ibis-global.org - The Tax Dialogue

HIGHLIGHTS
2013
2014
ibis’ annual report
IBIS IN 2 MINUTES
democratic
influence
quality
education
fairdistribution
of resources
ibis in 2 minutes
TEXT ANNELIE ABILDGAARD ILLUSTRATION YERAY LOPEZ what we do?
IBIS works for a just world in which all people have
equal access to education, influence and resources.
how we do this?
Through support to civil society in Africa and Latin
America, IBIS wishes to secure people equal access to
education, influence and resources.
Through information and political work, IBIS wishes
to influence the political agenda and create greater
understanding for the problems facing developing
countries, and point to specific options for actions.
in other words...
IBIS works to ensure quality education for all and for
the education to enable them to exercise influence in a
way that ensures the resources of society and the world
are more fairly distributed.
2
Quality education, because:
Education is a human right and the path to create
sustainable development for the individual and society.
Our work is for girls and boys to obtain equal access to
education and to ensure quality in the teaching.
Democratic influence, because:
Everyone has the right to influence their own life and
society. This i why we support popular civil society
organisations in their work of safeguarding these rights,
and why we work on promoting democracy in the local
community.
Fair distribution of resources, because:
Everyone has the right to a fair share of the world’s
resources. Therefore, we support popular civil society
organisations in their work so that globalisation will
benefit the world’s poorest. We wish also to influence
the debate on global economic and political issues.
CONTENTS
contents
6
Report from the Chair / 4
IBIS Highlights / 6
How IBIS works / 12
Where IBIS works / 14
4
12
IBIS country by country / 16
Guatemala / 17
Nicaragua / 18
Bolivia / 19
Sierra Leone / 20
Liberia / 21
Burkina Faso / 22
Ghana / 23
South Sudan / 24
Mozambique / 25
AAP and LAPI / 26
14
16
Figures of the year / 28
editorial
Malene Aadal Bo, [email protected]
Annelie Abildgaard (editor-in-chief), [email protected]
layout
Cover photo: William Vest-Lillesøe
Graphic design: Oktan, Peter Waldorph
Print: CS Grafisk
editorial address
IBIS, Vesterbrogade 2B,
DK-1620 Copenhagen V, Denmark
IBIS is a member-based, independent Danish
development organisation. We carry out our work
in cooperation with civil society organisations and
local authorities in Africa and Latin America.
IBIS is a member of Alliance2015.
Find out more at www.ibis.dk
and www.alliance2015.org
3
REPORT FROM THE CHAIR
IBIS is honouring its responsibilities
AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY last year,
I said that it is becoming increasigly difficult to remain
pessimistic on behalf of IBIS. I feel the same this year.
Once again, I have seen that our development work is of
high quality and that we are creating positive results for
the people with and for whom we work. Our economy
is as it should be, and the entire organisation – both at
home and in the field – is extremely well functioning.
This is our own view, and Danida reached the same
conclusion in connection with a major evaluation. This
evaluation, which took place in 2013, found that IBIS
is a well-run, efficient organisation which carries out
impressive development work and integrates advocacy
well in the activities.
For example is our advocacy work is integrated in campaigns such as The Education for All Campaign, which
yearly engages almost 180,000 Danish school students
and their teachers. They are all very excited about the
teaching materials, with stories that gives the students a
unique outlook to the world. In this way IBIS is helping
to shape the adults of the future, as well as influence
politicians in Denmark. Influencing politicians is also
the aim of IBIS’ major Taxucation campaign, which
was devised in 2013 and took off in 2014. The Taxucation campaign is an effective and useful way to combine
our fight against tax havens and our focus on education
as a global human right, and I feel we have succeeded
in explaining how eliminating tax havens and pushing
multinational companies to pay a fair share of their
profits in tax, can finance education in the poorest
countries in the world. I hope lots of people will keep an
eye on this and help spreading the word.
Outside Denmark, the end of 2013 was characterised
by adverse unfortunate events in both Bolivia and
South Sudan. Both infinitely sad. In South Sudan, we
were just about to expand our education programme
when an armed conflict broke out and made thousands
of people refugees and forced them to live in refugee
camps. The conflict has not been resolved at the time of
writing, and although we have continued our long-term
development work we are at the moment concentrating
on creating meaningful lives for children in the refugee
camps through education activities.
On 19 December 2013, our team in Bolivia was told
very suddenly and unexpectedly that IBIS was no
longer welcome in the country. The government felt
that some of our activities amounted to undue political
interference. Although a number of misunderstandings were cleared up, the end result was that the office
in Bolivia had to close. Many of our activities will be
4
continuing through other organisations, and some will
be continuing with funding directly from Denmark. It
is too early to say what form our future work in Bolivia
will take, but support to Latin America and Bolivia
are such an important part of our identity that we will
continue to do everything in our power to live up to our
vision and put Latin America on the agenda.
This is one reason why it was also important for us to
contribute in a constructive and objective manner, with
input to Danida’s civil society policy. It was concluded
in 2014 and places emphasis on the Danish efforts,
looking in particular at how Danish organisations can
work in contexts where civil societys room for manoeuvre is restricted. This policy provides a clear platform
for supporting progressive and constructive forces and
also calls for support to social movements which are
organised differently than traditional organisations.
We contributed both as IBIS and through the danish
NGO Forum, which has been chaired by IBIS’ General
Secretary Vagn Berthelsen until the spring.
I am looking forward to us continuing to demonstrate
how important IBIS is as a link to local civil societies,
and between north and south. The tendency is clear: the
large, traditional donors – Western states and multilateral organisations – are having less and less influence locally, which gives NGOs a critical role as locally rooted
organisations working to strengthen civil society.
This year, questions about the future has been debated
more than ever. IBIS holds a strong position and has
created a number of good results over the past few
years. This makes it the right time to look forward and
consider how we as an organisation can best fulfill our
vision and ideals. Are we in the best position as a small,
independent NGO in the alliance as we are now, or
should we consider becoming part of the major organisation Oxfam International? This has been the topic
of conversation at IBIS offices, but also at a number
of public meetings at which IBIS members and other
stakeholders have discussed the pros and cons.
I am very curious to see what the answer will be at the
Annual General Meeting in September 2014.
Mette Müller
Chairperson, IBIS
REPORT FROM THE CHAIR
Illustration: Laura Johanne Grue Danie
“This is one of my favourite pictures from this year. It
shows Danish schoolchildren snuggling up to read
the great stories in the Reading Rocket – and to learn
about children in a another part of the world.”
Photo: IBIS
What are your wishes for IBIS in 2014?
I hope we will use the favourable situation we are
in to look openly and honestly at ourselves and the
future. The world is changing, and there are enormous growth rates in Africa, while inequality increases. The financing of development is changing.
All in all this demands new ways of organising ourselves and carrying out our work so as to ensure
that we live up to our ambition of creating a world
in which everyone has equal access to education,
influence and resources.
Photo: Kathrine Dalsgaard
What was your best experience in 2013?
Apart from the many outstanding results of our
development work, I am particularly pleased to see
the enormous amount of commitment from pupils
and teachers all over the world – and from our volunteers and staff – in connection to the Education
for All campaign. Just imagine – almost 180,000
Danish pupils are using our education materials
year after year.
afford sending
“If we eliminate illicit tax flight, we can
is the message
This
l.
schoo
to
world
the
in
all children
looking
really
am
I
and
agin
Camp
of the Taxucation
forward to see if unfold even further.”
Photo: Yeray Lopez
As Chairperson of IBIS, what are you most
proud of in 2013?
I am generally really proud of the way in which
IBIS has managed to keep up with the changing
world on the one hand and yet regenerate itself,
while holding on to its identity and core values.
