Global Communities 2018 Annual Report is Now Available

A word from David A. Weiss, President and CEO of Global Communities:
Our people and partners are truly remarkable. They bring to life our nearly 60 programs in 28 countries. Our people are the ones on the front lines working with some of the most vulnerable populations around the world, and in some of the toughest environments, to help them improve their lives and livelihoods. How do they do it? By bringing to life a combination of our collective technical expertise and our ability to build trust with the people in the communities we serve.
In Latin America, our programs in Honduras provide opportunities to youth who are otherwise vulnerable to gang recruitment; they help small farmers with innovative and sustainable ways to irrigate their land, and they address life and death health issues related to Zika and HIV/AIDS through awareness and prevention measures. In Colombia, after six successful years through our private sector partnership with BHP Billiton, our ANDA (in Spanish, meaning “to go forward”) program has become a model for the grass-roots, community-based approach needed to help implementation of a fragile peace agreement. In Argentina and Brazil, John Deere has continued to be another of our highly valued private sector partners helping us generate shared value for their and our missions through community development and resilience, civil society strengthening, youth development and volunteerism.
In Europe and Asia, our Decentralization Offering Better Results And Efficiency (DOBRE) program is working to improve citizen engagement and oversight in local governance. In Mongolia we are helping improve incomes among small-holder farmers by establishing cooperatives and training them on market-based approaches to link them more closely to markets and services related to their products.
In the Middle East, Global Communities’ programs are on the front lines of effectively addressing the humanitarian crisis in Syria; in Yemen we are on the forefront of critical stabilization efforts; and in West Bank/Gaza—where USAID has recently closed its Mission—our Vitas Palestine lending is more important than ever. Vitas loans there and across the region have helped create and expand small businesses, and they have been critical to advancing financial inclusion in the region.
And in Africa, our programs have developed nutrition and food security initiatives in countries such as Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania. In Rwanda and Kenya we are helping adolescent girls and young women reduce their risk of HIV while helping them prepare for a better future. In Rwanda we are helping orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs) and their caregiver families overcome adverse circumstances and have access to basic services that improve their lives. In Ghana, our water, sanitation and hygiene, or WASH, programs reach people at scale and offer innovation in sanitation with the Digni-Loo, a more affordable, easier to install, and more hygienic and durable new type of latrine. In Eastern DRC, we are in the early start-up phase of a new project that will help increase incomes among artisanal and small-scale gold miners by organizing cooperatives and establishing conflict-free supply chains that link them to larger markets.
And without our public sector partners, like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Global Fund to Combat HIV AIDS, TB, and Malaria, none of this would even be possible.
In the pages of the Global Communities 2018 Annual Report you will learn more about how our people and partnerships are bringing to life transformative programs that improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable individuals. Our technical expertise in humanitarian assistance and stabilization, financial inclusion, local governance and social cohesion, economic development, health, and agriculture, nutrition and food security, and our people’s ability to build trust in our partner communities, combine to make our work sustainable and achieve real impact.
Read the 2018 Annual Report here.