issue both in Australia (see Media & Communications, page 36) and across all Commonwealth governments. This achievement was built on through subsequent lobbying by Plan at the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting in late February 2012. This included a side event on the issue, at which Penny Williams, Australia’s Global Ambassador for Women and Children spoke. More information on this work and the wider policy engagement portfolio can be found in the Annual Effectiveness Review 2011.
Connecting with young people » Partnering with the Global Poverty Project This year Plan in Australia continued to build on the partnership with the Global Poverty Project (GPP) established in 2010. The joint program aims to create a movement of global citizens in high schools across Australia by increasing awareness of child rights, triggering the motivation to do something about extreme poverty, and enabling connections for students to take effective action.
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A critical part of GPP’s program with young people is its schools presentation, titled 1.4 Billion Reasons for Youth. This interactive education tool, which contains key messages from Plan in Australia about the rights of all children, is designed to raise awareness and inspire young Australians to become local advocates for change. By bringing together Plan’s expertise in child rights with the Global Poverty Project’s presentation, this program has continued to inspire change in schools across Australia, with 14,285 students having seen the presentation in the last year. The program has undergone a significant number of developments over the last year. These include a strengthened strategy to train and support presenters, better processes to book presentations and improved ways of providing support to young people to take action once they have seen the presentation. We have also commenced work with the Deakin University Positive Development Group to better understand the links between young people’s engagement in social action and their wellbeing.
» Common Threads: an education initiative Plan in Australia is committed to supporting Australian educators and their students to learn, connect with and contribute to initiatives that impact on global social justice issues. In 2012 this support was delivered through the creation and publication of a curriculum-aligned teachers’ resource to support global learning in the classroom. Written in conjunction with expertise from the Global Education Project, Common Threads: Weaving Child Rights into Global Education is designed for educators teaching young Australians aged 10–13 years. Launched at the Social Educators Association of Australia (SEAA) Conference 2012, this resource provides educators with the knowledge needed to introduce young people in Australia to the concept of child rights and responsibilities. The resource has so far been promoted through numerous education networks, including teacher training sessions in Victoria and Queensland. Our goal is to distribute it as widely as possible, with no charge associated to teachers to access it online or as a booklet with accompanying CD. It can be downloaded from our website: plan.org.au/ourwork/teachers_and_schools.
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
» Youth Project Team In 2012 Plan in Australia appointed its first Youth Project Team. The group has since commenced work to create opportunities for other young people to learn, connect and contribute to Plan’s global movement. This team of ten young people (aged between 15 and 25 years) has been using social media and events to creatively engage other young people in Plan’s youth network. The team’s most notable contributions to date include their participation in a range of events such as the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival and the Teachers and Schools Resource Expo. The team has also begun promoting opportunities for young people to join their networks through an article written for Plan’s Global Child magazine and the creation of their Facebook page: Youth Planning a Change Today. The appointment of the Youth Project Team reflects Plan’s commitment to addressing the growing imperative for the meaningful participation of young people as vital members of our community. This group of young people provides an opportunity to change the way Plan engages with global social justice issues and in turn how others engage with Plan. The Youth Project Team has already mapped out a number of innovative and engaging activities for the next year, which appear certain to engage young people from across Australia in Plan’s vision. Young people who are interested in getting involved with Plan can contact our Community Engagement team on 13 75 26.
case study
Youth Project Team
Plan in Australia’s inaugural Youth Project Team (YPT) is a mix of talented young minds that care about the world. We have 10 members, with ages ranging from 15 to 25, and each of us provides a unique level of experience, knowledge and skills. We are passionate about the rights of children, poverty alleviation and international development. Ultimately the YPT aims to influence and create change in the community, and to demonstrate the importance of child rights. We want to inspire others, especially young people, to be as passionate about global issues as we are. It’s vital to communicate and engage with young people as a means to protecting the future and activating change. Young people will have a critical role to play. Who better to reach out and do that than our very own Youth Project Team! As members of a generation who are constantly being criticised and stereotyped as ‘lazy, selfish and narcissistic’, we want to erase that perception. We are ten young Australians who are hard-working, passionate and selfless who seek to spread Plan’s message. Our journey as a team began on April 27, when we took part in a threeday planning and induction weekend. There were many activities, including a presentation by Paul from the Global Poverty Project, fun team building with the Playback Theatre, asset mapping with David Hood, planning for the year ahead and identifying global citizenship in the world around us. Through these activities the spirit of the Youth Project Team was born. Being part of a group of people who care so much about making a difference in the lives of others is inspiring in itself. The YTP provides an opportunity not only for our group but for other youth and individuals to get involved and become champions for the rights of children. We want to walk the walk just as much as we talk it.
Plan in Australia's Youth Project Team.
Top photo: Makayla, a member of Plan’s Youth Project Team, attends an induction weekend at the Plan office in Melbourne. Bottom photo: Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart with members of Plan’s Youth Project Team at the induction weekend.
Media & Communications » Our digital journey Globally, Plan is embracing the current era of digital innovation, in particular the mobile technology that is escalating exponentially worldwide, potentially driving social media ahead of traditional media as the preferred channel of communication and information. Across Plan’s global network, digital tools, initiatives and channels are being used to improve the experience for our supporters, grow our number of donors, increase cost efficiencies and influence key policy decisions. Plan in Australia has recently adopted a digital strategy that will allow us to reach new markets more effectively and at less cost, providing a scalable mechanism to attract, approach and engage with existing and potential supporters. To reduce the costs and maximise our opportunities associated with this digital innovation, we’ve partnered with a number of leading digital agencies to trial new initiatives. These have included creating online communities, integrating social media into our campaigns and optimising the web experience for Plan supporters. Becoming fluent in these media will allow us to grow our brand awareness and offer an experiential benefit to our supporters. In 2012, our main digital projects were ‘Mums for Change’ – an online sponsorship community project (see page 46), and an internal ‘digital knowledge’ program, consisting of regular workshops and presentations from digital agency experts to increase staff exposure and understanding of our digital potential. There has also been an increased presence across all our social media channels, and the volume of supporters engaging with us in these spaces has increased substantially over the past year. For example, in 2012 our number of Facebook followers increased 171%, from 2,600 to 7,042. We have also focused on laying the foundations for the sophisticated digital platforms that will be needed for us to engage with all our constituents. The introduction of both a leading edge web content management system and a new supporter relationship management platform in 2012 are key to this. In the year ahead, we will further improve the supporter experience online via a new website and improving staff capabilities in social media, thereby increasing and enriching digital conversations and our responsiveness to supporters.
» Publications In 2012 our communications team continued to produce quality publications for supporters, corporate donors, major sponsors, schools and sector partners.
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Global Child THE MAGAZINE OF PLAN IN AUSTRALIA | WINTER 2012
Twice yearly we publish Global Child, the magazine for our supporters. This year it has undergone a major improvement, with sections devoted to ‘community news’, ‘Plan in action’ and stories from our supporters, as well as a new visual design, providing a much easier to read and engaging publication. Plan in Australia’s second Annual Effectiveness Review was also published in 2012, building on the success of the first edition last year. It has been warmly received by our partners, peers, stakeholders and the Australian Government as it provides clearly measured outcomes and key learnings from our work in the field.
Manu Feildel in West Africa Celebrity chef meets some of the 18 million people affected by food crisis
Journey to Burkina Faso
Our commitment to accountability was again evidenced in our 2011 Annual Report, when it was nominated in the Top 10 at the PwC Transparency Awards.
Plan supporter visits eighth sponsor child
Testimony to success
A former sponsored child says thank you WINTER 2012
With funding from AusAID, Plan in Australia coordinated the production of Climate Extreme for Youth – a fully illustrated, youth-friendly version of a major research report, which was created by a coalition of leading child-focused organisations, each with a commitment to sharing knowledge, coordinating activities and working with children to tackle global climate change. Aimed at a youth demographic, the book asks core questions such as: ‘Is climate change causing more disasters?’ and ‘Why are some people more affected that others?’ and promotes the involvement of children and young people in the climate change debate. During 2012 the book was widely distributed to international audiences, including government ministers, at conferences in London, Beijing, Delhi, Addis Adaba and Bangkok, where it was received by Her Royal Highness, Princess of Thailand.
THE MAGAZINE OF PLAN IN AUSTRALIA GLOBAL CHILD 1
All Plan in Australia publications can be viewed on our website: plan.org.au/mediacentre/publications.
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
» Coverage in the media Recognising that Plan in Australia has relatively low brand awareness, we have sought to venture into new and innovative areas of the media to gain support for our work. In conjunction with our fundraising activities, we believe that this will be successful in raising our profile in the Australian community as a valuable and trusted agency for children. Following on from the launch of our From Cup to Crop food security campaign in 2011, which included a public fundraising element and the induction of our ‘Food Fighters’, in June 2012 well-known celebrity chef Manu Feildel travelled to Niger in West Africa with Plan in Australia to see firsthand the devastating effect the drought is having on communities in the region. Manu knows food, and he also has a strong bond with West Africa, growing up in a community in France that was enriched by the culture of West African migrants. In Niger, Manu witnessed Plan’s work in action, visiting emergency food distribution centres, school feeding programs and health centres that are treating malnourished children, along with Plan-run refugee camps for people fleeing the current conflict in Mali. At one of the schools they visited, Manu helped to cook a meal for 275 children, which he described as the most rewarding time in the kitchen ever. Accompanying Manu on this journey was Kim Wilson, editor of the widely popular magazine New Idea, who demonstrated the impact of this visit on both the communities and on Manu himself in a high profile article published shortly after their return to Australia. This was followed by an editorial piece appearing in the Herald Sun, Australia’s highest circulated print newspaper. The media visit was supported by a direct mail campaign and online ‘Stop the Hunger’ microsite, which garnered significant financial support for Plan’s emergency food supplies to the region. A significant focus of our Because I am a Girl campaign is child marriage. A difficult subject certainly, but a personal one for one young girl from Bangladesh – Rubi (see page 32). However Rubi was clear that she wanted her story heard, so in October 2011 she travelled to Australia in support of the campaign and met with media, major donors, corporate supporters and Plan staff during her visit. Her story of survival and continuing education featured in Girlfriend magazine. Plan in Australia’s engagement in advocacy and media communications was notable at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth in late October. Our main objective was to secure a commitment to ending child marriage in the CHOGM leaders’ communiqué, which was achieved. Staff from the Australian office handled media relations on behalf of the global Plan family, with activities including a media conference in the CHOGM media centre and strong media engagement around Plan public events and lobbying. The resulting Australian and global media coverage on radio, in print, online and on television supported the advocacy and lobbying work, and other Plan offices also used materials produced by the Australian team. Visit our Media Centre online to view Plan in the media: plan.org.au/mediacentre.
» Scan
to find out more
Celebrity chef Manu Feildel visits a Plan-supported school feeding program in Niger and cooks lunch for 275 students.
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» Telling stories We are continually working to identify new ways to engage with our supporters and provide relevant and interesting updates on the work being done in the field. Recently, a major gap was identified by Plan in Australia in the area of content creation. Specifically, we saw opportunities to improve field communications from communities where we deliver development projects so that we can offer a steady stream of up-to-date, high quality, authentic stories that powerfully communicate Plan’s work. The Storytelling Training Project is intended to address this issue by improving the capacity of communications staff in selected countries to produce high quality stories about Plan’s work. A key element of the project design is that trained staff can adapt the lessons to pass on to local Youth Media groups, which can enable and empower young people to tell their own stories about their experiences and their community’s development. In the past year, Plan in Australia has designed a targeted teaching manual and delivered storytelling training to communications and program unit staff in Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. To date, delivery of the pilot program has been limited to the Asia region where strong relationships between our communications teams already exist; however it is our intention to roll this program out to more countries once the model is fully refined.
» Plan turns 75 Plan celebrated a significant milestone in 2012 – our 75th anniversary. Around the globe Plan staff, children, partners and local communities celebrated with the world’s biggest children’s birthday party. Here in Australia we celebrated a little differently, recognising the support received over the years from our contributors by saying ‘thank you’ and highlighting the importance of birth registration for all children – and every child’s right to a birthday! We started the day with our CEO, Ian Wishart personally visiting long time donors, including businesses, schools and child sponsors to personally thank them for their support. In recognition of this day, a team of staff handed out blue balloons to everyone they thanked in person. These moments were captured on film and transformed into a one minute video that was circulated via our Facebook page, for users to tag themselves and share with their friends. This was supported by Plan in Australia Facebook fans and the general public showing support for Plan by adding a blue balloon icon to their profile.