This is true for the discussion on resources and tax,
for example: we are sharp and express criticism,
but we prefer to engage in dialogue rather than
standing on the fringes and pointing fingers. I am
absolutely certain this is a strategy which will take
us far.
lsen
Three questions for
Mette Müller
Mette Müller
Aged 35. MA. in African Studies. Formerly worked at
the Danish Youth Council and is now a programme
manager at the Bestseller Foundation. Began her commitment to developing work as a volunteer in Mozambique. Chairperson of IBIS since 2008.
in Bolivia in the
“I am proud of the work IBIS has done
Our office is
there.
ng
worki
been
have
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years
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work is being
now closed, but fortunately a lot of our
ers.”
partn
good
carried on by
5
ibis highlights
6
Photo: William Vest-LIllesøe
HIGHLIGHTS
HIGHLIGHTS
IBIS in the future
– with or without
Oxfam
Far to many children in Ghana and Mali are working in goldmines instead
of going to school. Some of the gold mined by these children could end up
in the mobile phones we all use every day. These were the findings of a report made by DanWatch for IBIS and which motivated 8,300 Danes to sign
the IBIS petition “Stop child labour in the mobile phones”. The signatures
were submitted to the world’s largest manufacturers of mobile phones, calling on them to state exactly where their gold comes from, to ensure that no
child labour goes into the manufacturing of their telephones. The campaign
is now spreading to other countries and has paved the way for dialogue with
companies on social responsibility and child labour.
In spring 2014, one question
was often discussed by the
members of the Board and
executive and IBIS employees
and members. Should IBIS
become part of Oxfam International in the future or not?
The same question was up
for discussion at a number
of public meetings, and the
starting point is the changes
taking place in the political
climate in recent years in
relation to development and
the options for financing
development work.
The central question is
whether IBIS would be better
off as a small, independent
NGO within more loose
alliances, as at present – or
as part of a strong, large organisation like Oxfam? The
Annual General Meeting will
decide on this in September
2014.
Photo: Lene Lyck Festersen
8,300 people said:
“Stop child labour in our mobile phones”
Volunteers donated their brains to IBIS
50 young people with web design and programming
talent met up in spring 2014 for a “hackathon”. Their
aim was to compete in developing IT tools for charitable
purposes.
The challenged focused on IBIS’ efforts to ensure
that the extraction of natural resources in Ghana is done
with the least negative consequences for humans and
environment, while also helping to create development
for the local communities and the countries.
IBIS needs tools to chart the consequences of mining,
needs an online platform for receiving and collating
complaints from local communities and are looking for
a smart way of using social media in relation to companies and politicians. Rikke Koblauch, Itai Peleg, Jesper
Oskarsson and Marc Falk won the hackaton with their
project “Be Cool – Stay in School”. In June, they headed
off to Ghana to develop their ideas further with a team
of Ghanaian IT specialists and partners.
How can Danish school students exercise while learning about life in poor
countries? IBIS volunteers in Copenhagen have come up with a creative
solution: an interactive nature track race involving a mixture of online tasks
and physical elements. In autumn 2013, this race became part of the teaching
materials for the Education for All EXERCISE scheme, where students all
over Denmark competed in order to help poor children go to school.
Photo: Bertil Suadicani
Interactive orienteering for
school students
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HIGHLIGHTS
Photo: Jeppe Carlsen
Photo: Thilde Baden Rasmussen
“Sharp tongues”
from
Operation One
Day’s Work
17,000 upper secondary students spent a rainy November day in 2013
supporting youth in Sierra Leone. 300 young men and women in the West
African country will undergo training to become mine watchers with the
task to ensure that a fair part of the profits from diamond mining benefit
poor people and the youth in the country.
There was no lack of creativity from the Danish students when it
came to finding things to do. Apart from doing traditional jobs such as
gardening and cleaning, some students acted as hair models, performed
fairy-tale plays, auctioned off their labour through the internet, taught
school classes, made organic chocolate and many other.
In total, their efforts collected more than DKK 4.4 million for the “Rå
Diamanter og Skarpe Tunger” – Rough Diamonds and Sharp Tongues –
project which aims to train 300 young people to collect information on
mining projects and also train teachers and school managementators,
hold discussions with the authorities and ask critical questions related to
the mining activities they witness every day.
It was a beautiful sight when 1,000
colourful balloons flew into the sky
from Christiansborg parliament
square in Copenhagen one sunny
day in May. Beneath them were 700
children and one Prime Minister,
and they all wished for the same
thing: for all children in the world to
be able to go to school.
57 million children are today
without education, and many others
receive an education so poor that
they never learn to read and write.
The children, the balloons and the
Prime Minister were at the parliament square for IBIS’ annual action
day, which was also celebrated
in the Danish towns of Aarhus
and Aalborg. Together with the
Reading Rocket and visits from IBIS’
Reading Caravan, the action day is
a cornerstone of the Education for
All campaign - this year focusing on
children in Sierra Leone.
It was the twelfth time IBIS had
invited Danish pupils to learn about
children in other countries,
and up to now 66 per cent of all
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Photo: Lotte Ærsøe
The flying wishes of 700 children
Danish primary schools receive
copies of the Reading Rocket. Some
schools are also visited by the Reading Caravan, and for one school in
Holstebro this visit was extra special.
On this day the Reading Caravan
was accompanied by the Danish
Minister for Trade and Development
Cooperation Mogens Jensen. He
was keen to see how children use the
Reading Rocket. He also wanted to
hear the tales of young IBIS volunteers from their time in Sierra Leone
Later in the year, the Timbuktu
Foundation carried out a survey of
what children and young people
know and think about developing
countries. It showed, among other
things, that children who have read
the Reading Rocket know more
about the conditions in developing
countries and feel a greater sense of
responsibility than other children
when it comes to helping the poorest people of the world.
“This underlines how important
it is to include global teaching in
the school curriculum,” says Helle
Gudmandsen, the coordinator of the
Education for All campaign.
Photo: Ole Brink, DR
HIGHLIGHTS
Denmark supports teenage mothers in Guatemala
In 2013, the Danes were for the first
time able to support Latin America
at this year’s TV-Collection, when
IBIS joined with a project to help
teenage mothers in Guatemala.
More than DKK 87 million was
collected, and out of this DKK 2.5
million will support the young
women in Guatemala. One of them
is Kimberly (in the picture.) She
was raped by her uncle at the age
of 12 and now lives alone with her
young son.
With the funds from the TVCollection, IBIS and our partners
will be working to prevent teen
pregnancies and support young
girls to be able to take care of them-
selves and their children. 600 of
the girls are being trained to advise
other young people, and 1,500
young mothers will be taught about
health and reproductive rights.
Finally, IBIS will be teaching and
equipping 150 traditional midwives.
It seemed like a crazy idea when
chef Claus Meyer and IBIS got
together for the first time back in
2011 and came up with concepts on
how food can create development
for some of Bolivia’s most vulnerable young people and the country
as a whole. Since then, a unique
partnership has developed between
IBIS, Claus Meyer and the Melting
Pot Foundation.
The first initiatives were the
opening of a food school and the
gourmet restaurant GUSTU. And
in 2014 the project has grown to be
Photo: Kathrine Dalsgaard
Photo: Kathrine Dalsgaard
The Food School a major success in Bolivia
a “food movement” as it is called by
Claus Meyer. Four new food schools
have opened, and ten more are on
the way in El Alto on the outskirts
of the country’s capital.
Hundreds of families in the countryside are trained to produce more
food of better quality. 150 market
women in the capital La Paz have
participated in courses on hygiene,
sales and service. IBIS partners has
held talks at education institutions
on how jobs and development can
be created through gastronomy. A
total of 20,000 food producers, hotel
and restaurant staff, people working
with tourism and education, young
entrepreneurs and the public have
gathered at two major gastronomic trade fairs in Bolivia, and this
cooperation has been marked in
Denmark as well.
Friends of the Food school have
invited people to try quinoa, Bolivian wine and new foods from and
relating to Bolivia. And not least, a
very special cooperation with Karise
boarding school has come about,
resulting in five school weeks dedicated Bolivia and the Food School.
