Annual report 2009 - Handicap International

Social missions and funds allocatedProgrammes implemented abroad are run fromHandicap International’s head office by three operatingdepartments: Emergency Response Department,Development Department and Mines Department; TheAssociation also runs public interest programmes fromits head office such as disability rights awareness andthe International Campaign to ban landmines and clustermunitions.Emergency Response DepartmentQuicker response through controlled risktakingThe Emergency Response Department’s budget wasUS$9.17 million in 2009 (against US$8.14 million in 2008),an increase explained by a sequence of dreadful eventsneeding action from Handicap International in the PalestinianTerritories, Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia (readpages 8 and 9).The broad approach to emergency response, specific to theAssociation, demonstrated its worth. It consists of helpingvulnerable people immediately, with particular supportto those with disabilities. In each set of circumstances,from setting up “disability and vulnerability focal points” torebuilding housing, the types of operations deployed wereadapted to the needs of the beneficiary populations (readpages 6 and 7).Work was also done on optimising our intervention capacity,particularly by shortening reaction times. The Associationtherefore decided to run the financial risk of starting upthese operations, using its own private funds withoutwaiting for confirmation of the funding agreements thatit was seeking. This strategy enabled it not only to meetthe needs of victims, refugees or displaced persons morequickly, but also to achieve a funding cover rate of 82.2%from institutional donors, in full costs.Development DepartmentReorganisation to favour the poorestcountriesThe Development Department’s budget came to $66.26million in 2009 (against $63.95 million in 2008). Threegeographical areas particularly benefited from this increasein the volume of operations:– Southern Asia, including Pakistan (up US$0.72 million andIndia (up US$0.57 million), where actions were launched inresponse to the Bihar floods, and in the Kashmir conflictzone;– East Africa, with the Development Department taking overEmergency Response Department’s operations in Sudan;– the Middle East (the Gaza Strip and Iraq).The target of cutting structural costs and the decisionto concentrate on the poorest countries led to almostcomplete closure of the projects carried out in France andthe regional merger of several programmes (Thailand andCambodia, also Kenya and Somaliland) when they could berun as single operations.Moreover, a project for prescribing and manufacturingwheelchairs was set up in Togo, in conjunction with otherWest African countries.The fall in activity in Mozambique is the result of a transitionphase with AIDS programmes coming to an end and mineclearance programmes waiting to be scaled up whenresponses are received from institutional funding providers.In Sierra Leone and Liberia, the falls are the result ofsuccessful transfer of orthopaedic services to the relevantministries (read page 12). In Uzbekistan, it is explained bythe government’s refusal to authorise operations for whichfunding had been secured.Overall, the work on obtaining better institutional fundingcoverage was effective in 2009, with a funding rate, in termsof full costs, of 58.8%.Mines DepartmentA pivotal yearMines Department’s budget came to US$2.93 millionin 2009 (against US$5.19 million in 2008), a decreaseexplained mainly by the transfer of the Balkans programmeto Development Department and by the end of the project innorth Lebanon (down US$0.72 million in direct expenses).In addition to technical responsibility for the decontaminationand risk prevention activities implemented by DevelopmentDepartment (particularly the continuation of a major mineclearing project in Mozambique), Mines Departmentcontinued its work to help Palestinian refugees near Byblos,in Lebanon, also on the project in Casamance, in Senegal(up US$72 thousand, but still awaiting European Uniontendering results).2009 saw many tender process responses and preparationsfor 2010, such as the design of the “mines emergencykit”, designed to help make areas intended for civilianpopulations safer (read page 16). Two exploratory missions,in Chad and Uganda, should result in programme openingsthat will have an impact in 2010.The institutional funding coverage rate has stabilised at ahigh level, 74.5% of full costs.Annual report 2009 ı 27