» Scan
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Opposite page: Storytelling project participants in Cambodia practise their interviewing skills. Plan in Australia staff celebrate Plan’s 75th birthday at the Melbourne office.
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Business Partnerships » Overview Plan in Australia’s business partners are integral to our work with children. Their support – through child sponsorship, workplace giving, fundraising events and corporate donations – enable us to manage and implement our development programs in an efficient and effective way, making a real difference to children and their families around the world. In 2012 we strengthened our engagement with several key businesses, ensuring that our partnerships continue to be mutually valuable.
» Intrepid Travel For more than ten years, Plan in Australia and Intrepid Travel have been working together to transform the world for children. In 2012 our partnership continued with the formation of a new initiative by Intrepid to raise funds for Plan’s work with girls. SAMA is a three-year global gender equality project which aims to improve the lives of communities and help bridge the gender gap through education. (See the story on page 44). Previous page: Children in Paraguay release balloons as part of Plan’s 75th birthday celebrations around the world. This page: Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart visits the Intrepid Travel offices as part of Plan’s 75th birthday celebrations.
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Intrepid also reached out to their 300,000 supporters to encourage donations to our East Africa Food Crisis Appeal, with all donations matched by AusAID. Close to $17,000 was raised. The Intrepid Foundation (the non-profit arm of Intrepid Travel) donated $10,000 to Plan’s project to help prevent child marriage in Indonesia. These funds will go towards activities such as awareness raising workshops on child marriage in schools and communities. Intrepid also participated in our ‘Thank You’ campaign to help Plan in Australia thank donors, businesses and foundations for their support over 75 years.
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
» Study Group Study Group, one of the world’s leading providers of international education, has worked closely with Plan in Australia, Plan UK and Plan USA since 2005, funding Plan projects in Asia and Africa as part of their Building Futures program. In 2012, Study Group students and staff raised more than $150,000 for a Plan project in Niger that promotes quality education and easy access to schools for girls. Commenting recently on the obvious benefits for his community, The Director of Sakoira Medersa School in Niger, Oustaze Mazou Bazzi, said: “This project will greatly change our school, especially with latrine construction and recruitment of girls. I hope that next year all the girls in the village register for school and their parents encourage them to stay. I am well informed and convinced about the importance of girls’ education.” Key to the success of the Study Group and Plan partnership has been the benefits seen by staff and students when children have access to quality education, together with the close alignment of company values and social responsibility policies between our two organisations.
» Hobsons Another valued partner from the education sector is Hobsons – a provider of software solutions and services. Through our partnership, Hobsons provide their staff with the opportunity to engage with Plan projects relevant to their industry – education. Over the past seven years Hobsons staff members have funded six projects that improve educational opportunities for people in marginalised communities. This has seen Hobsons staff from Australia, the UK and USA actively engaged in fundraising, resulting in more than $90,000 being raised since the partnership with Plan commenced. One of those events, ‘International Plan Day’ sees each of the international offices competing to see who raises the most money, with all proceeds going to Plan. This year, the staff from Hobsons in Melbourne had the option to pay for a number of activities throughout the day which included breakfast and lunch cooked by the staff, the opportunity to accrue additional annual leave via a raffle and an auction with the successful bidder winning the services of a senior leadership team member to act as their slave for the day!
“This trip gave me the opportunity to see for myself the difference we are making with our fundraising efforts. Hobsons is really contributing towards effecting change in these children’s lives”.
Annually, a select group of Hobsons staff are chosen to participate in a trip to visit the projects they support and see Plan’s work in action. In 2012, Danica Pinto from Hobsons here in Australia was chosen to visit the Dominican Republic, where she saw a project that enables more children to attend primary school. On her return, Danica said: “This trip gave me the opportunity to see for myself the difference we are making with our fundraising efforts. Hobsons is really contributing towards effecting change in these children’s lives”.
» Marsh & McLennan Companies In 2012 Plan in Australia again called on our valued partner, Marsh & McLennan Companies to assist in organising the annual Because I am a Girl lunches. The lunches are a joint initiative between Plan in Australia and Marsh & McLennan Companies to raise awareness within the Australian business community about gender inequality and the barriers faced by girls in developing countries to access education. Marsh & McLennan Companies’ support of the events is not simply a one-way sponsorship, but a partnership where our two organisations work closely together to create an engaging and meaningful fundraising experience. This year we had two dedicated teams – one in Melbourne and another in Sydney – to help co-ordinate the lunches. Sandy Hutchison, Chair of the Women’s Network and HR Director for Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific, led the teams of 24 dedicated staff who volunteered their time to organise the two events with nearly 800 attendees from across Australia’s business community. The volunteers worked tirelessly to produce communications collateral, connect with businesses to obtain quality auction prizes and invite colleagues and clients to attend. As Sandy Hutchison commented: “This group of committed and dedicated women from the Marsh & McLennan Women’s Network in Australia worked together for months to organise these events. In so doing, they built new friendships, developed new skills and willingly stepped up to take on new challenges and leadership responsibilities for the first time. They all put in an enormous effort and contributed in organising two, large-scale, back-to-back events with flawless outcomes. We congratulate them for their achievements and their enthusiasm.” Thank you Marsh & McLennan Companies for your commitment to Plan’s work to empower women and girls to reach their full potential. It’s thanks to your passion, dedication and willingness to jump in when called upon that we were able to successfully stage these lunches again this year.
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case study
Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel has always been impressed with Plan’s incredible projects around the globe and we have been supporting Plan for over ten years. Last year, we took this support further when we partnered with Plan to address gender inequality around the world with a new three-year global gender equality program called SAMA (meaning ‘equal’ in Bahasa). But why gender equality? Intrepid wanted to effectively bring about change, and recognised that as a global organisation working in far-flung corners of the world, we are uniquely placed to do this. To date, SAMA has raised funds to establish community-based parenting and learning groups in up to 45 villages in Laos, developing locally made play and learning materials and providing the funding required to train pre-school teachers. In order to make SAMA a success, we chose to work with Plan because they are one of the most experienced children’s development organisations. Some of the supporting arguments included their existing ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign, their integrated approach to quality education for both boys and girls, their track record of running long-term, sustainable programs, their ability to add value and close monitoring through AusAID funding, and their willingness to provide staff engagement opportunities globally. SAMA will be supporting a series of Plan projects in other countries over the next three years, with a focus on early learning centres. We see SAMA as another defining project for Intrepid, and to date have raised $60,000. Plan has been instrumental in helping get SAMA off the ground, providing resources, learning materials, images and guidance to our fundraising team. We look forward to working alongside Plan to make a positive impact on gender equality over the next three years.
Geoff Manchester, Intrepid Travel Managing Director & Co-founder
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Community Giving Our strong community of donors – individuals and groups who help to raise significant funds for our work – continued to give their invaluable support in 2012. Whether climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania or hosting a movie night at home, they put the ‘fun’ into fundraising while connecting with like-minded people to transform the world for children. The past year saw the introduction of a popular new adventure trek to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as well as an exciting new initiative – ‘Mums for Change’ – led by mothers wanting to make a difference. Our dedicated individual donors also gave generously – their support is crucial to Plan in Australia maintaining and improving our impact for children and their families, and is greatly appreciated.
» Our women’s movement Plan in Australia is always looking for new ways to work with different community groups in raising funds and awareness of our work. Women have always been strong supporters of our programs, particularly in addressing obstacles faced by girls in realising their full potential. Many of our female supporters have a natural empathy to these issues and the challenges they themselves have had to battle in their lives as girls, and are motivated to get involved with Plan to creating lasting change. In November 2011 we launched an initiative that was led by mothers wanting to support children to reach their full potential. Many of these were new mothers who reported feeling more empathy towards all children once they became mothers themselves, and wanted a different way to engage with child sponsorship. The initiative, Mums for Change, saw over 300 mothers’ groups connect with Plan in Australia through an online community, with each group sponsoring a child. Women of Adelaide is a group of business women who first came together four years ago and have actively supported our work by hosting their own fundraising events. In 2012, their continued commitment to Plan’s work inspired a new initiative – Women for Girls. Women for Girls is a movement of passionate women across Australia who have joined forces with Plan to empower girls and help them reach their full potential. Support of this network will help fund our innovative development programs for girls while providing networking opportunities for Australian women who want to make a difference. Women for Girls follows in the footsteps of Plan’s pioneering women, such as Esme Odgers, who were among the first to champion child rights globally and who were instrumental in both Plan’s foundation and in our enduring commitment to children. It also draws together existing women’s groups into one large movement. The objectives of the Women for Girls movement are: »» to raise funds for Plan’s projects to empower girls in more than 50 developing countries; »» to raise awareness of the unique challenges facing girls around the world; Previous page: A man stands on a boat on the Mekong River in Laos, where Intrepid Travel funds community-based parenting and learning groups. Photographer: Jon Leibwitz. Courtesy of Intrepid Travel.
»» to create opportunities for women to meet and connect on issues that matter to them. The movement was established in 2012 but will see a major expansion in 2013 as new groups launch in Melbourne and Sydney. Women for Girls will support Plan projects through a regular monthly donation as well as through fundraising activities. In return, Women for Girls members will receive invitations to special events where they can network with like-minded women; an invitation to our annual celebration on International Day of the Girl; and exclusive offers on products and services from our business partners.
» Experiential travellers Plan in Australia’s partnership with Inspired Adventures continues to grow as we introduce new opportunities for our supporters to engage with our work by taking on a physically challenging activity like trekking or cycling and visiting our work in the field. In 2011 and 2012 nine people committed to trekking Mount Kilimanjaro and raised over $46,000 in support of our Kisarawe Water and Sanitation project in Tanzania, which the trekkers also visited. The success of our adventure treks has led to some new adventures planned for coming year, including one that will see supporters cycling through Cambodia in support of our Because I am a Girl campaign. Community fundraisers trekked Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise funds for Plan’s water, sanitation and hygiene projects.
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case study
Women of Plan Adelaide
About four years ago I was involved in the set up of Women of Plan Adelaide.
My friends and I were already supporting Plan – my friend Anne Skipper is Chair of the Plan Board – and we knew a lot of women who wanted to fundraise, but we were all really busy. These women all have jobs and they can afford to help financially, but they’re often time-poor. And that’s how we set up the Women of Plan Adelaide group – by coming together as a group we saved time and could be more effective. As a group we have raised over $40,000 for Plan’s Empowering Families project in Cambodia. It’s lovely that we’ve been able to connect with a specific project because it’s really great to be able to see where the money we’re raising is going and what the outcomes are. A significant moment for me was when Lani Masuku from Plan came to one of our meetings and talked about the project. She spoke about the fact that a lot of our money had been spent on counselling families who were struggling to participate in their community due to the impact of war. I think that was when a lot of the women in the group, and I know for me personally, saw the worthwhile connection. I think it’s very easy to think that we could be buying bikes, school books or something more tangible, but Lani educated us on what was really important. We saw that our money was going to something that is so desperately needed. The support we that receive from Plan in Australia is really good – we know that if there’s a question we have or if there’s something we need to know, somebody will get back to us. My advice to others wanting to start a group like this is that it’s really valuable to bring together a group of like-minded people who want to achieve the same things. Also, for the women in our group, the ethic of Plan was really good. The fact that the organisation has no religious or political affiliations is another thing that attracted us.
Judith Sellick, member of Women of Plan Adelaide
Women receive training in basket weaving as part of Plan’s Empowering Families project in northern Cambodia, which is supported by Women of Plan Adelaide.
» Community fundraisers Individuals and groups made a coordinated effort in raising funds for our work during the course of the year. Kevin Welsh from NSW, a long-standing supporter, raised over $20,000 for Plan in 2012 through the sale of plants in his business. These funds will support our projects in Africa. Twenty dads came together to say ‘no’ to unsafe drinking water and bad sanitation. They held fundraisers that included a ‘buy a bottle of wine’ event, and an invitation for their wives to a pamper session. A large donation also came through a Family Foundation through the Everyday Hero page: http://fundraise.plan. org.au/dads. Together these Dads raised over $20,000 – these funds will support Plan’s work to build 31 toilets across four districts in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Gary Trenaman, based in NSW, competed in the Iron Man Australia competition in May 2012 and raised over $3,000 for the Hunger Gap Appeal. Asked how he managed the 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run, he said, “knowing you’re supporting people who are truly struggling is all the motivation you need”. A British contingent of Plan supporters, driving 20 iconic Jaguars from the ’50s and ’60s embarked on a unique tour down Australia’s south-east coast. Ricardo Galvani and his wife Encarnita headed up the crew which raised awareness of Plan’s work as well as funds for children and their communities.