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Photo: Mike Kollöffel
HIGHLIGHTS
Cooperation in the spirit of Hempel
2011 saw the start of a partnership between the paint
company Hempel and IBIS. The aim is to combat child
labour and poverty by giving children quality education. Since then, Hempel has increased its commitment
every year, and its CSR partnership with IBIS was
extended significantly in 2013 from DKK 1.5 million
to DKK 5 million a year. The Hempel Foundation is
now supporting education for children in Mozambique,
Bolivia, Guatemala, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
“This is entirely in the spirit of J. C. Hempel. He founded a tiny paint company in Havnegade, Copenhagen
in 1915, and right from the outset he was a caring
boss who took good care of his employees. When he
left what was then a much larger company in 1948, he
placed a major part of the profit in a fund, the Hempel
Foundation. This fund is now supporting 18 different
education projects throughout the world,” says Bente
Mølgaard, head of Hempel’s CSR.
IBIS supported Yasuni in Ecuador
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The many photo signatures were submitted to
Ecuador’s delegation with a call to heed the wishes of
Ecuador’s civil society and save Yasuni.
The great interest in Latin America was one of the
reasons why IBIS has now taken part in reviving the
Latin America Academy and will work with Danish
organisations working in and with Latin America to
organise lectures, film screenings and debates.
Photo: Kathrine Dalsgaard
On 16. August 2013, President Correa of Ecuador
announced that he wanted to start extracting oil
and hence abandon the attempt to save Yasuni, the
biggest national park in the region. The international
community had not backed what was known as the
Yasuni Initiative, which the president launched in
2007 with the support of NGOs and environmentalists the world over. The aim of this initiative was
to leave 846 million tonnes of heavy crude oil in the
ground under one of the most vulnerable rainforest
areas in the world, in return for USD 3.6 billion in
compensation from the international community.
In Denmark, IBIS had been backing the initiative on a political level since 2011 and had also got
thousands of volunteers involved by means of the
“I am Yasuni” campaign. When COP19 opened in
Poland, a total of 2,218 people had uploaded pictures
of themselves with the characteristic red face paint of
the Huaorani Indians.
HIGHLIGHTS
The new Toms EKSTRA campaign rolled out in autumn 2013
fronted by Danish celeb Christiane
Schaumburg-Müller. While making
the Danes eat more Toms EKSTRA
chocolate, she raised awareness of
the development work being done
by Toms and IBIS together with
COOP in the cocoa areas in Ghana.
Each year, Toms donates a part
of its profit to quality education
for children in the cocoa districts
– an initiative devised by IBIS and
Toms together in 2007, and which
has already resulted in far better
education and less child labour in
the area.
Today IBIS, COOP and Toms are
partners in an initiative financed
by Danida, aiming at increasing
the farmers income and so ensure
sustainable development, as well as
providing quality education.
Fighting
dodgy
morals
“When it happens in Africa, we assume it is because our governments
know no better. That they do not
have the capacity to figure out these
structures.”
These were the words of tax expert Alvin Mosioma when he heard
about the Danish government’s
decision to sell part of the national
Danish energy company DONG.
Buyer was the major global investor
Goldman Sachs, which is known
to actively use intricate corporate
structures and tax havens to avoid
paying tax from its profits.
Alvin Mosioma is the leader of
the Tax Justice Network in Africa
and one of IBIS’ partners in the efforts to combat illegal capital flight
which each year cost developing
countries DKK 900 billion in lost
tax revenue. Money which could
finance education, health and development. And because tax havens
and capital flight are global problems, which the Danish govern-
ment is usually trying to solve, IBIS
got involved in the critisism and
debate on the sale of DONG.
This debate followed immediately
after a series of documentaries on
tax havens broadcastet on national TV. Lars Koch, IBIS’ head of
politics and campaigns, was one
of the experts commenting on the
behaviour of the Danish Jyske Bank
in Switzerland and others.
“An expression of dodgy morals,”
as Lars Koch called it, and many
Danes agreed with him and IBIS on
the fact that tax evasion and capital
flight should be stopped.
In spring 2014, IBIS used the
“Taxucation” campaign to link the
fight against tax evasion with efforts
to create finance for education,
using examples showing that, if only
multinational companies paid a fair
amount of their profits in tax, we
could give every child in the world a
quality education.
A strong alliance
Seven European NGOs,
including IBIS, have been
working closely together
since 2000 in the Alliance2015 to contribute
effectively to achieving global
development goals. It gained
its eighth member this year in
HELVETAS of Switzerland,
strengthening the alliance.
The alliance has shared
offices in nine countries
throughout the world, and
the partnership is particularly strong when it comes to
disaster response initiatives.
Together, we have expertise
in everything from sanitation
and health to food safety and
education.
Besides emergency initiatives, the year was characterised
by preparations for the time
after 2015. The world is already working on deciding on
the goals that will success the
so called Millenium Goals,
and Alliance2015 is working
hard to ensure that quality
education and combating
hunger is included.
Alliance2015 has held two
important round table discussions. The High level meeting
on education was held in
Copenhagen, with IBIS as
chair. The findings will now
be used to raise additional
funds and focus more closely
on education when donors
and governments gather in
Brussels in June 2014 in order
to – we hope – allocate more
money to education.
Photo: Anne Sørensen
Christiane Schaumburg-Müller
was the face of Toms and IBIS
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HOW IBIS WORKS
How IBIS works
IBIS WORKS FOR A JUST WORLD. HERE IS HOW WE GO ABOUT IT.
TEXT MALENE AADAL BO PHOTO EVA KØNGERSKOV IBIS support the education and training of
children and young people, men and women, and
the training of groups, associations and organisations and to influence politicians and the international community.
Some of this work is organised through the education programmes, which are aimed at realising
the right to quality education for all. This is
being done by the training of teachers and school
boards, by developing and testing new teaching
models and by strengthening the influence of civil
society on education policy.
Another part of the work if organised through
the governance programmes, aiming at ensuring
human rights and support individuals, groups and
organisations in gaining democratic influence.
3 key words on how IBIS works
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Rights
Partnership
Quality
Everyone has the right to
education, influence and
a fair share of the world’s
resources. This is the starting
point for our development
work all over the world, and
means that rights are what
we focus on in all contexts. In
practice, we are working to
inform people of their rights
and support them in their
own struggle to have these
rights recognised.
IBIS primarily works via
or together with local or
international partners. First
and foremost, this is a way of
ensuring local support and
sustainable development, and
it is also the best way to create
an impact and make a lasting
difference.
A child can easily go to
school without learning anything. And women can easily
have a seat in parliament
without ever having their
voices heard. This is why IBIS
has a keen focus on quality –
ensuring that children receive
good, relevant education, that
their teachers are competenc,
that organisations are skilled
and trustworthy, and that all
the people with influence use
it in a good and proper way.
HOW IBIS WORKS
individual
education
• Develops models
for quality teaching of marginalised children,
youth and adults.
• Works in particular with basic education, life skills,
vocational training
and literacy.
• Supports the
quality education
of teachers.
democracy
• Strenghtens the
participation of
individuals in the
democracy.
• Teaches men and
women about
rights and
methods to
exercise influence.
• Focuses in particular on increasing
the influence of
women, young
people and indigenous peoples.
civil society
education
• Supports and
trains school
boards, parentteacher associations, teacher
associations,
student councils,
etc.
• Supports organisations and networks
who promote
quality education
and rights to
education.
state/government
education
• Supports organisations and networks
to influence
legislation on
education.
• Supports local
authorities in
the provision of
quality education.
democracy
• Supports civil society in influencing
legislation on fair
financial redistribution and climate
policy.
• Initiate and facilitate dialogue with
governments on
anti-corruption,
decentralisation
and rights.
democracy
• Supports civil
society’s campaigning on tax
policy and the extraction of natural
resources.
• Reinforces local
and national
organisations who
seek democratic
influence.
globally
education
• Supports regional
education networks and perform
political work in
order to secure
political and
financial backing
for targets on
education for all.
• Share information in Denmark
and globally on
children’s right to
quality education.
democracy
• Takes part in
international
networks working
for transparency
and fair taxation
of multinational
companies.
• Is part of international campaigns
focusing on
climate change,
the rights of indigenous peoples
and fair distribution of the world’s
resources.
IBIS’ thematic programmes are aiming at creating partnerships
and synergies between all four levels.