Members of the Classic Jaguar Tour meet Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart in Melbourne at the end of their driving tour down Australia’s south-east coast.
» Bequests With an increasing number of supporters choosing to continue to support Plan’s work through their will, our bequest program continues to grow as an important source of program funds. The last year saw the program perform $1.2 million above budget, and our team was reorganised to provide dedicated assistance to those supporters wishing to discuss their continued support of Plan’s work via a bequest.
case study
In Memory of Elizabeth
I first became aware of Plan from a striking display of photos at Melbourne Central shopping centre in 1998. It was a Plan fundraising stall and was where I first decided to sponsor a child – a girl named Safi, from Burkina Faso. As it happened, Safi never went to school as she was required to be the family goat-herd. This situation made me aware of the difficulties facing girls in developing countries. My wife Elizabeth worked as a pharmacist but also had a great interest in painting. During her professional career she experienced the problems common to women wishing to take up professional work, and she developed a strong interest in feminist matters. Therefore when she died in 2009 it seemed appropriate to commemorate her life in a way that could be seen to advance the cause of women in all societies. Thus my wish to donate to Plan with an emphasis on the education and wellbeing of girls. Sani Dowa and other Plan staff provided great support with this and even put me in contact with Steve Dunham, a Plan Program Manager, who gave me an insight into the Plan philosophy. Speaking with Steve gave me confidence that Plan had the right approach. Elizabeth Crone, whose passion for women’s issues inspired her husband Hugh to become a Plan supporter.
A few years ago I also had the opportunity to attend a social evening for Plan sponsors, which enabled me to get views on how others related to the children and communities they were sponsoring. The long-term process of training and educating girls who are future mothers is the best process to adopt in order to spread knowledge through the generations (susceptible as it is to natural problems, like famine in the Sahel and social unrest in Mali). My advice to others contemplating donating to Plan is to talk with the staff, learn about the organisation and understand the social and economic conditions in the countries they are interested in. Certainly sponsorship creates a wider view of the world and its inhabitants.
Dr Hugh Crone, Plan in Australia donor.
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
Support from the public » Overview The public can provide financial support to Plan in Australia in a variety of ways to suit their interests and circumstances. One-off donations can be made to support our emergency response work, to help fund one of a wide range of long-term development projects, or to empower girls and help them overcome the obstacles that prevent them from reaching their full potential. Regular donations allow Plan to implement long-term, sustainable assistance to children and their families. Many donors choose to donate regularly through Child Sponsorship; however donors can also provide ongoing financial assistance by supporting the wide range of child-focused projects across Africa and Asia that are directly managed by Plan in Australia. Alternatively, they can become a ‘Girls Champion’ to support our work to help girls with the unique problems they face, or become a ‘Children in Crisis Champion’ to help us respond immediately to disasters and emergencies. Plan in Australia reaches out to potential donors in several ways, including face-to-face fundraising, online and TV advertising, direct mail, inserts in popular magazines and through our online shop, where the public can purchase gifts for family and friends that support a variety of Plan projects.
$502,264 1.9%
$1,232,226 4.5% Funds raised through Child Sponsorship
$2,586,214 9.6%
Funds raised through Priority Project Sponsorship Funds raised for Girls Fund through one-off donations and Girls Champion contributions Funds raised through appeals (including through the Children in Crisis Fund)
$22,629,963 84.0%
» Child Sponsorship In 2012, the number of new child sponsorships that we signed up increased slightly from the previous year. However this was not enough to prevent our total number of child sponsorships dropping by approximately 2%, leading to a fall in Child Sponsorship income from $23.4 million in 2011 to $22.6 million in 2012. This was due to slightly disappointing results from the face-to-face fundraising channel. For various reasons, including the high Australian dollar reducing the availability of international casual workers, it proved difficult to get an adequate number of face-toface fundraisers on the street during the year. To combat this challenge, during the course of the year we made a concerted effort to increase our child sponsorships through alternative channels to face-to-face fundraising. Throughout the year we tested new approaches, including television and online advertising, direct mail and press. As a result we were able to lift acquisition across these non face-to-face channels by over 30% on the previous year. This included a significant increase in the volume of new sponsors via the internet, where we saw the number of new child sponsorships increase by over 35% on the previous year.
New Child Sponsorships acquired outside of face-to-face fundraising FY12 3063 New Child Sponsorships through online FY11 2345
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FY12 1844 FY11 1194
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012 49
» Priority Project Sponsorship In 2012 we continued to promote our Priority Projects Sponsorship product through face-to-face fundraising. Over the course of the year we have grown support for this product by approximately 9% and increased revenue from $460,000 to $563,000. However, this result was below forecast. This was due to a combination of the same reduced capacity in the face-to-face fundraising channel that impacted our child sponsorship numbers and the need to divert our attention to other pressing campaigns, such as the East Africa drought crisis. Feedback from our donors and fundraisers suggests that Priority Project Sponsorship is under-performing due to a lack of clarity in both its name and its purpose. In 2013 we will work to reposition Priority Project Sponsorship so that it is considerably more interesting and appealing to donors.
» Girls Fund Growth in Girls Fund revenue
Growth in Girls Champion regular donors
FY12 $502,000
FY12 3,038
FY11 $134,000
FY11 363
Our important work to help girls reach their full potential has proven to be extremely popular with the public, and our campaigns to attract new single-giving and regular donors to support this work have proven tremendously successful. These donations are directed to our Girls Fund and in 2012 this grew from $134,000 to $502,000. The popularity of the cause has enabled Plan in Australia to grow the number of Girls Champions (regular supporters of Girls Fund) from 363 at the end of 2011 to over 3,000 by the end of 2012. New Girls Champions are made up of a mix of existing child sponsors increasing their monthly commitment to Plan, and completely new donors. These supporters are also coming from a variety of different channels including face-toface, online advertising, direct mail, and telemarketing.
» Children in Crisis In 2012, Plan in Australia raised over $1.2 million from the public to support our response to emergencies. The majority of this money was raised in response to the East Africa Drought Appeal that ran from August to November 2011 and raised over $1 million. These funds came from a mixture of existing and new donors, across a variety of channels but including direct mail, television advertising, and press inserts. A significant boost to raising funds for the East Africa Drought Appeal came in the form of the AusAID ‘dollar for dollar’ match initiative in October 2011, which extended the life of the campaign and enabled us to raise an additional $260,000 towards the appeal.
Growth in Children in Crisis regular donors FY12 1,545 FY11 266
One of our biggest fundraising challenges for major emergencies is attracting media attention. Without this exposure, the plight of children facing life-threatening disasters can go unheard, making fundraising for these appeals extremely difficult. The AusAID initiative was particularly effective in keeping the East Africa drought prominent in the media, thereby contributing significantly to the success of the appeal. To ensure that Plan in Australia has funding on hand to respond immediately to an emerging disaster, we have actively increased the number of regular donors who support our emergency response work through our Children in Crisis Fund. These regular donors – Children in Crisis Champions – give around $15 each month. In 2012 we succeeded in raising their numbers from 266 to 1,545 – resulting in a significant boost for our important work in this area.
» Direct Approach In April 2011, Plan in Australia commenced testing an in-house face-to-face fundraising team based at our office in Melbourne. The purpose of this team was to augment our external providers and provide a greater level of control, in a channel that is increasingly sensitive to competition for capacity from other agencies within the charity sector. Having an in-house team also enables us to test new initiatives, products and technologies prior to rolling them out to external suppliers. Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart spends time with the face-to-face fundraising team speaking with supporters.
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Over the course of 2012, the in-house team signed up over 1,000 new regular giving donors and introduced the testing of touch-screen technology at the point of sign-up. In March 2012, a review of this initiative was completed and with a number of key
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performance indicators met, it was agreed to continue with the development of the in-house team. Over the course of 2013 we will be looking to increase the number of advocates in the Melbourne team and begin planning the expansion of this team into other states.
» Supporter Experience During the year we embarked on an ambitious project to better understand the experience of our supporters, and through this, find ways to improve our operations so that our supporters get the most out of their relationship with Plan in Australia. We acknowledge the diversity of our supporters and their different motivations in supporting our organisation. During the year our research identified several different groupings of supporters with clearly different needs. We are now in the process of testing new experiences, communications and contact methods to make sure that we deliver an experience that is tailored to the needs of each of our respected supporters. Some key initiatives that were launched in the second half of 2012 include a new welcome communication via email, an improved welcome call experience and the opportunity for donors to send a birthday card to their sponsored child.
» Scan
to find out more
We expect that this supporter experience project will lead to supporters staying longer with Plan, contributing more to our work and also being personally enriched by their involvement. Plan supporters can find out more about our work and customise their supporter experience through MyPlan: plan.org.au/myplan.
Institutional funding support In 2012 we continued to grow our grant portfolio to enhance programs for children and their communities. We implemented a number of important grants, the majority through a strong partnership with the Australian Government Agency for International Development (AusAID).
» Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme In 2011 Plan in Australia was one of ten Australian NGOs awarded a five-year Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme to implement child rights programs in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya. In Uganda the focus is on legal rights and services, in Kenya the rights to health and health services, and in Zimbabwe the rights to freedom from violence and services relating to gender-based violence. As this is the first year of the five-year program, outcomes are formative and based on foundational activity. In 2012 the program enabled 8,500 community members (4,996 females and 6,504 males) to undertake Participatory Learning and Action training, which highlighted that women and men and young people have diverse perspectives on gender roles and responsibilities, and the rights of women and girls. This information provides a strong foundation for the program to promote changes in perspectives and behaviours within the communities.
» Australian-NGO Cooperation Program In 2012 Plan in Australia was again one of the few Australian NGOs to be awarded Partnership status in AusAID’s Australian-NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). This grant supports the entire Plan in Australia Program Strategy across six key areas: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Early Childhood Care and Development, Education, Livelihoods and Food Security, Rights and Community Resilience, and Disaster Risk Management. This is in parallel with activities related to policy engagement, innovation and learning, social inclusion and engagement of the Australian community. ANCP partnership funds have allowed Plan in Australia to make a significant contribution to poverty alleviation objectives, through increasing the scale and reach of our programs (see pages 20–29). It has also enabled us to broaden our policy engagement with AusAID and other agencies on a more sophisticated and constructive basis across a range of levels and areas.
» Humanitarian Partnership Agreement Towards the end of 2011 Plan in Australia was one of six agencies to be awarded a Humanitarian Partnership Agreement (HPA), which positions the organisation as a recipient of AusAID humanitarian funding for emergency responses and disaster risk reduction. The grant represents a significant step forward for Plan in Australia, enabling us to respond to emergencies such as the devastating floods in the south of Pakistan, widespread drought in the Horn of Africa and the food security crisis in West Africa. Through these dedicated response funds, Plan in Australia has already been able to reach over
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188,000 people with malaria preventing bed-nets and 55,958 people with household kits in Pakistan, as well as 10,158 pregnant and lactating women and children aged under five in Ethiopia with Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programs. In Niger, it is estimated that we will reach over 60,000 beneficiaries with our HPA-supported integrated food, nutrition and recovery program over the next six months. HPA funding has also allowed us to expand into our longer-term Climate Smart Disaster Risk Management programs in the Asia as well as commence the same program in a new region for Plan – the Pacific. Additionally the HPA funds have enabled us to support emergency response training programs for our staff and partners globally in areas such as logistics.
» UN World Food Programme In 2012 Plan in Australia negotiated to continue significant program agreements with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe. An additional agreement was awarded from the WFP to implement school-feeding in Cambodia across the majority of Siem Reap province.
Women with their relief aid rations distributed in Jonglei, South Sudan.
In newly independent South Sudan, our food aid program (supported by the WFP and implemented by Plan in Australia) is reaching more than 69,000 people per month with general food distribution in the conflict-affected Jonglei district. Under these agreements we are providing much needed emergency food assistance to targeted beneficiaries according to rigorous global humanitarian standards.
» Civil Society Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Program In 2012 we finalised the implementation of our AusAID-funded Civil Society Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Program, across seven projects in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Through this grant, Plan in Australia continued to strengthen and implement a coordinated WASH approach. By the end of this AusAID contract, this approach has achieved many successes. In Ethiopia, 214 villages with a combined population of 55,400 ceased the practice of open defecation. In Uganda, 21,982 people, including students in 20 schools, now have access to adequate supplies of safe water. In Bangladesh, through an approach called Community-Led Total Sanitation, 205,200 additional people now have access to basic sanitation.
» Zimbabwe Food and Water Initiative The year also saw the completion of Plan in Australia’s Food Security Project in Zimbabwe, which targeted 99,500 households to assist in their transition from food aid to producing their own food. The project has been implemented with AusAID funding from the Zimbabwe Food and Water Initiative since July 2010. The project was successful in promoting extension services and farming organisations. A total of 1,500 farmer groups – each consisting of five to seven farmers – were formed through the project, and 8,771 food-insecure households were able to obtain quality small grain seeds and other inputs. Village poultry stocks were increased, and food gardens established. Many of the households are female-headed with a ratio of dependents including children and other family members affected by HIV, chronic illness and disability.
» New Zealand AID In addition to our AusAID-funded programs, in 2012 Plan in Australia continued with the design of our New Zealand Aid-supported project in Vietnam. The project will support child development, focusing on parents to drive positive change in their children’s lives. To date, a strong program design has been developed, utilising holistic and comprehensive approaches, and drawing upon best practice.
» Pakistan Plan – UNICEF Partnership In 2012 UNICEF continued funding for the third phase of Plan Pakistan’s post-flood WASH project, with Plan in Australia providing technical advice and guidance. This project, which commenced in 2010 in response to major flooding across many parts of Pakistan, is helping families build and use safe, hygienic latrines and other sanitation facilities and is working to improve hygiene behaviour across 32 Districts in six provinces. The project also works in village schools to train teachers in hygiene promotion and supports them to conduct awareness raising sessions for students. To date, over 2,800 community volunteers have been trained and have conducted hygiene sessions for over 5.5 million people in more than 5,000 villages. Sanitation promotion has taken place in 5,800 villages and in response almost 175,000 new latrines have been constructed by households using their own materials and money – a strong indicator both that promotional work has been effective and, critically, that households have the ability and desire to use and maintain their new latrines into the future. Almost three million people now live in villages that have been confirmed by government sanitation departments to be ‘Open Defecation Free’, reducing significantly the risks from diseases related to poor sanitation.
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case study
child sponsorship
In 1980 my husband and I travelled overseas for the first time, to India and Nepal. We have six children who had all the best opportunities in life and after our trip we decided it was important to teach them about people in the world who were less fortunate. And so we decided to sponsor a child. I chose Plan as opposed to another agency because it had no religious affiliations. I believe everybody should be entitled to their own beliefs and not be influenced by other religions from foreign countries. Our first sponsored child was a boy named Laxmi from Nepal who is the same age as my youngest son. Myself and our children visited Laxmi and his family a few times until he was eighteen and found employment. We were always made to feel very welcome and it was encouraging to see that the money we had given had helped this family so much. By the time he was 18 years old, Laxmi could write a letter to us himself because he had received a proper education. Since our trips to visit Laxmi, we have continued sponsoring and have visited other families in India and Nepal. Currently we sponsor three children, all from Nepal: Akkal, Anju and Arun. I have always found that Plan has achieved great things with our sponsorship and the people who are employed by Plan are well regarded by the local people. Sponsoring a child through Plan has been very worthwhile. I have seen firsthand my sponsorship money being used very responsibly and without waste. The Plan staff have always been friendly and helpful and I have had wonderful experiences travelling to visit my sponsored children. We don’t realise how lucky we are to live in Australia and I am sure if other people sponsor a child through Plan they will be very well rewarded.
Jan Thomas, Child Sponsor
Jan Thomas and her granddaughters visit Nepal to meet two of Jan’s sponsor children, Maina and Akkal.
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55
Governance » Role and function of the Board Our Board of Directors is responsible for guiding the strategic direction of the organisation, and is accountable for our actions and the impact of our activities. In addition to appointing and managing the Chief Executive Officer, the Board’s main areas of governance are:
Mission »» Define and review the organisation’s mission and key strategic objectives and review programs, purposes, priorities and vision for the future.
Finance Previous page: Plan in Australia staff celebrate Plan’s 75th birthday. This page: Board members visiting Plan projects in Zimbabwe. Board members from left to right, back to front: Gerald Hueston, Philippa Quinn, Anne Skipper, Neil Thompson, Anne Trimmer, Julie Hamblin, Claire Hatton, Michael Corry, Julie Hood, Brian Babington.
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»» Approve and monitor an annual budget, appoint independent auditors and control the investment of funds.
Program oversight and support »» Oversee and evaluate programs, ensure Plan is aware and informed of changes in the external environment and be an advocate for the organisation in the community.
Compliance »» Ensure that Plan in Australia conforms to the general principles and practices laid down by Plan International for donor countries. »» Participate in the formulation of international policies of Plan.
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»» Ensure that the organisation conforms with its Constitution and the requirements of the Corporations Law and other relevant legislation and codes (e.g. ACFID Code of Conduct). »» Establish and appoint Chairs and members of Sub-Committees as appropriate to assist the Board in its deliberations. »» Establish taskforces that have a specific focus and are time limited, as required. »» Ensure that audited financial reports are submitted annually and conform to the Corporations Law and appropriate standards. »» Ensure the people and performance of Plan Board, Directors and staff meet the needs of the strategic direction of the organisation.
Fundraising »» Contribute personally and annually, actively participate in fundraising and assist with networking.
» Structure & operations Board structure The Board of Directors is comprised of between five and twelve Board members. At the end of 2012 there were nine members of the Board. It is a requirement that the composition of the Board reflects the experience and expertise needed by the organisation to meet its vision and objectives as stated in the Constitution. The composition of the Board should reflect a diversity of age, gender and experience, and a range of professional skills and experience in management, governance, legal, child advocacy, overseas aid and development work, finance, risk management, IT, marketing and fundraising.
Our Members K Anne Skipper AM (Chair) Elected: July 2003 (elected Chair 2006)
Claire E Hatton Elected: July 2008
Philip L Endersbee (Deputy Chair) Elected: November 2003, Concluded: May 2012
Jeremy DM Ingall Elected: July 2005, Concluded: June 2012
Brian Babington Elected: March 2010
Thomas JS Kane Elected: April 2004, Concluded: May 2012
Tim DA Beresford Elected: July 2003, Concluded: May 2012
Philippa Quinn Elected: November 2010
Michael R Corry Elected: March 2012
Neil R Thompson Elected: January 2007
Russell Gordon Elected: February 2002, Concluded: November 2011
New members of the Board elected July 2012: Gerald Hueston Julie Hood Anne Trimmer
Julie Hamblin Elected: November 2010
» Scan
to find out more
To find out more about each of our Board Directors including their committee membership and international roles and responsibilities, see: plan.org.au/ourpeople.
Recruitment & elections The Board conducts an annual skills and expertise audit of the board membership to ensure there is continuing best practice governance of the organisation and a succession plan in place. In 2012 the Board underwent a major period of renewal as Board members Russell Gordon, Tim Beresford, Jeremy Ingall, Philip Endersbee and Thomas Kane completed their terms or retired from the Board. New board directors were recruited through an extensive search process that was assisted with pro bono support from Egon Zhender. Candidates were interviewed against the core skills required from the gap analysis and then recommended for appointment. New Directors to the Board include Gerald Hueston, Anne Trimmer and Julie Hood. The members will be invited to confirm their appointment at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November 2012.
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The Board elects its Chair and Members for three-year terms at its Annual General Meeting in November. Our Chair, Anne Skipper was elected to the Board in July 2003 and elected Chair in November 2006. Board Members are limited to serving a maximum of three consecutive terms. As Anne Skipper’s term on the Board will be completed in November 2012, the recruitment process this year included consideration of a new Chair. In keeping with good governance, sufficient time was included to ensure a suitable handover period. Gerald Hueston has been appointed Chair-elect and will be confirmed as Chair following the next AGM. The re-election of current Board members for subsequent terms is considered in light of their performance, skills and experience, the overall skills matrix of the Board and the requirement to balance the Board with a combination of experience and expertise.
Meetings The Board and sub-committees meet at least five times per year. The Annual General Meeting is held in November each year.
Performance The Board conducts a Board and Director performance review on an annual basis. Every three years the review is conducted by an external governance consultant and the next of these is due in 2013. The Board measures its performance against the key performance indicators that are set following each annual review. Recommendations following all reviews – both internal and external – are referred to the Corporate Governance Committee for action.
Remuneration Directors serve on a voluntary basis and are not remunerated. They may be reimbursed for reasonable costs and expenses incurred in connection with Board activities.
Induction New Board members go through a training and induction process that involves one-on-one introductory sessions with the Board Chair, the CEO and each member of the Executive Team.
Board Members Handbook The Board Members Handbook is distributed to all Board members and contains guidelines and policies regarding terms of membership, declaration of conflicts of interest and general responsibilities of all members of the Board.
Our organisational environment Plan in Australia aims to provide a positive working environment where staff are supported, motivated and engaged. We have a strategic objective of becoming an employer of choice for both existing and potential staff – and our working environment is central to achieving this. Recognising the importance of work–life balance, workplace flexibility is an important part of our value proposition to staff. We offer flexible start and finish times and opportunities to work from home or work part time. Staff who travel internationally or work overtime are offered time off in lieu. Our physical working environment is also important. Our office is centrally located in Melbourne, with natural light and panoramic views. Our workspace is mostly open plan with ergonomic fittings. In 2012 we undertook three important initiatives to measure and improve our working environment: 1. Work commenced on identifying the values that guide Plan in Australia's organisational behaviour. These values will be a cornerstone for future work on leadership development, recruitment and selection and the establishment of behaviour-based goals. 2. An employee engagement survey was conducted to gauge staff satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. 3. We assessed our current performance on gender equality, to identify strengths, challenges and priority areas for attention and provide valid baseline data for measuring our performance going forward. These initiatives and other aspects of our working environment are described in more detail on the following pages.
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» Identifying our values The process of identifying Plan in Australia’s values was initiated by our Board in 2011 and forms part of our five-year People & Culture Strategy, which began this year. The establishment of these values is the first step to providing a firmer cultural framework for our organisation. Values are also important as part of our employment brand, providing potential employees with the opportunity to assess whether their personal values align with those of Plan. In work completed this year, a focus group was conducted within the Board and Senior Management Team, the outcome of which was their collective view on Plan’s values. This will be integrated with staff views gathered through the workshops and the Engagement Survey process. The completed set of identified values of Plan in Australia will be finalised throughout 2013. In future work, general and leadership behaviours that are consistent with our values will be identified. These values and behaviours can then be used as a foundation for a range of HR processes, including recruitment and selection, performance review and identification of learning and development initiatives.
» Staff engagement & satisfaction Regular staff surveys can provide a snapshot of organisational climate and inform decision-making that influences future workplace environment. In May this year we conducted an employee engagement survey, facilitated by an external consultant to give staff confidence to be open and honest in their responses. An ‘engagement survey’ was a departure from the previous approach, which had focused more on employee satisfaction. An engagement survey addresses factors including perceptions of leadership, communication and collaboration, and of how valued employees feel. These factors influence whether or not an employee is likely to stay with Plan, the degree of discretionary effort they are prepared to commit, and the loyalty to Plan they are likely to demonstrate. Additionally, the survey sought feedback from staff about the extent to which Plan in Australia is meeting its ‘employee value proposition’, which was introduced in June 2011. An 80% response rate was achieved for the survey. The results indicate that our strengths include: »» our good reputation in the sector; »» our staff say great things to others about working at Plan; »» staff feel that someone cares about them as a person; »» people are treated with respect at Plan; »» staff are motivated by the work and the cause. Additionally, 82% of staff agreed that Plan was delivering upon its employee value proposition. The survey also highlighted some areas for us to strengthen, including: team work, trust and collaboration; our people management practices; our culture and values; retention and succession planning; change management; and reward and recognition. In response to these results, a series of staff workshops targeting teamwork, trust and collaboration commenced in July 2012 and will continue throughout 2013. Work on leadership development will also take place later in the year. In future our staff engagement survey will take place on an annual basis to track progress.