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WHERE IBIS WORKS
Where IBIS works
GUATEMALA
NICARAGUA
BOLIVIA
DENMARK
IBIS
CONCERN
HIVOS
WELTHUNGERHILFE
PEOPLE IN NEED
ACTED
HELVETAS
CESVI
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OFFICES IN PARTNER
COUNTRIES
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia,
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana,
South Sudan, Mozambique and
Burkina Faso.
ALLIANCE2015
The organisations in Alliance2015
Acted, Cesvi, Concern, IBIS,
Hivos, People in Need, Helvetas
and Welthungerhilfe.
IBIS IN DENMARK
www.ibis.dk
General Secretary
Vagn Berthelsen
WHERE IBIS WORKS
BURKINA FASO
SIERRA LEONE
GHANA
SOUTH SUDAN
LIBERIA
IBIS IN GUATEMALA
www.ibisguatemala.org
Country Director
Ana Maria Mendez
IBIS IN GHANA
www.ibisghana.org
Country Director
Tijani Ahmed Hamza
IBIS IN BURKINA FASO
www.ibisburkinafaso.org
Country Director
Aliou Kissima Tandia
IBIS IN NICARAGUA
www.ibisnicaragua.org
Country Director
Sergio Pivaral Leiva
IBIS IN SIERRA LEONE
www.ibissierraleone.org
Country Director
Rosalind Hanson-Alp
IBIS IN SOUTH SUDAN
www.ibissouthsudan.org
Country Director
Peter McCanny
IBIS IN BOLIVIA
www.ibisbolivia.org
Country Director
Gonzalo Solares
IBIS IN LIBERIA
www.ibisliberia.org
Country Director
Anne-Catherine Bajard
IBIS IN MOZAMBIQUE
www.ibismozambique.org
Country Director
Anne Hoff
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PHoto: Mike Kollöffel
MOZAMBIQUE
ibis country by country
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Photo: William Vest-LIllesøe
HØJDEPUNKTER
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / GUATEMALA
Guatemala
IBIS’ SUPPORT FOR THE COUNTRY’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IS FOCUSING ON QUALITY
EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN AND DEMOCRATIC INFLUENCE FOR WOMEN,
WHO HAVE TAKEN UP THE FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION.
PHOTO JULIE D. KNUDSEN A content woman sits at her office in Guatemala City.
Ana Lucia Xiloj is a defence lawyer, and despite a period
of difficult conditions in terms of human rights she has
just won an important case.
“My client, who is of Mayan origin, used to work for
the Ministry of Justice. One day, her boss locked her up
in a bathroom and reprimanded her for being a dirty,
good-for-nothing Indian. The other day, we got a court
order – after six years of struggle – saying that it was
harassment and unlawful discrimination and therefore
a punishable offence,” she says.
Ana Lucia Xiloj spearheads one of the organisations IBIS has worked closely with this year in order to
improve women’s rights and equality. We have, among
other things, had guidelines for public prosecutors in
cases of discrimination approved – guidelines that are
expected to create more legal security for women and
indigenous peoples.
Another important partnership for IBIS is with the
Central American think-tank ICEFI, which has been
involved in analysing the economic, legal and environmental consequences of the extractive industry
in Guatemala – analyses which have been used
to raise awareness and spark debate. Together IBIS
and ICEFI have launched a web platform where
contracts, agreements and accounts from the extractive
companies are now published. These initiatives are
aimed at giving people better tools to access information and influence on issues such as capital flight and
tax evasion.
However, to be able to use such information, people
need education. And intercultural, multilingual teaching is still central to IBIS work. 40,000 children from
Guatemala’s Ixil region benefited from the teaching materials which IBIS supported the developent of. It was
approved by the authorities this year and distributed to
all schools in the region.
These schools are also the starting point for the initiative to combat teenage pregnancies and gender-based
violence, which IBIS got running with funding from the
Danish TV-Collection in 2013. In spring 2014, 3,000
girls were being trained as agents for change, and at the
same time hundreds of girls who had been abused were
given help to get back to school.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• The relatives of the victims of the Totonicapan massacre
in 2012 were successful in their trial case against the
Guatemalan government and received historical
compensation.
• The authorities of indigenous peoples have significantly
reduced conflicts relating to territorial rights – more than
4,000 cases have been resolved peacefully over the year.
• 40,000 children in the country’s Ixil region now have
teaching materials in their own language, with content
which does not discriminate.
IBIS in Guatemala
IBIS has been working in Guatemala since 1990.
We have strengthened the indigenous population to
exercise their rights, particularly with regard to the
inclusion of youth and women. IBIS has had success
with strengthening the legal system, civil society
organisation and defenders of human rights, among
other things. We have 30 local partners. The office
employs 19 people and has an annual turnover of
around DKK 25 million.
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IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / NICARAGUA
Nicaragua
IN NICARAGUA, IBIS IS WORKING FOR A BETTER LIFE FOR THE COUNTRY’S POOREST.
THIS IS BEING ACHIEVED THROUGH QUALITY EDUCATION AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR JOBS AND INFLUENCE.
PHOTO EVA KØNGERSKOV If you move close enough, you will see that most of Carlos’ tattoos actually picture the names of his children
and a picture of his mother. But others are tougher and
tells the tale of his past as a member of one of Nicaragua’s gangs – a past which Carlos Eduardo Centeno
shares with his friend Harvin Borge (left). Their stores
are similar: gang member at the age of 12, taking drugs
at 13 and a life full of violence, abuse, gang warfare and
prison. But their stories are also about an oppotunity
they both reached for when it came along.
Today both Carlos and Harvin have left the gang
and are working on creating new lives for themselves.
The turning point came the day when a member of staff
from one of IBIS’ partners offered them places on a
course that would give them a trade to live on.
“I’d wished to change my life for a long time. But
even so, it was hard to suddenly find myself on a course
with people from rival gangs. It was very unpleasant.
But I stuck with it, and little by little I realised that we
all wanted the same thing. We wanted to go on with our
lives,” says Harvin Borge.
Almost 200 members of Nicaragua’s toughest gangs
were supported to make a new life for themselves, and
quite uniquely this took place in close partnership with
Nicaragua’s police force. The police have turned out to
be a strong and valuable partner with which IBIS has
worked on initiatives to counteract crime among young
people, but also on efforts to guarantee the indigenous
population collective territorial rights.
In 2013, a joint manual was created with the help of
the police, the army and the Assistant Public Prosecutor for the allocation of territorial rights, which
will hopefully reduce the level of conflict between
the indigenous people and settlers – and between the
indigenous people and companies that want to extract
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natural resources from the ground. Natural resources
were also on the agenda for a handful of young men
and women from the Caribbean coast. They received
training on how to protect their environment and adapt
to changes in the local climate.
IBIS is also working to guarantee a quality education
for the country’s poorest children. This is done through
training for teachers, support to parent groups and
NGOs in their demand for better education, and by
creating projects which show the effects of intercultural,
bilingual education.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• 54 former gang members now prevent crime by helping
other young people to have education and jobs.
• For the first time in Nicaragua’s history, all of the country’s indigenous peoples have worked together on a draft
for a new law on collective territorial rights.
• Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and head teachers have formed a network at 40 schools in Matagalpa.
The aim is to increase the quality of education.
IBIS in Nicaragua
IBIS has been working in Nicaragua for more than
30 years. We focus on support to the country’s
indigenous peoples, whom we are strengthening in
order to give them control over their own territories
and natural resources. At the same time, we are supporting the children of the indigenous peoples with a
quality education. IBIS in Nicaragua works together
with 39 partners, has 15 employees and an annual
turnover of around DKK 17 million.
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / BOLIVIA
Bolivia
ONCE AGAIN INTERCULTURAL, BILINGUAL EDUCATION WAS AT THE HEART OF IBIS’
WORK IN BOLIVIA – NOW SUPPLEMENTED WITH PRACTICAL COURSES AIMED
AT CREATING JOBS AND INCOME FOR YOUTH AND ADULTS.
PHOTO STEPHAN GAMILLSCHEG “Children from the rural areas used to be deeply
ashamed to show that they spoke their native language,
the ancient Inca language of Quechua. Nowadays we
use these children as experts when we want the class to
pronounce a word in Quechua. I tell you, this result in
students who are very self-confident and very talented
in a way we haven’t seen before.”
This is how Irene Villca, a teacher at Kinder Potosi
School, explains the effects of the intercultural, bilingual
education which IBIS is helping the Bolivian government to implement via its partner AAE.
IBIS was there when the law and vision were up for
negotiation years ago. IBIS then supported the development of new curricula, and this year we have used
funding from Asta Justesen, the Hempel Foundation
and others to support our partners in the creation of
teaching materials. We have also provided training for
almost 1,700 teachers on how to do intercultural, bilingual teaching on a day-to-day basis.
16,000 children have experienced the changes, and
the results have been so convincing that the government
is now planning to apply the methods throughout the
entire Quechua-speaking part of Bolivia.
Another project which has grown this year is the
Food School in Bolivia and the other activities taking
place in partnership with the Melting Pot Foundation. It
essentially involve using food as a starting point for the
provision of education and jobs. Four new food schools
have already opened in El Alto, and another ten are on
the way.
IBIS works in close cooperation with the authorities of the indigenous peoples, this year supporting the
indigenous peoples to influence an important law on the
rights of the local population in relation to companies
wanting to extract natural resources.
Unfortunately, the year was also spent closing the IBIS
office in Bolivia. Some of IBIS’ work was perceived by
the government as undue political interference; and
although a series of misunderstandings were cleared up,
IBIS was asked to close its office and leave the country.
It was later agreed that the food school and related
activities could continue unaltered, and that the education work would be continued by the international
NGO Oxfam with support from IBIS in Copenhagen.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• An IBIS education project relating to “intercultural,
bilingual teaching” is selected as a model when
introducing new curricula and teaching methods.
• 1.5 tonnes of fine honey, honey shampoo and soap are
the first year’s result from teaching indigenous peoples
about the processing and commercialisation of various
products.
• A publication “Guidelines for Implementing the Right
of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent”, was developed by – among others – the indigenous
peoples’ authorities in Bolivia. It was shared and discussed at the annual UN summit on indigenous peoples.
IBIS in Bolivia
IBIS has worked in Bolivia for over 30 years. We have
supported children and young people to have quality
education and indigenous peoples’ organisations in
achieving influence, rights and economic development in their territories. In December 2013, IBIS
in Bolivia had 25 partners, 16 employees and a total
turnover for 2013 of just under DKK 67 million.
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IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / SIERRA LEONE
Sierra Leone
AN ELECTRIC LIGHTBULB IN A CLASSROOM AND A SHEET OF PAPER WITH NEW GUIDELINES FOR THE CHIEFS. THESE ARE A COUPLE OF THE RESULTS OF IBIS’ WORK FOR QUALITY
EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S POOREST COUNTRIES.
PHOTO WILLIAM VEST-LILLESØE
Outside the school, the town of Kabala lies shrouded in
darkness. But inside the classroom, two clear light bulbs
illuminate rows of students studying intensively for their
exams. And for the first time they have proper light to
do so. 16-year-old Fanta Mansaray is one of the students
and she is excited about the light and the opportunity it
gives her to spend the evenings improving her skills.
“I used to study by candle light, but that strained
my eyes and candles are expensive,” says her classmate
Fodie Sesay.
The new classroom lights are part of a project supported by IBIS, which involves improving the quality
of education by using solar energy to light up schools.
So far, it has provided light and thus better education to
two schools, but many more schools will soon benefit.
At the same time, young men and women from the
neighbourhood are being trained in how to use and
maintain the solar cells – and hence create job opportunities for themselves.
In addition to light, teachers are absolutely fundamental to IBIS’ work to create quality education and
combat poverty in Sierra Leone. We provide training
and further education for teachers, and in 2013 we
worked with the Global Education Network’s campaign to prevent the dismissal of a very large number
of teachers who had not completed official teacher
training. Another group of teachers was aided when the
government was about to remove them from the payroll
because they had not been registered properly.
This year, IBIS’ partners managed to initiate a
dialogue with the mining company London Mining on
ensuring compensation and opportunities to the local
communities in which they work. In Sierra Leone, this
has resulted in a constructive dialogue between the
company and IBIS’ partners on how mining operations
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can be carried out in a way that benefits everyone.
A dialogue between IBIS’ partners and Sierra Leone’s
Paramount Chiefs also led to important changes. For
a while there has been a wish from the community to
know how the chiefs spend the taxes collected in the
country’s 149 chiefdoms. IBIS supported the creation of
a reform of the rights and responsibilities of the chiefs
and succeeded in committing the chiefs to a set of
guidelines which, among other things, require them to
remain politically neutral.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• Since 2009, mining companies have had to sign agreements with the local communities in which they operate.
IBIS’ partners have now created a template that will ease
this process and help ensure that it actually happens.
• The country’s Paramount Chiefs endorsed a democratic
reform of their work, including a set of guidelines which
IBIS partners have helped develop.
• IBIS helped prevent the dismissal of thousands of
teachers who were not on the government’s payroll but
worked as volunteers or were paid through
the communities.
IBIS in Sierra Leone
IBIS has worked in Sierra Leone since 2006. Today,
IBIS’ work focuses on guaranteeing quality education
for all, building up democracy to the benefit of
the poorest people and ensuring fair taxation and
sustainable development based on alternative energy
sources. IBIS in Sierra Leone has app 50 employees,
17 partners and a turnover of DKK 18 million.
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / LIBERIA
Liberia
SINCE THE BEGINNING IN 2005, IBIS IN LIBERIA HAS WORKED FOR QUALITY EDUCATION
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AFFECTED BY CIVIL WAR AND POVERTY.
PHOTO WILLIAM VEST-LILLESØE
Wittness Doyen is 24 years old and studying to become
a journalist. On weekends and days off, he boards a
bus that takes him and other young volunteers out to
schools, villages, markets, football matches and other
places where people gather. Their aim is to get people
involved in creating a better future for Liberia.
Accompanied by loud African pop music, drama
and dance, the young people create an informal atmosphere where people speak freely about politics, rights
and responsibilities.
“A lot of young people don’t do anything. They don’t
know their rights, and they take no responsibility. It’s
important that someone engages them and makes them
understand that they have the power and responsibility
to shape Liberia’s future,” says Wittness Doyen.
IBIS supports the “Bus Project”, as it is known. It is
run by the youth organisation NAYMOTE which has
almost 5,000 volunteers all over Liberia. Simultaneously, IBIS works to create a range of quality education
opportunities for children and young people.
In 2013, the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP)
– IBIS’ first education project in the country – came to
an end and the reigns were handed over to Liberia’s education authorities. 121 teachers have received training in
the first four years of the project alone, and almost 3,000
students have attended the special classes in which they
completed a six-year syllabus in half the time. Almost
half of them passed the final exam, and the evaluation
showed increased self-confidence and self-esteem
among the young people whose ambitions and faith in
the future had also greatly improved. A great result considering that many of them are former refugees, child
soldiers or otherwise victims of the civil war.
In 2013, IBIS helped compile a report which uncovers the abuse that many children and young people are
subjected to in Liberian schools. This report heralded
an important debate on how physical and sexual abuse
from classmates and teachers can be stopped.
At the same time, IBIS supported the development of
a Code of Conduct for teachers in Liberia – guidelines
that have drawn the attention of teachers and the population at large on the crucial role of teachers in society.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• In 2013, a special forum for education headed by IBIS
and Alliance2015 partner Concern was given a seat in The
Education Committee which directly advises the Government on the development of Liberia’s education system.
• An evaluation showed that 80 per cent of the young people
who have received vocational training and basic reading
and writing skills through IBIS YEP-project either have
a source of income or are studying. 39 per cent have an
income related directly to the skills acquired through YEP.
• IBIS’ partner CENTAL put transparency on the agenda
of local politicians, media and civil society in order to
reduce corruption and ensure that development funds
and taxation of natural resources benefit the people.