» Gender equality Achieving gender equality is a core objective of Plan’s work as an organisation dedicated to child rights. As previously described on page 18, leading up to 2012 our Board endorsed the new Plan International policy Gender Equality: Building an Equal World for all Children. A key objective of the policy is to foster an organisational culture that exemplifies our commitment to gender equality in all areas of our work and operations, including in Plan offices and as an employer. In 2012 we undertook a Gender Equality Self Assessment to assess our current performance on gender equality, identify strengths, challenges and priority areas for attention and provide valid baseline data for measuring our performance going forward. We carried out a staff survey to gain staff perspectives on gender equality in our work and organisation. Analysis of the survey results was undertaken by an external consultant working with our newly appointed Gender Advisor and an eight member internal working group, comprising management and staff and including representation from across all departments.
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Overall, the staff responses highlighted many strengths within Plan in Australia that can be built upon as we implement the Gender Equality policy across all of the organisation’s activities. However, the honesty in staff responses also poses some challenges. There were differences in the perceptions of male and female staff for most (not all) topics and questions. The overall trend was for male staff to have more favourable views than female staff about Plan in Australia’s performance on gender equality within the organisation. Sex differences were most marked for questions on organisational culture, equal opportunity, and respect for diversity. The data from the survey provides important and valid baseline data for assessing changes in staff perceptions over time. An all staff two-day workshop will be held at the end of July to discuss the survey results and to focus on next steps to build on the strengths and address the challenges.
» Policies Several organisational policies were introduced or revised in 2012. As part of our commitment to providing employee-friendly workplace conditions, we were successful in applying for accreditation as a ‘breastfeeding friendly workplace’. Supporting this is a new policy, approved by the Board in November 2011, which confirms the right of staff to take lactation breaks as needed. A room on-site at our office has been established for this purpose. Staff members may also request flexible work arrangements to support their carer responsibilities. During the year we also refreshed and re-issued our Equal Opportunity policy. While there were no substantive changes to the policy, we consider it important to regularly remind staff of their rights and responsibilities in this area. The Staff Development & Education policy was also revised. This policy articulates Plan’s commitment to giving staff the opportunity to continue to learn and grow through education. Under this policy, staff have the opportunity to seek financial support from Plan in Australia to complete an accredited (post secondary) course. New guidelines were also introduced that address the process to be followed when engaging a contractor. This is to ensure there is a clear, consistent process, and that Plan’s child protection responsibilities are met. Plan in Australia has a formal grievance management policy, which staff are introduced to at the time of their recruitment. Any internal complaints are dealt with via our formal grievance and dispute resolution procedure. Our grievance policy was reviewed in 2012 as part of a rolling review of policies, however no substantive changes were made.
» Enterprise The Plan in Australia Enterprise project is the largest single systems project undertaken by the organisation in its history. Driven by organisational growth and the need to improve ageing systems and processes, Enterprise will bring significant change across all departments and teams. Well into its second and final year, Enterprise will replace and update key internal systems including constituent and donor management, ecommerce, gift revenues, event management, reporting and connecting with Plan’s supporters. It will integrate with key financial systems, providing additional transparency and a greater understanding of how Plan in Australia performs in financial and qualitative success areas. To this end, Plan in Australia’s Enterprise project team has made extensive efforts to engage with all staff impacted by the project including in the selection, design and development of the new solution. The management of this extensive project has involved: »» the formation of a formal ‘Project Control Board’, led by the Plan in Australia CEO & Executive Team to ensure appropriate governance, stewardship and alignment to our business strategy; »» regular presentations at our monthly staff meetings; »» involvement of a wide cross-section of staff in the system design and review workshops and during user acceptance testing; »» an organisational change management plan. The Business and Information Systems team, leading this project, is committed to providing systems and infrastructure that underpin the organisation with strong, innovative technology that positions us at the forefront of the sector. The Enterprise project is one of the foundations for this commitment and will also underpin Plan in Australia’s broader digital strategy (see page 36).
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OH&S Plan in Australia remains committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for staff, volunteers and contractors. Our office complies with occupational health and safety regulations, and in 2012 no work cover claims were submitted by staff. We recognise that there is a greater potential risk to staff who travel to developing countries, and we take all possible steps to ensure their safety and security. Through our travel insurer, Accidental & Health Insurance, all travelling staff have access to Dynamic Assist – a global service that provides local expertise and emergency assistance during critical illness, accident, or civil unrest. Additionally, Plan in Australia offers professional debriefing to staff who have travelled to developing countries in the course of their work.
Plan in Australia staff at the office in Melbourne.
Our Management Leading up to 2012, some changes in the formation of Plan in Australia’s management teams were introduced to meet the needs of our growing organisation. Importantly, a new role of Executive Manager was introduced to manage the business of the executive office, enabling the CEO to focus more on outward facing engagements and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders. The Senior Management Team also increased its meeting frequency to keep abreast of emerging issues and maintain strong leadership at the Director level.
» Executive Team Plan in Australia’s Executive Team is responsible for providing effective senior leadership to the organisation, by developing the strategy and ensuring its successful implementation. The team is made up of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Directors of the three functional areas of Plan in Australia: International Programs; Marketing & Communications; and Corporate Services. The Executive Team meets on an as-needed basis to consider serious matters or issues of particular sensitivity or confidentiality. The Executive Team including the Executive Manager attend two off-site meetings a year to review the corporate strategy and develop high-level plans for the organisation.
» Senior Management Team The Senior Management Team (SMT), led by the CEO is made up of the Executive Team plus the Manager of People and Culture and the Executive Manager. The SMT meets weekly to review strategy and operations
Ian Wishart CEO Ian has extensive experience in international development, from responding to emergencies as well as long-term development work. He has completed assignments all over the world including Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Rwanda, Mozambique, Laos, Cambodia and Somalia. Ian holds an MBA from Mount Eliza Business School.
Ben Holgate
Director, Marketing & Communications Ben joined Plan in 2011 from IDP Education Ltd. A graduate of London University, Ben worked in advertising in the UK and the Middle East before moving to Australia where he has held senior marketing positions for organisations including The Coca-Cola Company, Transport Accident Commission and AWB Landmark.
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of the organisation, to monitor major projects and campaigns and to manage compliance and risk including items such as Occupational Health and Safety, Policy and Procedures, Accreditation and Complaints and Compliments. The SMT reports against the strategy to the Board every two months and provides financial reports to the Board every month. The performance of the SMT is monitored and assessed by the CEO in a formal appraisal each year.
» Leadership Team The Leadership Team is made up of team managers from each department in the organisation. The team is responsible for the development of operational plans and the management of staff to achieve the strategic goals. Leadership team members are also responsible for ensuring the implementation of all relevant Plan in Australia policies, including ensuring that police checks and working with children checks are undertaken in their areas in compliance with our child protection policy. Members are responsible for bringing the views of their staff regarding performance, morale and wellbeing to the attention of the Directors, and for reporting back to their staff on the outcomes of Leadership Team meetings, which are held quarterly and at other times as needed. In 2012 as Plan in Australia increased in size, line management responsibilities were expanded to some staff outside of the formal Leadership Team structure, giving senior staff opportunities to develop management skills and support the existing management teams.
Dave Husy
Director, Child Centred Community Development Dave joined Plan in 2008 bringing nine years’ experience as a program strategy and review consultant with international development agencies in South and East Africa. Prior to that, Dave worked for ten years as a senior NGO manager in southern Africa.
Gerard Dell’Oste
Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary Prior to joining Plan in 2001, Gerard held senior finance roles in the corporate and nongovernment sector including the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), BHP Co Ltd and the ANZ Banking Group. Gerard has a Bachelor of Business Degree in Accounting and is a Fellow of CPA Australia.
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Our Staff » Profile At the end of 2012 there were 68 employees working at Plan in Australia (a 10% increase from last year), all located at our Australian office in Melbourne. We also engaged up to 15 contractors at any given time to help us manage peak periods. To support our growth strategy, our staff base has been expanded significantly since 2010. Following on from the growth of the International Programs department last year, 2012 saw the creation of an in-house Direct Approach team in the Marketing and Communications department, and two new positions created in Corporate Services to enable us to meet the expanded organisation’s needs.
» Staff number by gender and year Full time 36
20
Year
33
30
28
Part time
2012 2011
19
2010 11 1
Male
Female
1
11
10
0
Male
» Staff by Age
Female
2 3%
8 12%
Age bracket 18–24 25–34
10 14%
35–44 45–54 55–64 65+ (0%)
23 34%
25 37%
» Staff number by department
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Executive
Programs
Marketing & Communications
Corporate Services
Total
2012
3
25
28
12
68
2011
2
24
26
10
62
2010
2
16
21
8
47
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» Remuneration & benefits In 2012 we continued to use the Mercer job grading system, to ensure internal equity, and parity with relevant (not-for-profit) external job market. We also participated in Mercer’s annual salary survey. All new and revised positions are sized to ensure equity with other positions internally and in the broader employment market. Consistent with our not-for-profit status and our commitment to the children and communities with whom we work, our remuneration bands are capped at the 25th percentile for comparable positions in the general market. Plan in Australia staff are currently eligible to package their salary under the FBT legislation for notfor-profits (up to $16,050 for expense payments and up to $10,400 for meals and entertainment) to maximise their tax effectiveness. Staff (excluding Directors) receive annual leave loading at 17.5%. The annual salaries of the Executive Team as at 30 June 2012 were as follows: Remuneration (including superannuation)
No. of Executives in group
>200,000
1
$180,000 – 199,999
1
$160,000 – 179,999
2
» Recruitment & Selection At Plan in Australia we take great care to ensure that the people who join our team are the right fit and are given the greatest chance of success. We follow a rigorous recruitment process that maximises the potential to hire individuals who are the right fit to the organisation, while balancing the need to be a diverse and inclusive workplace. We advertise all vacancies on our website, on the ACFID website and on employment websites. Applicants are assessed against the key competencies of the role, the skill gaps in the team and their interest in the not-for-profit sector. We then conduct a selection process that generally involves two rounds of interviews and aptitude and psychometric testing. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our activities. As part of the selection process candidates are required to undergo police checks and working with children checks. Plan in Australia is an equal opportunity employer.
» Retention Staff turnover is defined as voluntary permanent staff terminations as a percentage of permanent staff. Our staff turnover for 2012 was 13.2%. This result is up slightly from 9.6% in the previous reporting period, but still within acceptable levels. In 2013 we will commence work on talent identification and succession planning to improve our retention rate in the long term and our ability to retain high potential staff.
» Learning & Development Plan in Australia fosters a learning environment where every employee receives opportunities to develop professionally and personally. We encourage participation in a wide variety of relevant and effective learning and development opportunities including: »» short courses, run externally or internally, »» longer accredited courses (i.e. those leading to formal qualifications), and »» other forms of personal development, such as supervisory coaching, secondment to another role/ department/country, and acting in higher level roles when the incumbent is absent on leave. Each department budgets for expenditure on staff learning and development, and plans are agreed between staff and line managers. Staff enrolled in accredited courses may apply for a financial contribution from Plan, in line with our new Staff Development & Education policy (see page 60). For the past six years, Plan in Australia has successfully supported one participant in the prestigious Asialink Leaders program. Asialink is an exciting leadership program designed to build stronger relations and understanding between the Australian and Asian business and community. Run by the University of Melbourne, it builds participants’ leadership skills through access to key business and community leaders and provides an opportunity to make a tangible contribution through a workplace project. This year our Brand & Communications Manager is participating in the program.
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012 65
Other learning and development opportunities during the year included lunchtime presentations by local staff, visiting international Plan staff and industry experts. 2012 saw a number of staff promotions including the International Program Manager and Senior Accountant.
» Performance Management A formal performance management system is used to manage and measure performance, from the CEO through to all levels of the organisation. We use an annual performance cycle that starts with goal setting, followed by a mid-year review and concluding with a formal end-of-year review. To ensure we are all focussing our energy on achieving common goals, the CEO’s goals are first set by the Board, with guidance from the strategy and the external environment. The CEO then works with other members of the Executive Team to set their goals, and so the goal setting process cascades through the organisation. This approach helps to ensure there is strong alignment with our organisational strategy. Although a formal performance management process is in place, our approach to performance management is very much on regular conversations between line managers and employees and ‘in the moment feedback’.