IBIS in Liberia
IBIS started working in Liberia in 2005 in order to
support a generation of children and youth who had
never gone to school because of the civil war. Today,
IBIS also supports organisations that work to promote democratic influence. We cooperate closely with
the Ministry of Education on the development of the
education sector. IBIS in Liberia has 58 employees
and a turnover in 2013 in excess of DKK 17 million.
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IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / BURKINA FASO
Burkina Faso
QUALITY EDUCATION FOR 75,000 CHILDREN AND MORE GIRLS COMPLETING
BASIC EDUCATION. THESE ARE THE FIRST INTERIM TARGETS FOR THE WORK WHICH
IBIS HAS JUST INITIATED IN OUR LATEST PROGRAMME COUNTRY.
PHOTO CONNIE DUPONT A schoolgirl is writing in a notebook. Nothing special
at first sight, but when you realise that we are in a
medium-sized town in a country in which only a quarter of the population can read and write, the tale is quite
different. Few children in Burkina Faso go to school.
And even fewer - especially among girls - stay there.
“Far too many children don’t go to school, and
far too many children go to school without learning
muchbecause of the poor condition of the teaching. Up
to 100 students in a class, no teaching materials and
teachers without proper training. A teaching system
like this keeps the population in poverty and makes it
difficult for them to gain influence or excercise even the
most basic rights,” says Connie Dupont, senior advisor
at IBIS.
The great need for quality education and the chances
of being able to make an important and lasting difference were the reason why IBIS decided in 2012 to
make Burkina Faso in West Africa IBIS’ new cooperation programme country.
Aliou Tandia was taken on as the new country director this year, and his first job was to set up an IBIS office
in the capital city of Ouagadougou.
1. April heralded the formal launch date for IBIS’
first project in the country. This is an education project
aimed at 75,000 children in Bazéga and Ziro, two of the
poorest provinces in the country. The project builds
on the work which IBIS has been doing together with
BØRNEfonden since 2010. The aim is to create better
education for more people (in particular girls), by providing training for teachers and head teachers, support
the development and distribution of new materials and
methods, and supporting local school boards.
IBIS also works closely with the education authorities in Burkina Faso’s to secure finance for the sector
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and greater transparency in how the funds are spent.
Another important aim is to support local and national
organisations working to improve schools by influencing national policies and practices.
Besides the education project, IBIS has taken the
first steps towards extending its work. Democratic
participation and influence, taxation of the country’s
extractive industry and climate challenges are all issues
that could show relevant.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• The IBIS office in Ouagadougou was established.
• Education partners were found, and the first few activities
aimed at creating better education for 75,000 children
have got off the ground.
• Experience from the project run previously by IBIS
together with BØRNEfonden in Burkina Faso is seen to
be valuable by people from the Ministry for Education,
teachers and parent groups at the schools.
IBIS in Burkina Faso
IBIS has worked in Burkina Faso since 2010. In 2012
the country was selected as IBIS’ new programme
country. We embarked upon our first project on 1.
April, with focus on quality education and equality
in primary schools. This project is being run in partnership with BØRNEfonden.
IBIS has three employees at the national office in
Ouagadougou and an annual turnover of little more
than DKK 3.5 million.
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / GHANA
Ghana
EDUCATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD OTHERWISE RECEIVE NONE,
AND INFLUENCE ON MATTERS RELEVANT TO PEOPLE’S LIVES.
THIS IS KEY TO IBIS’ WORK IN GHANA.
PHOTO WILLIAM VEST-LILLESØE 12-year-old Ganiu lives in the village of Tachipe in
northern Ghana. He loves going to school, and English
is his favorite subject. Every time he takes a seat in front
of the blackboard, it is a special experience for him,
because until recently there was no school in Tachipe.
2013 saw the end of one of IBIS’ largest and most
successful education projects ever, when the Wing
School project, as planned, was passed on to Ghana’s
Education Services, who have committed to continue
and expand the concept. But funds raised through the
Danish Christmas Calendar collection in 2012 provided
the opportunity to open 20 new schools. One of them
is in Tachipe where Ganiu has been given the chance of
getting an education for the first time in his life.
Children in remote villages like Tachipe are not
the only ones in need of special support if they are to
get an education. The same is true for Ghana’s girls. In
2013, the efforts by IBIS’ partners to support schooling
for girls and ensuring equality in the classroom began
to show results. The girls are performing better and
particularly the creation of what are known as girls’
clubs outside school hours are appearing to influence
the girls’ self confidence and their courage to strive for
an education.
“Focus on education” was the key message in a campaign which was successfully implemented by young
Ghanaians and local NGOs with funding from IBIS in
the autumn of 2013. The campaign was the first of its
kind, aimed at Government with a view to persuade it
to allocate the proceeds of Ghanaian oil extraction to
matters such as education. This resulted in an increase
from zero to 12 per cent allocation.
Efforts to guarantee the local community a fair share
of the profits from their natural resources are central to
the work of IBIS in Ghana. A critical but constructive
public debate is key in this regard and for this reason
IBIS’ partners trained local decision makers in the
country’s mining areas while also providing journalists
with further training to be capable of uncovering matters related to the extractive industry.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• School Management Committees, consisting of parents,
teachers and school staff, have previously helped increase
the quality of children’s education at a local level. In 2013,
they joined forces in a few district-wide networks that
have already shown their strength.
• The Government earmarked funds in its budget to give no
fewer than 50,000 older out-of-school children a special
teaching course to bring them back to school; something
IBIS and partners have worked to achieve for a long time.
• 20 new Wing Schools were opened in 2013 with funding from the Danish Christmas Calendar. At the same
time, the previous Wing Schools were taken over by the
Government and many of them were expanded into fully
fledged primary schools.
IBIS in Ghana
IBIS is working to create quality education for
children and young people in Ghana, while also
supporting civil society to reinforce the rights of
the population and their participation in decision
making processes. IBIS in Ghana has 29 partners, 45
employees and a turnover in 2013 in excess of DKK
24 million.
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IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / SOUTH SUDAN
South Sudan
EDUCATION IS KEY TO OUR WORK IN SOUTH SUDAN. TRAINING
OF TEACHERS AND SCHOOL BOARDS AND SUPPORT FOR LOCAL EDUCATION
AUTHORITIES ARE IN FOCUS.
PHOTO HANNE SELNÆS Wearing white knee socks and black shoes, Victoria Alaka
and Paska Aleng each carry a bowl of porridge in their
hands. They are just off the breakfast queue at one of the
few boarding schools for girls here in South Sudan.
“Boys are disruptive. That’s why I like to be here,
where there are just girls. You can still have boyfriends
that you see at home in the holidays, but at school it’s
nice to have some peace and quiet,” says Paska.
She is 18 years old and does not have a boyfriend.
But Victoria, her 21-year-old classmate, does. Two, in
fact. This is potentially a very practical arrangement.
“Having two boyfriends is good, because that way
you haven’t promised either of them that you’ll marry
them,” says Victoria.
Being a girl in one of the poorest countries in the
world requires a proper strategy, even when it comes to
boyfriends, to reach as far as Victoria and Paska. Not
only have these two girls made it all the way to the final
year of upper secondary school, but they also go to a
boarding school with well trained teachers, computer
teaching and a science lab. The school has, with support
from IBIS, been developed into a model school to show
how equality and development can be created through
quality education.
There is particular emphasis on training of teachers
– an initiative that has resulted in high level of participation, lower dropout rates and better academic results.
It is crucial in general that the local communities
support their children’s education. This is why IBIS’
priority again this year is to raise awareness of the right
to education. As a result a village organised food in
schools when it was known that many children dropped
out because of hunger.
Hunger also used to be a daily challenge for almost
150 street children, whom IBIS has helped to start
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school in the capital, Juba. Together with the local
authorities, IBIS has supported the training of social
workers, who give children a secure place to be while
also motivating them to resume their schooling.
Since December 2013 IBIS has also been investing
a lot of effort in helping the many children who have
been forced to flee with their families on account of
the conflict which has brought the country in a state of
emergency. More than 3,000 children are now receiving
basic education in the refugee camps in Juba and are
also learning about hygiene and safety. The classes are
held in safe places where children can play surrounded
by adults who have been trained to take care of them.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• 1,562 boys and girls have learned basic reading and writing in special literacy classes. At the same time, a number
of teachers have been trained to teach these classes.