» Communication Internal communication is a shared responsibility at all levels of the organisation and happens both informally and through organised channels. The Senior Management Team meets weekly to discuss significant strategic and operational issues. A summary of the outcomes from each meeting is emailed to the Leadership Team to share with their staff. On a monthly basis, Leadership Team members submit reports to the Senior Management Team which helps to track progress towards achieving our strategic goals. Due to the high volume of travel that takes place in the International Programs department, quarterly ‘at home’ weeks are held, during which programs staff are required to be in the office rather than travelling. During these times programs staff come together for knowledge sharing, learning and development, reflection and socialising. Once a month, a ‘town hall’ meeting known as ‘Chhal Phal’ (meaning ‘a discussion’ in Nepalese) is held for all staff. Leadership Team staff facilitate the meeting and staff contribute to the agenda by putting forward subjects they would like to present or discuss. The objective is to learn from each other’s experiences by sharing news, knowledge, opinions and stories. Plan in Australia staff at the office in Melbourne.
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Planit News – a monthly email update from the CEO – summarises the key achievements and issues for the month and is shared with all staff and Plan in Australia members.
case study
The 2012 Intern Program
Plan in Australia operates a six-month intern program that allows university graduates to experience firsthand what it’s like to work in international development, and helps build their capacity to contribute to the sector at a professional level. This year we undertook a targeted recruitment via our website and selected university networks across Australia, attracting over 100 applications. Six interns joined the following teams in August 2011: »» Youth Participation »» Education/Early Childhood Care & Development »» Brand & Communications »» Program Quality »» Policy & Learning »» Rights, Community Resilience & Livelihoods Expanding on our previous pilot intern program, this year we built in a performance review process, learning and development plans and a group project to challenge the interns with an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities as a team. Supervisors set their intern specific goals and tasks relating to project management, research and participation in conferences, meetings and events. The program also included an orientation to Plan’s people and teams, common sessions and workshops and participation in our internally run ‘Understanding Development’ course. At the end of the program we took time out to celebrate and recognise the contribution of our interns, who expressed they really had gained valuable experience and knowledge across the organisation. In a competitive sector it has been rewarding to find that most of our interns have progressed onto field work and office-based opportunities. We are excited to move towards our next intake with four new internships planned for 2013.
“The internship program at Plan was a brilliant and unique experience where I was given the opportunity to learn, develop my skills, work within an amazing team and genuinely contribute to the organisation as a whole.”
Charlotte and Christie completed internships with Plan in Australia in 2012.
Charlotte Gourley, Intern 2012
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Our Volunteers » Profile In 2012 there were 31 regular office volunteers working as part of our Supporter Service team – an increase of 158% from 2011. This year the volunteer group has become more diverse than previous years, with volunteers ranging from high school and university students through to retirees. All members of the volunteer team bring a wide variety of skills and experience that they enthusiastically contribute to the work. Each volunteer typically assisted one or two days per week and as a team they represented 5.2 fulltime team members. Based on an average administrative role salary, the estimated financial value of this assistance is $178,274.
» volunteers by Age
» volunteers by gender 7 23%
Age bracket 6 19%
15–17
Female 23
18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64
2 7% 1 3%
5 16%
Male 8
65+ 6 19% 4 13%
» Roles In 2012, volunteers in our Australian National Office assisted with a diverse range of tasks including: »» managing thousands of incoming and outgoing mail items each week »» office administration (filing, data entry, etc.)
»
accounts receivable
»» data integrity maintenance
»
reviewing and proofing sponsor letters
» Recruitment Office volunteers are recruited by our Supporter Service team. Opportunities to volunteer are advertised through the Plan in Australia website, e-zines, social networking sites and the Victorian Government’s volunteering portal. Applicants are interviewed and selected according to their suitability and level of interest. Successful applicants are required to undertake a police check.
» Training All office volunteers receive on-the-job training to become familiar with tasks and processes. The number of training hours depends on the level and type of tasks the volunteer will be undertaking. Volunteers also attend Child Protection training when sessions are held in-house for Plan staff.
» Recognition & Satisfaction Volunteer recognition and satisfaction has become crucial to maintaining an engaged and loyal volunteer base. It is important to Plan that our volunteers feel that they are valuable members of the team and that we recognise their contributions to our organisation. In 2012 volunteer satisfaction was monitored by all members of the Supporter Service team through informal conversation. Their invaluable contributions were recognised through morning tea celebrations held during National Volunteer Week, attendance at staff events such as Chhal Phal, the annual Christmas party and volunteer fairs and inclusion in team activities.
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PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
» National Standards for Involving Volunteers The National Standards for Involving Volunteers in Not for Profit Organisations (developed by Volunteering Australia) require that all volunteers are aware of organisational policies and procedures, the responsibilities of management, that there is a fair and clearly defined recruitment and training process and that they are placed in an environment that is safe and free of discrimination. Plan in Australia ensures that we meet these standards by: »» requiring all volunteers to sign on to our Code of Conduct; »» having a clearly outlined dispute and resolution process in place; »» ensuring volunteers have a work environment that adheres to OH&S requirements; »» having a clearly defined recruitment procedure for volunteers. With the significant contributions made by our volunteers, we have decided to expand our volunteer program over the coming year. The new program is an exciting development that will see our team boosted by skilled and non-skilled volunteers from the corporate and educational sectors, as well as members of the general public.
case study
Volunteering at Plan
I have been volunteering at Plan’s Australian Head Office for just over six months. I was born in Honduras, one of Plan’s program countries but moved to Australia when I was a baby. Growing up here meant that I received a great education, had access to healthcare and, above all else, had time to be a child. Many Honduran children aren’t able to have those things and so that’s why I am passionate about volunteering at an organisation that is focussed on children’s rights. I researched various Melbourne-based NGOs but was inspired to volunteer at Plan after reading through their publications and website. The tone was always positive and the images were of smiling faces and inspiring projects. It was refreshing to see and I wanted to be a part of that. I volunteer one day a week with the Supporter Service and Communications teams. I do things like data entry, financial processing, preparing sponsorship packs, filing documents, and I am also helping to write the next volunteer newsletter. The experience so far has been fantastic! I am learning new skills, meeting likeminded people and I now have a greater understanding of how an international development organisation works. My advice to people interested in volunteering at Plan would be to review the Plan website. Take a look at how many great projects there are and the sponsorship opportunities. Understanding Plan makes my volunteering experience so fulfilling because I can see the role I play in such a generous organisation.
Christina Taylor, Office Volunteer at Plan in Australia
Christina volunteers at Plan’s Melbourne office with the Supporter Service and Communications teams.
our finances
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71
The Year in Review The strong momentum from the previous year continued in 2012 with increased income across all of the organisation’s key income streams, resulting in an 18% increase in revenue from 2011. Public income was lifted by an encouraging response to our East Africa Drought Appeal, which raised more than $1 million. Grant income expanded our overseas contributions through the World Food Programme into the newly established country of South Sudan. Investment income produced higher returns through a recovery in cash-based investment products. The increase in total expenditure reflects an investment in building our capacity in additional regular giving products, which provided excellent returns in 2012 and are expected to deliver greater income as scale increases. The year also saw the most significant capital investment from the organisation in a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which will grow brand equity and create a superior platform for stakeholder experiences. Overall we have done well to obtain double digit growth in a tough environment and we’ve made some key investments in our capability that we expect to see return value over coming years.
» performance against strategy
Grant Income $26.4m
Grant Income $20.8m
Public Income $27.8m
Public Income $28.5m
2012 Target Income
2012 Actual Income
Financial Management » Operating environment The global economy continued to be unstable during 2012. Despite a relatively strong economic situation in Australia, it is clear that concern with the economic conditions overseas is having an impact on Australian household confidence and hence spending and saving patterns. Domestic concerns such as falling house values and rising utility bills has had a large negative wealth effect on households as consumers become preoccupied with factors such as deteriorating economic conditions overseas and the increasing cost of living. In turn, there has been a similarly negative impact with Plan in Australia’s ability to access Child Sponsorship revenue, resulting in a 3% decrease from the previous year while appeals also struggled with a decrease of 22% from the previous year. Despite these challenges, other giving through bequests and emergencies increased our public income. See ‘Income’ on pages 75–76 for further details. Previous page: Madame Houwau (in yellow), the founder of a Plan-partner organisation in Cameroon, plays with girls outside.
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PLAN INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
» Financial strategy Plan in Australia has established solid financial management, overseen by the Finance and Audit Committee. Our financial management is driven by a sound strategic plan and is reinforced by rigid compliance and financial controls as well as prudent cash management.
» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
Plan in Australia is moving to diversify income streams as part of our 2012–2016 strategy: Champion for Child Rights. The aim here is to ensure our revenue is coming from a diverse set of sources and products across public income and grant income portfolios. This approach is expected to enable our current rapid growth to continue.
» Grant income Plan in Australia is experiencing a rise in government grant income as well as in the share of total income. % of total Income
Year
$ Amount
2012
11.9 million
24%
2011
11.3 million
27%
2010
8.6 million
22%
2009
4.5 million
11%
2008
4.1 million
12%
» Investments Historically, Plan in Australia has maintained a conservative investment strategy designed to provide greater protection against the more severe fluctuations from a broader equity investment composition. In effect, protection of our donors’ funds has been the major emphasis as opposed to greater growth with increased risk. Our current investment strategy has four key components: 1. Cash based (bank bills, term deposits, government bonds). 2. Individual investments are limited to a maximum of $400k. 3. Exposure to institutions is limited to a maximum of $500k. 4. Institutions must have a minimum Standard & Poors (S&P) Australian rating of no less than A-1 or AAAm for short-term investments or no less than A for medium to long-term investments. Plan in Australia’s investment strategy has performed better than target in four of the last five years, the exception being the year following turndown in the global economy (GFC). We were able to produce this performance in a tough investment environment where rates of return have been low and uncompetitive. A review of our investment strategy will be undertaken in 2013 to ensure a disciplined approach to the investment decision making process in context of the short and long-term goals of Plan in Australia. The allocation of assets will be driven by a sustainable funding ability based on the needs and risk tolerance of the organisation.
» investment performance against targets
$359,799 $272,049
6%
Actual Investment
5%
Target Investment
$344,939
$293,525
4% $324,793
World GDP Growth
3% 2%
$139,196 $170,112
$150,864
$138,829
1% 0%
$105,384
-1% -2%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
-3%
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012 73
» Reserves and assets For the 2012 financial year, Plan in Australia maintained appropriate reserves to meet current as well as future responsibilities and obligations. Reserves at the end of the financial year were $7.9 million and are made up of the following:
Memorial fund The memorial fund reserve represents the principal of contributions held in accordance with the wishes of the donor.
General fund Amounts expended on the acquisition of property, plant and equipment are appropriated from the revenue and expenditure account to the general fund during the year of acquisition, or at the time the asset is held ready for use. As the property, plant and equipment are utilised in the operations of Plan International Australia, the depreciation charge is included as an operating expense and an equivalent amount is released from the general fund. On the disposal of property, plant and equipment, the gain/ loss is included as part of the operating expense and the book value is released from the general fund.
Capital Reserve The reserve represents the surplus over the book value of a property donated to Plan International Australia and transferred by resolution of the Board to reserves, to be held in reserves and utilised in the event of a major publicity campaign or such other event deemed appropriate by resolution of the Board of Directors.
Retained Earnings Amounts representing restricted and unrestricted funds to be distributed for programs and other designated use.
» Risk Management Strategy Plan in Australia sees the development of a strong risk culture as the overarching component of our risk management framework. Making risk management an integral part of our organisational culture is essential to improving the organisation’s strategic planning and decision making. This involves ensuring that risk management is embedded into business as usual and not seen as distinct from day-to-day activities. Our Risk Management policy sets out the way in which risks facing the organisation should be assessed, monitored and reported and details the responsibilities within the organisation for risk. It is available to view on our website: plan.org.au/whoweare/accountability.
Process The organisation maintains an organic risk register which is updated by all departments on a regular basis with new risks added and existing risks either regraded or removed. The higher rated risks on the register are reviewed formally by the Senior Management Team on a monthly basis. The high level risk register is also emailed to all Board members on a monthly basis and tabled for review at each Board meeting.