• 15 social workers received funding to complete their
education and are now working on the IBIS project for
street children in Juba.
• More than 3,000 children have been given a safe place to
stay and a basic education at the refugee camps in Juba.
IBIS in South Sudan
IBIS has worked in South Sudan since 2007. Emphasis is on education for children and young people in a
country where most adults are illiterate. This work is
being carried out in close partnership with local and
state authorities and an emerging civil society.
In 2013, IBIS had 24 employees in South Sudan and a
turnover of DKK 8 million.
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / MOZAMBIQUE
Mozambique
INFLUENCE TO WOMEN
AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND QUALITY EDUCATION FOR THE CHILDREN AND.
THESE ARE KEY TO IBIS’ WORK IN OUR OLDEST PROGRAMME COUNTRY.
PHOTO MIKE KOLLÖFFEL At the end of 2013 the government of Mozambique
published ten important documents. It was contracts
with the multinational corporations that extract oil
or gas in the country. The public had demanded to se
these contracts after two analysis was published by the
Mozambiquean NGO CIP with funding from IBIS.
“The publication of these contracts was a huge victory,” says Fatima Mimbire, coordinator at CIP.
“The reports we had compiled on Sasol and Kenmare showed that the companies hardly paid any tax
at all, but they had apparently negotiated special terms
and rights. This created debate and forced the hand
of the government, which eventually presented these
important contracts,” she says with satisfaction.
There was also debate related to the local elections
in the autumn of 2013. IBIS supported women and
young people to stand up and seek influence, and we
supported initiatives that would help to ensure that the
elections were fair and peaceful. Not least the youth
parliament, an IBIS partner, urged people to maintain a
constructive, tolerant discussion in all contexts. Members were also active during the elections themselves in
several places, averting clashes between different groups
of voters.
IBIS partners helped to put women’s issues and
rights on the agenda in the political debates. This was
particularly the case with a manifesto compiled by
IBIS partner Forum Mulher, and in a documentary
shown on national TV. The documentary is about six
women who were all part of the IBIS project “Women
in Politics” and their journey towards self-esteem and
influence.
It is evident that there has been an increase in the
numbers of young people and women on the new town
councils and in other influential positions.
For IBIS in Mozambique, 2013 was also the year where
the education concept developed and tested at what are
known as “Happy Schools” was extended.
Close partnership between regional and national
authorities led to the inclusion of further training
and ongoing supervision of teachers in the national
recommendations for how to create quality education.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• 425 men and women received training on IT, management, political participation and advocacy at the civil
society centre CEDESC, which IBIS supports in Maputo.
• 325 volunteers have started working as agents for change
in their local communities and have received training on
how to use the new social media platform OLAVULA,
which aims to combat corruption in the school system.
• The percentage of women on school boards has gone from
16 per cent in 2012 to 31 per cent in 2013 at the schools
supported by IBIS.
IBIS in Mozambique
Mozambique is the country in which IBIS has worked
the longest. We have been helping to create education
and democracy development there since 1976. We
work together with 25 different local organisations
and have 27 employees. In 2013, IBIS in Mozambique
had a turnover in excess of DKK 42 million.
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IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / AAP AND LAPI
Global advocacy
AAP AND LAPI ARE ABBREVIATIONS FOR IBIS’ REGIONAL PROGRAMMES, WHICH
AIMS AT INFLUENCE LEGISLATION ON TAX, CLIMATE AND THE EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY.
THERE HAS BEEN PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON TAX AND TRANSPARENCY THIS YEAR.
PHOTOS WILLIAM VEST-LILLESØE AND EVA KØNGERSKOV In January 2013, the government of Mozambique
bowed to enormous public pressure and began publishing the country’s contracts with the international
mining and gas corporations. The breakthrough came
after a report supported by IBIS revealed that the country received hardly any share of the profits from one of
the first major mines in the country, run by Kenmare
Plc of Ireland. And there have been lots of other positive results over the year from the regional policy work
done by IBIS via the AAP and LAPI programmes. In
Sierra Leone, a similar report as the one from Mozambique attracted a lot of attention and is expected to play
a part when the country’s new tax rules are negotiated
in the near future.
In the EU, constant pressure from IBIS and a long
list of allied NGOs helped the fight against tax evasion
and capital flight to get off the ground. Among other
things, what is known as the Accounting Directive
was adopted, with requirements for transparency in
payments from the oil and mining industries.
And in Denmark, Danida has launched a plan for
integration of fair tax as part of its development work,
thereby helping partner countries to halt capital flight
and strengthen tax collection.
AAP and LAPI also work on the local level. In
Ghana, Mozambique and Sierra Leone, IBIS has supported the rights of poor and vulnerable groups over
the mining companies. In Ghana, for example, IBIS
partners have supported five local communities to join
forces in a network which has used surveillance and
campaigns to stop violations of locals’ rights, including
destruction of rivers, forests and farmland. In Sierra
Leone, partners have successfully set up an agreement
template which could become a crucial tool when local
communities negotiate with new companies.
26
A similar agreement template has been created in Latin
America, where natural resources are mainly found
in indigenous peoples’ territories and often extracted
without their consent. The template for “Free Prior
and Informed Consent” has been compiled by IBIS
partners. It was presented at the annual meeting of the
UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and used
to influence new global standards for companies’ social
responsibilities.
In Guatemala, IBIS partner ICEFI was responsible
for a major report entitled “Mining in Guatemala”. As
in Sierra Leone and Mozambique, the analysis is a tool
for creating awareness and debate, and in the long term
to guarantee more sustainable legislation in respect of
the extractive industry in the shape of the reform of the
Mining Act, for example, which is taking place in Guatemala. The report from Guatemala showed – among
other things – that the state revenue from the mines is
minimal, and that mining has an adverse impact on the
environment and causes serious social conflicts.
The other big topic on the Latin American agenda is
climate change, which is predicted to present significant
challenges over the next few decades – not least for the
continent’s indigenous populations. This is why IBIS
has supported the indigenous peoples to put their views
forward at international climate fora and helped with
climate change adaptation at a local level.
In Nicaragua, one of the universities on the Caribbean coast now offers a diploma in climate change
adaptation, and IBIS also supports a major women’s
organisation which is developing tools and ideas across
the region for food production which is adapted to suit
the changed climate.
Some of the campaign work is based in Denmark,
and over the past year the Yasuni campaign in particu-
IBIS COUNTRY BY COUNTRY / AAP AND LAPI
lar has mobilised volunteers in their thousands. They
all took photos of themselves with the characteristic red
face paint of the Huaroani Indians, and these photo signatures were submitted to the delegation from Ecuador
during the climate summit in Warsaw, calling for a halt
to oil extraction in the Yasuni National Park, part of the
Amazon, which is under threat.
Milestones for 2013/2014
• After major pressure from civil society, the government of
Sierra Leone put in the necessary effort and, following a
one-year suspension, was reaccepted as a member of EITI
– the biggest international initiative for transparency in
the resources industry.
• Gathering together the police, citizens, mining companies and government staff in a constructive dialogue led
to a successful end to the violent clashes which plagued
AAP and LAPI
Africa Against Poverty (AAP) is IBIS’ regional
programme in Africa and focuses on advocacy
in relation to the extractive industry. IBIS works
through partners and networks to promote socially
and environmentally sustainable extraction of natural resources with respect for people’s rights. One
important element involves stopping illegal capital
flight and ensuring that extraction of a country’s
natural resources creates revenue and development
for that country.
Latin America Against Poverty and Inequality
(LAPI) has much the same aims in relation to the
extractive industry in South and Central America,
but with greater emphasis on climate change and the
rights of indigenous peoples. LAPI supports networks and alliances which work to mitigate the effects
of climate change and fights for respect for democracy, indigenous peoples and poverty reduction in all
climate actions.