Risks in 2012 In 2012 a number of risks were identified and mitigated against. The following are three examples. 1. Risk Lack of capacity from Donor Acquisition suppliers impacting growth targets: Controls Continuous assessment of all supply options and rolling replacement of capacity. Increase in more stable in-house capability which spreads the risk. Move to a long-term balanced acquisition strategy to decrease reliance upon Sponsorship income. 2. Risk The 2013 Federal Budget pushed back the target of 0.5% of GNI for Overseas Aid to 2016–17 from 2015–16. The decision may impact the size and availability of future grant income. Controls Maintain direct dialogue (and indirect via peak body ACFID) with the government to ensure no further deferrals are considered and assess possibility of mitigating the decision. 3. Risk Establishment of the Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission (ACNC) and new legislation may not deliver benefits as outlined but create additional red tape and cost implications. Controls Monitor legislation introduced and influence direction by direct communication with relevant government contacts as well as through other NGOs and our peak representative body, ACFID.
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
» Looking forward At the end of the 2012 financial year, Plan in Australia has completed the first of a five-year organisational strategy. This strategy for 2012–2016 is grounded in our understanding of the potential for further and sustained growth. It places our highest emphasis on quality impact and influence for children while recognising that growth in income and brand identity are essential to realise these higher goals for children. As part of this strategy, Plan in Australia intends to strengthen our income portfolio in order to support our expanding chid rights programming. In order to achieve this, we intend to: »» double our income from $41 million in 2011 to $82 million in 2016 with a stretch aspiration of becoming a $100 million organisation; »» diversify income streams, products and sources to manage risk; »» expand non-child sponsorship public revenue to meet emerging program needs; »» optimise the funds available for programs over the life of the strategy. Recent government decisions to put off aid increases until 2016, along with the public’s reaction to the economic environment will provide a challenge for Plan in Australia in achieving this strategy over the next four years. Despite this challenge, we still intend to grow in scale and reach as well as strengthening our thought leadership on child rights issues and continuing to give children a voice in determining their futures.
Results » Income Where our support comes from Community support from Australian businesses and the public remains our main sources of income, at 57% of the total income for 2012. Funding from the Australian Government’s official overseas aid program (AusAID) increased from $11.3 million in 2011 to $11.9 million in 2012. Total support from institutional grants grew to $15.3 million in 2012. Support from the World Food Programme increased from $3.6 million in 2011 to $5.6 million in 2012, demonstrating Plan in Australia’s continuing commitment to provide food relief to communities across the developing world where under nutrition is a problem. The other remaining income (less than 1%) is derived mainly from returns from cash investments.
Overall support and source (2012)
$5.6m 11%
Community Support
$0.3m 1%
Intitutional Grants (excluding WFP) WFP Food Aid Other $28.2m 57%
$15.3m 31%
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012 75
How support is trending Community income experienced an increase of $2 million from the previous year to a total of $28.2 million in 2012 and has seen moderate steady growth over the last three years (2010–2012). The slow growth is reflective of the current uncertainty seen in the Australian economy with expectations that this will continue throughout the coming year. A progressive increase in Grant income reflects our adoption of a more balanced approach to the income streams, reducing the risks on future income and enabling a continued commitment to deliver our strategy in the coming years. Multilateral Grants income, such as the World Food Programme, had been indicated as an area of potential growth and experienced an increase from $3.6 million in 2011 to $5.6 million in 2012. Overall, Plan in Australia’s income appears to have recovered from the Global Financial Crisis period of late 2009 and 2010.
Five-Year trend on support (2008–2012) 2008
$50m
2009 2010
$40m
2011 2012
$30m
$20m
$10m
$0m
Community Support
Institutional Grants
WFP Food Aid
Other
Total
» Expenditure How the resources were used Plan in Australia’s resources are utilised for long-term community development; disaster and humanitarian response; advocacy programs; public campaigns and improvements in program quality and effectiveness. In 2012 our program expenditure was less than the previous year due to the focus on growing our fundraising capacity, however our efforts to increase the quality of our programming work ensured our continued and increased impact for children.
Cost of fundraising Plan in Australia’s cost of fundraising is made up of two components: expenses related to fundraising from the public; and the costs of fundraising from government, multilateral and the private sector. Public fundraising costs include all costs related to the purpose of raising revenue from the public. Items include: the production and mailing of fundraising materials | the cost of promotional or marketing campaigns | the costs of establishing and maintaining public donor databases | funds paid to third parties to provide fundraising services | donation related bank fees | the cost of personnel involved in preparing and conducting marketing and fundraising campaigns | PR and media efforts to raise awareness of emergencies and child rights. Government, multilateral and private sector fundraising costs include the costs of personnel and related expenses involved in the preparation of funding submissions for, and reporting against grants from government, multilateral organisations, corporate and philanthropic organisations.
Fundraising costs are related to our efforts to attract donations to fund our program and advocacy work. In 2012, a significant investment was made in the Marketing department to build capacity in nonsponsorship channels that are expected to reap returns in future years. This outlay is part of a long-term strategy to diversify public income, and largely accounts for the increase in our fundraising expenditure this year. Community Education expenses highlight our endeavours to build an awareness among our community and greater supporter base of the work done by Plan in Australia. This expenditure remained stable in 2012. Administration expenses enable Plan in Australia to cover items such as audit and legal fees; insurance premiums; IT equipment costs; support staff costs and office maintenance to ensure our organisation runs efficiently and complies with the regulatory environment within which we operate. This year our administration expenditure remained stable.
2012 expenditure (expressed as a % of total income)
5%
3%
Overseas Community Education 66%
Fundraising Administration Reserves
25%
1%
Growing resources over time Plan in Australia’s strategy is to significantly grow the resources available for children over each strategic period. This requires a balance between the immediate release of resources for programs, and growing our supporter base to generate a greater pool of resources in future years. Plan in Australia has steadily dedicated funds to Community Education over the last five financial years while holding growth in administration costs to a minimum. Fundraising costs have increased from $7.8 million to $12.1 million in 2012 as a result of strategic marketing initiatives to strengthen and build additional capacity for (non-sponsorship) regular and single giving products. Expenditure in fundraising continues to be an important aspect to the strategic growth of Plan in Australia. The 2012 financial year saw a decrease in overseas expenditure due to capital investment in Enterprise – a key operational system that will provide a strong technological platform for donor, program and integrated financial data management.
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How the resources were used: 2008–2012 plus five-year average (expressed as % of total income)
Overseas
Community Education
Fundraising
Admin
Reserves
Average
73%
1%
19%
5%
2%
FY12
66%
1%
25%
5%
3%
Year
FY11
73%
1%
19%
5%
2%
FY10
62%
1%
24%
5%
8%
FY09
83%
1%
13%
4%
-1%
FY08
82%
0%
13%
5%
0%
Where the support was allocated (2012) This chart shows where resources* from Australia were committed in 2012. In any year, special needs may result in small changes to the distribution due to events like emergencies. This will only occur under strict policy settings established by the Plan International Board. *Resources to international programs are comprised of income from child sponsorship, grants and public donations as well as gifts in kind received in-country such as WFP food aid.
Allocation of total program funds (2012) 1%
America
5%
Asia Eastern & Southern Africa
7%
West Africa
38%
Pacific Globally
45%
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Âť ANNUAL REPORT 2012
4%
Contribution to International Programs To get a full picture of the contribution that Plan in Australia is making to international programs it is important to consider two elements: how much we remit or send to Plan International as cash spent in the field; as well as all the other program contributions we make in the form of technical assistance, quality assurance and emergency response that we make directly from Australia to the field. The following table illustrates our overall contribution to international programs over the last five years. $3,355,993 $24,000,000
Remittances - Cash Program Contribution
$1,536,257 $1,156,032 $18,800,000 $17,923,869
$3,852,033
$842,314
$20,700,000
$18,600,000
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008 A Plan staff member coordinates the distribution of relief aid in Haiti.
summary financial statements
Statement of comprehensive income For the year ended 30 June 2012 2012 $
2011 $
REVENUE Donations and Gifts • Monetary - Child Sponsorship
22,629,963
23,386,057
- Appeals
1,023,656
1,313,355
- Other Cash Donations
3,297,047
1,367,555
26,950,666
26,066,967
0
0
1,214,412
130,455
11,916,829
11,253,843
39,688
57,708
5,577,645
3,587,359
• Non-Monetary Legacies and Bequests Grants • AusAID • Other Australian • World Food Program • Other Overseas Investment Income Other Income Revenue for International Political or Religious Proselytisation programs
TOTAL REVENUE
3,298,711
343,915
20,832,873
15,242,825
344,939
324,793
4,432
11,260
0
0
49,347,322
41,776,300
29,350,238
27,452,629
3,141,617
2,815,818
207,400
99,266
32,699,255
30,367,713
710,417
533,676
12,063,953
7,837,945
73,235
3,087
EXPENDITURE International Aid and Development Programs Expenditure International Programs • Funds to International Programs • Program Support Costs • Remittances to associated parties Community Education Fundraising Costs • Public • Government, Multilateral and Private
12,137,188
7,841,032
2,429,764
2,276,294
Non-Monetary Expenditure
0
0
Total International Aid and Development Programs Expenditure
0
0
Domestic Programs Expenditure
0
0
47,976,624
41,018,715
1,370,698
757,585
Accountability and Administration
Total Expenditure Excess/(Shortfall) of Revenue Over Expenditure
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» ANNUAL REPORT 2012
summary financial statements (continued)
Statement of financial position As at 30 June 2012 2012 $
2011 $
7,479,498
7,225,309
760,682
207,182
0
0
ASSETS Current Assets Cash and Cash Equivalents Trade and Other Receivables Inventories Assets Held for Sale
0
0
Other Financial Assets
0
425,000
8,240,180
7,857,491
Total Current Assets Non-Current Assets Trade and Other Receivables
0
0
Other Financial assests
0
0
786,600
839,969
Property, Plant & Equipment Investment Property Intangibles
0
0
1,458,184
374,277
Other Non-current Assets
0
0
Total Non-Current Assets
2,244,784
1,214,246
10,484,964
9,071,737
1,280,064
1,233,914
0
0
TOTAL ASSETS LIABILITIES Current Liabilities Trade and Other Payables Borrowings Current Tax Liabilities
0
0
Other Financial Liabilities
0
0
522,013
429,903
Provisions Other Total Current Liabilities
93,644
93,644
1,895,721
1,757,461
0
0
Non-Current Liabilities Borrowings Other Financial Liabilities Provisions Other
0
0
22,743
24,831
639,898
733,541
662,641
758,372
TOTAL LIABILITIES
2,558,362
2,515,833
NET ASSETS
7,926,602
6,555,904
7,926,602
6,555,904
7,926,602
6,555,904
Total Non-Current Liabilities
EQUITY Reserves
TOTAL EQUITY
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Âť ANNUAL REPORT 2012 81
summary financial statements (continued)
Statement of changes in equity For the year ended 30 June 2012 Retained Earnings
Reserves
Total
3,233,224
3,322,680
6,555,904
Adjustment or changes in equity due to, for example, adoptions of new accounting standards
0
0
0
Changes in equity, for example from changes in asset fair value transactions
0
0
0
1,370,698
0
1,370,698
(2,244,950)
2,244,950
0
2,358,972
5,567,630
7,926,602
Balance at 1 July 2011
Excess of revenue over expenses Other amounts transferred (to) or from reserves:
Balance at 30 June 2012
Table of cash movements for designated purposes For the year ended 30 June 2012 Cash available at beginning of year
Cash raised during year
Grants for Programs
2,105,575
11,635,380
(12,815,111)
Program Appeals
1,241,773
3,133,619
(3,702,505)
672,887
0
1,177,085
(638,776)
538,309
3,877,961
24,121,989
(22,657,492)
5,342,458
7,225,309
40,068,073
(39,813,884)
7,479,498
Emergency Appeals Total for other purposes
Total
» Scan
to find out more
Cash Cash disbursed available at during year end of year 925,844
Full financial statements The full version of Plan International Australia’s financial statements are available to view on our website: plan.org.au/mediacentre/publications/annualreport or call 13 75 26.
Plan is a member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and is a signatory to the ACFID Code of Conduct. The Code requires members to meet high standards of corporate governance, public accountability and financial management. More information about the ACFID Code of Conduct can be obtained from Plan and from ACFID at www.acfid.asn.au or by email on main@acfid.asn.au Tel: (02) 6285 1816 Fax: (02) 6285 1720.