The two programmes have five employees. AAP has a
turnover in excess of DKK 5 million, while LAPI has
a turnover of DKK 4.5 million.
several mining districts in Ghana in 2012. The model has
been successfully copied without AAP support in other
places.
• Analyses of the significance of the mining industry in
Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Peru and Guatemala created
debate and helped to create important dialogue with
politicians and ministers on the taxation of multinational
oil, gas and mining corporations. A number of countries
are currently working on strengthening their legislation.
• The “I am Yasumi” campaign mobilised volunteers in
their thousands in Denmark and abroad. The Danish
photo signatures were submitted to the Danish Minister
for Climate and, later, to the national delegation from
Ecuador at the climate summit in Warsaw.
• An alliance of indigenous peoples across Latin America
has succeeded in having the interests of indigenous
peoples included into the major international climate and
forest conservation initiative (REDD).
• Denmark, the EU, G20 and OECD are all continuing
their efforts to reduce opportunities for tax evasion
and aggressive tax planning using tax havens all over
the world.
27
report 2013
REPORT 2013
28
TEXT PETER BRO-JØRGENSEN, HEAD OF ADMINISTRATION 2013 was the year in which IBIS’ new
country strategies really began to unfold.
Now all our programme countries –
except for South Sudan – have cohesive
thematic programmes in the fields of
education and governance. And in all
countries, these programmes proved to
provide particularly useful frameworks
for our development work, which has
brought about some really good results
in both Latin America and Africa.
In all areas there has in particular
been major emphasis on building
strong partnerships with local organisations and authorities, and there are
many examples which indicate that
the initiative has helped. We see strong
organisations which can now act as
advocates for the right to education and
democratic participation and help to
make democratic and economic rights
more widespread.
Only in Liberia and South Sudan have
the thematic programmes been delayed.
In Liberia, this delay is due to a major
fraud case which began in 2012. And in
South Sudan, an armed conflict put a
stop to the decision to turn the projects
into an actual education programme.
Our successful programme work attracted new and additional new donors
in 2013. We have identified a spread in
the donor base in all our programme
countries, which secures more resources
for our work and less dependency on
few large donors.
The regional programmes for Africa
(AAP) and Latin America (LAPI) were
evaluated by Danida over the course
of the year and were praised, particu-
larly for their marked influence on the
Danish and international development
agenda. The debate on tax havens, which
IBIS has helped to drive forward over
the past few years, gained international
momentum and also came to the attention of the general public with the DR
documentary “In tax havens”.
In 2013, IBIS invested in reinforcing
its education policy profile by continuing with its strong Education for All
campaign, and by increasing its emphasis on advocacy efforts for the financing of quality education in Denmark,
internationally and in our programme
countries.
The financial results
IBIS’ financial year ended fairly close
to the budgeted deficit, which was to
ensure that some of the accumulated
equity was spent on development
activities. The deficit amounted to DKK
1.88 million against a budgeted DKK
1.33 million, overall very satisfactory.
This means that IBIS’ equity at the end
of 2013 amounted to DKK 12.8 million.
This is equivalent to 4.6 per cent of the
turnover for the year and is not far off
our target of 5 per cent.
Two things in particular characterise
our 2013 financial year. One is a frustrating and extraordinarily large fraud
case in Liberia, which has not yet been
settled. We have, however, earmarked
DKK 1.1 million for a potential loss.
The other, more positively, is that IBIS’
turnover in 2013 exceeded quarter of a
billion Danish kroner for the first time
ever – DKK 277.3 million, to be precise.
The turnover on Danida’s allocation
alone rose from DKK 106.5 million in
2012 to DKK 121.5 million in 2013,
equivalent to 44 per cent of the total
turnover. This increase is due in particular to an extra allocation of DKK
8 million DKK a year for three years,
which was awarded to IBIS by Danida
on the basis of our results.
However, the main reason for
this large turnover is an increase in
contributions from “other institutional
donors”, which at DKK 135.1 million
– equivalent to 49 per cent of our total
turnover – exceeded the allocations
from Danida for the first time.
Private doners in Denmark supported with DKK 20.2 million to IBIS’
development work in 2013. This is a
satisfactory, indeed excellent figure, but
less than the corresponding amount for
2012, where a single large inheritance
increased the amount we collected. We
will be attempting to counter the small
decline in contributions from members
and support members in 2014 by focusing on recruiting and retaining people
engaged in IBIS and our work.
88 per cent of IBIS’ funds in 2013
was spend on long-term development
work. 4 per cent was spent on humanitarian efforts, while 8 per cent was
spent on global campaigns and advocacy, including awareness in Denmark.
The administration percentage – measured as the other expenses part of the
total income as of this year – amounted
to 5.2 per cent in 2013 compared with
6.2 per cent last year, which must be
regarded as very satisfactory.
29
Photo: William Vest-LIllesøe
REPORT 2013
FIGURES FOR THE YEAR
Income statement for the period 1/1 – 31/12/2013
amounts in 1,000 DKK
Income 20132012
Development activities
Danida frame allocation
Other institutional donors
Private funds
121.386
135.238
20.222
106.498
73.568
21.753
Development activities, total
276.846187.222
Other operating grants
489
397 Total income
277.335
202.216
Expenses 20132012
Project and programme activities
Development activities
Humanitarian efforts
Campaigns and advocacy
228.126
10.957
21.887 152.359
14.103
19.889
Project and programme activities, total
260.970186.351
Losses and provisions for projects
793
79
Innovation
2.991
1.550
Other costs
14.463
13.733
Total costs
279.217
201.713
Results for the year +/(-)
-1.882
Income 2013 Danida allocation
121.386 44%
SIDA
21.921 8%
Alliance 2015
64.714 23%
Humanitarian efforts
11.489 4%
Other Danida
12.749
5%
NORAD
13.0295%
Dutch Government funds
794 <1%
EU
4.6592%
Private funds 20.710 7%
Other
5.884 2%
277.335 100%
8%
44%
23%
4%
5%
5%
<1%
2%
7%
Number of members and supporters, year-end 2013:
30
503
2%
9.011
FIGURES FOR THE YEAR
Balance sheet as at 31.12.2013
amounts in 1,000 DKK
Assets 20132012
Fixed assets
Deposits
2.595 809 2.263
789
Current assets
Accounts receivable 4.383 2.141
Securities
340 301
Cash and cash equivalents
32.651 51.235
Total current assets
37.374 53.677
Total assets
40.778 56.729
Liabilities
20132012
Equity
Equity as at 1. January
Results for the year
14.66014.157
-1.882 503
Equity as at 31 December
12.778 14.660
Short-term liabilities
Funds for use for activities
11.45029.716
Interest payable on donor funds
196
466
Severance pay
4.108
4.109
Other liabilities
12.246
7.778
Creditors, total
28.000
42.069
Liabilities, total
Expenses 2013
40.778
Guatemala
20.9368%
Nicaragua
28.58410%
Bolivia
67.52024%
Mozambique
41.195 15%
South Sudan
9.720 4%
Ghana
16.732
6%
Liberia
17.850
6%
Sierra Leone
17.004
6%
West Africa, reg.
7.310 3%
AAP
5.977
2%
Latin America, reg. 4.956
2%
LAPI
5.1342%
Other project activities 17.768
6%
Loss/provisions
793 <1%
Innovation
2.991
1%
Other expenses
14.747 5%
1%
<1%
6%
56.729
5%
8%
10%
2%
3%
6%
24%
6%
6%
4%
15%
279.217 100%
In 2013, expenses to administration were:
Read the entire annual accounts at på www.ibis.dk
5,2%
31
2013
2014
Thank you for
your support
A very warm thank you to all who
work with us to create a better
and more just world.
Thank you to all IBIS partners, members and supporters
and a special thanks to the many volunteers.
Also a warm thank you to Erik Thunes Legat, H.C. Bechgaard &
Hustru Ella Marys Fond, Asta and Jul P. Justesens Fond,
Fonden af 17/12-1981, Lærerstandens Brandforsikring and Danida.
And to our CSR partners Toms, COOP, the Hempel Foundation
and Melting Pot.
You have all given us invaluable support.