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Independent auditor’s report to the members of Plan International Australia Report on the Financial Report The accompanying summary financial statements, of Plan International Australia, comprising the summary balance sheet as at 30 June 2012, the summary income statement, and the summary statement of changes in equity for the year then ended, are derived from the audited financial report of Plan International Australia for the year ended 30 June 2012. We expressed an unmodified auditor’s opinion on that financial report in our auditor’s report dated 27 September 2012. The summary financial statements do not contain all the disclosures required by Australian Accounting Standards applied in preparation of audited financial report of Plan International Australia. Reading the summary financial statements, therefore is not a substitute for reading the audited financial report of Plan International Australia.
Director’s responsibility for the summary financial statements The directors are responsible for the preparation of a summary of the audited financial report on the basis described in Note 1 to the audited financial report, to the extent applicable to the summary financial statements.
Auditor’s responsibility Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the summary financial statements based on our procedures, which were conducted in accordance with Australian Auditing Standard ASA 810 Engagements to Report on Summary Financial Statements.
Auditor’s opinion In our opinion, the summary financial statements derived from the audited financial report of Plan International Australia for the year ended 30 June 2012 are consistent in all material respects, with that audited financial report, on the basis described in Note 1, contained in the audited financial report of Plan International Australia for the year ended 30 June 2012.
Basis of Accounting and Restriction on Distribution and Use Without modifying our opinion, we draw attention to Note 1, contained in the audited financial report of Plan International Australia for the year ended 30 June 2012, which describes the basis of accounting. The summary financial statements has been prepared to assist Plan International Australia to meet the requirements of their members. As a result, the summary financial statements may not be suitable for another purpose. Our report is intended solely for the members of Plan International Australia.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
D. Rosenberg, Partner
Melbourne 27 September 2012
PricewaterhouseCoopers ABN 52 780 433 757
Freshwater Place, 2 Southbank Boulevard, SOUTHBANK VIC 3006 Telephone +61 (3) 8603 1000
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
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Compliance & Regulation Plan in Australia operates in a highly regulated environment, with laws, regulations, licences and codes of conduct that we need to comply with to ensure we remain accountable to the community.
» ASIC and ATO Plan in Australia is a public company, and as such is required to comply with the regulations of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which includes regulations relating to the preparation of financial statements. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has given Plan in Australia the status of a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR), granted exemption from Income Tax and provided concessions for Fringe Benefits Tax and GST. Reporting requirements comprise mainly annual fringe benefit tax returns, quarterly Business Activity Statements and monthly Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) submissions.
» Accreditation Plan in Australia is currently a fully accredited and trusted recipient of funds from AusAID, the Australian Government’s Agency for International Development responsible for managing the Australian Government’s official overseas aid program. Our accreditation is maintained through a rigorous process by AusAID that is undertaken every five years, involving an in-depth assessment of our management capacity, systems, operations, and linkages with the Australian community against a set of agreed criteria. Being accredited gives the organisation access to the AusAID NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and AusAID funding programs such as Cooperation Agreements and any other funding mechanisms that may be created. Accreditation ensures the accountable use of funding, and covers our entire portfolio including non-development activities and activities not funded by AusAID.
» ACFID Plan in Australia is a signatory to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct. ACFID is the peak body for NGOs and their code of conduct upholds the highest standards of ethics, effectiveness and accountability. For further information on the Code, please refer to the ACFID Code of Conduct Guidance Document available at www.acfid.asn.au. Complaints relating to a breach of the ACFID Code of Conduct by an ACFID member can be made to the ACFID Code of Conduct Committee (http://www.acfid.asn.au/code-of-conduct/complaints-andcompliance-monitoring).
» Fundraising Fundraising licenses are required by all States of Australia in order to raise funds within their borders. Plan in Australia holds all required licenses and complies with the requirements associated with these licenses, which includes such conditions as providing extra reporting to particular States.
» Global Reporting Initiative Plan International Australia is focused on increased transparency for all our stakeholders through our Annual Report. With this in mind, we are using the Global Reporting Initiative as a guide to our improvements with a view to full participation in this standard in the future. Please see the following pages for details of our performance against GRI standards for environmental sustainability.
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working sustainably Introduction Plan in Australia recognises the importance of environmental sustainability in the lives of children and the communities in which we work. It is those children and their families in developing countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation and climate change. Therefore we have a responsibility to have a positive impact on children and environmental sustainability through our community development projects and by taking responsibility for our operational environmental footprint as part of a global network. Plan in Australia has already taken some steps to become a more environmentally sustainable organisation. Our initiatives include: »» development of environmental guiding principles that highlight our commitment to environmental sustainability; »» development of Ethical and Environmental Procurement procedures; »» establishment of a volunteer committee (Planet Green) that takes initiative around sustainability and behavior change activities; »» staff awareness raising. While these initiatives are important, we recognise the need to develop a more comprehensive approach and strategy for this work so that Plan in Australia can become a truly sustainable organisation. In 2012 we took some important first steps towards this goal.
Baseline audit of environmental performance A key recommendation from Planet Green and adopted by the Senior Management Team in 2012 was to undertake an audit to establish baseline indicators of Plan International Australia’s environmental performance. The audit provides a baseline from which to measure, track and report improvements over time, and is the first step towards developing an environmental sustainability strategy. We decided to undertake this measurement using the Global Reporting Initiative’s sustainability reporting guidelines. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a non-profit organisation that promotes economic, social and environmental sustainability. It produces one of the world’s most prevalent standards for sustainability reporting and it seeks to make sustainability reporting by all organisations as routine as, and comparable to, financial reporting. The GRI guidelines are widely used by more than 4000 organisations from over 60 countries, including corporate businesses, public agencies, smaller enterprises, NGOs, industry groups and others. By using the GRI indicators for environmental performance, we are promoting transparency and accountability, as our performance can be monitored year on year and can be compared to other similar organisations. Consideration will be given to adopting the GRI social and economic indicators in future reporting. We undertook the audit using the assistance of sustainability experts Net Balance to ensure that we had a rigorous methodology for the baseline. Using the GRI Environmental Indicators for reporting as a basis, Net Balance conducted a limited materiality assessment to determine the indicators that should be used to guide the audit and establish a benchmark of performance that Plan in Australia may report against in the future.
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The results Net Balance conducted the audit at our offices in Southbank on 25 May, 2012. The audit involved a comprehensive energy use assessment, a greenhouse gas calculation, an assessment of waste sources, a review of water use, a review of paper consumption and an assessment of business travel. In addition the site visit gave Net Balance an insight into the data management systems and methodologies used for data collection and current office practices. The complete methodology, calculations and results of the environmental audit can be found on our website at plan.org.au/EnvironmentalAccountability. The audit provides a baseline environmental footprint for Plan in Australia for the period 1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011. It is restricted to our operations in Australia and does not measure the environmental impact of our programs or activities in the developing world. The audit established data on current performance in the following areas: »» Water consumption »» Paper consumption »» Waste generation and disposal »» Energy use (electricity) »» Travel (taxis and flights) and associated greenhouse gas emissions »» Total greenhouse gas emissions
» GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS Taxi Travel 1%
Paper 6% Electricity (Tenant) 11%
Air Travel Electricity (Base building) Electricity (Tenant) Paper
Electricity (Base building) 12%
Taxi Travel Gas (Base building) <1% Water <1%
Air Travel 70%
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» Table 1: Material GRI Environmental Indicators PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION INDICATOR
MATERIAL FOR PLAN
INFORMATION TO REPORT
GRI indicator Key Core indicator Addition indicator
MATERIALS EN1
Materials used by weight or volume.
Paper consumption
EN2
Percentage of materials used that are recycled input materials.
Recycled content of paper
EN3
Direct energy consumption by primary energy source.
Gas consumption in GJ
EN4
Indirect energy consumption by primary source.
Energy consumption in GJ
EN5
Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements.
Results from audit will establish a baseline to report against this indicator
EN6
Initiatives to provide energyefficient or renewable energy based products and services, and reductions in energy requirements as a result of these initiatives.
Plan purchases 25 per cent renewable energy
EN7
Initiatives to reduce indirect energy consumption and reductions achieved.
See recommendations section below
Total water withdrawal by source.
Total water consumption and utility company
Energy
Water EN8
Emissions, effluents and waste EN16
Total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by weight.
Total greenhouse gas emissions in tCO2e
EN18
Initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reductions achieved.
See Recommendations section below
EN22
Total weight of waste by type and disposal method.
See Recommendations section below
Products and services EN26
Initiatives to mitigate environmental impacts of activities, products and services, and extent of impact mitigation.
See Recommendations section below
EN29
Significant environmental impacts of transporting products and other goods and materials used for the organization’s operations, and transporting members of the workforce.
Total greenhouse gas emissions associated with taxi travel and flights
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» our environmental footprint In real-word terms Plan in Australia’s environmental footprint is equivalent to:
240 Australian cars
Enough water to fill
198
Olympic pools
or
or on the road for one year
Filling
18,582,400 black balloons
or
2,152,989 wheelie bins of waste to
landfill The next steps Following on from the receipt of the baseline audit, there are a number of recommendations (summarised below) that are now under consideration by Planet Green for inclusion in a Plan in Australia environmental strategy. Other Planet Green efforts in 2012 included a presentation to staff about the baseline audit, a waste audit of disposable coffee cups used by staff over a two week period and a bulk purchase of Keep Cups in an effort to reduce waste from this source. We also helped raise awareness of our own environmental impact through distribution to staff of a personal emissions calculator.
» Summary of recommendations 1. Air travel where practical, virtual meetings and teleconferences should be encouraged. 2. Electricity usage encourage behaviour change among staff and undertake a review of the efficiency of current equipment. 3. Water consumption seek further water efficiencies on consultation with building management. 4. Waste generation conduct a waste audit. 5. Data management data should be sought on a regular basis from suppliers and stored in a central location.
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6. Staff engagement communicate and engage with staff on all environmental initiatives and goal setting. 7. Emissions offsetting purchase verified emissions offsets. 8. Global Reporting Initiative undertake a brief gap analysis against current reporting to determine those indicators already reported against by the organisation and also identify where there may be gaps.
AcknowledgEments » Our Patron Plan International Australia is honoured to have Her Excellency, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia as our Patron.
» Corporate & Business Supporters Accor Gecko’s Adventures Hobsons Intrepid Travel Jetabroad Landers & Rogers Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings Limited
NRW Holdings Study Group Australia The Footprints Network
footprintsnetwork.org
» Trust & Foundations ACME Foundation Greenlight Foundation RobMeree Foundation
» Community Fundraisers Friends of Plan Canberra Fundraising individuals and groups through Everyday Hero Kevin Welsh Women of Plan Adelaide
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Âť Program partnerships Plan in Australia establishes partnerships with the relevant Plan International Country Office for each Australian-managed program. Together with the Plan Country Office, we work in partnership with local government and civil society organisations, including local community-based organisations and nationalbased NGOs. In most instances it is the local partners who undertake responsibility for managing and implementing program activities. The engagement of and support to these partners is an important element of the sustainability of programs. Plan in Australia provides oversight and support to these partners throughout a program cycle to ensure program quality is maintained, but also so that the partners themselves are able to develop and maintain their own capabilities. Along with these organisations, we would also like to acknowledge the following:
Global Poverty Project Monash University Murdoch Child Research Institute Macquarie University Melbourne University GHD Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) McGill University, Canada CBM-Nossal Institute Partnership for Disability Inclusive Development Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI)
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Accreditation Plan is currently fully accredited and a trusted recipient of funds from AusAID, the Australian Government’s Agency for International Development responsible for managing the Australian Government’s official overseas aid program.
ACFID Plan International Australia is a member of its professional peak body the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). We are a signatory to its code of conduct that covers the presentation of annual reports.
Global Reporting Initiative Plan International Australia is focussed on increased transparency for all our stakeholders through our Annual Report. With this in mind, we are using the Global Reporting Initiative as a guide to our improvements.
Our Patron Plan International Australia is honoured to have Her Excellency, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia as our Patron. We give special thanks for her support and endorsement of Women for Girls.
This publication has been printed on ecoStar, a FSC Recycled certified paper made carbon neutral (CN), and manufactured from 100% post consumer recycled paper in a process chlorine free environment and under an ISO 14001 EMS. Production of this publication has been carbon offset retiring 2,035 kgs of CO2. This publication is fully recyclable, please dispose of wisely.
13 75 26 WWW.PLAN.ORG.AU Plan 18/60 City Road, Southbank VIC 3006 GPO Box 2818, Melbourne VIC 3001 Tel: 13 75 26 Fax: +61 (3) 9670 1130 Email: info@plan.org.au ABN 49 004 875 807