Bond International Development Conference goes ahead remotely celebrating incredible work of NGOs

Despite the Bond International Development Conference on Monday 23 March being cancelled, the annual awards went ahead remotely.

Four organisations were awarded for their work across Innovation, Collaboration, Diversity and Impact, with a further two individual awards for Volunteer of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year.

The British Asian Trust & Partners scooped the Innovation Award for its ‘Quality Education India Development Impact Bond (DIB)’, a pioneering initiative which transforms the way development programmes are funded and delivered

The consortium raised £9m from a diverse set of partners to make this the largest education DIB in the world, and the first DIB to include India-based funders. The programme makes the role of data and outcomes measurement indispensable.

Over 100,000 children have already benefited from participating in the DIB, with tens of thousands more children due to benefit each year.

Diversity Award winner went to VSO for its ICS programme for youth volunteers.

As part of their organisational commitment to social inclusion, VSO recognises the unique value of ensuring a diverse range of volunteers are able to access and contribute to their work. The ICS programme for youth volunteers has developed practices to remove barriers for participation and ensure inclusion for all.

Since 2016, 8,352 young people from the UK have participated as volunteers on the ICS programme. Last year alone, VSO reached young people across all demographics, meeting all their diversity targets, with 30% of applicants from BAME backgrounds, 37% meeting two or more socio-economic indicators, 19% of applicants stating a disability, and achieving regional representation across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

The Collaboration Award recognises effective relationships and collaborations within and across sectors and disciplines to tackle difficult issues. This year’s winner was Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children for its ‘Equal Protection for Children: a collaboration for law reform to combat violence against children’.

The pioneering two-year programme of national multi-sector collaborations, supported partners in government, parliaments and national and international civil society, to create a movement of positive change for children. It culminated in five countries passing legislation to fully prohibit corporal punishment and three others making substantial progress.

The Small NGO Impact Award which recognises small organisations that make a big impact on people’s lives or drive positive change in the world.

The inaugural winner was the School Enterprise Challenge from Teach a Man to Fish.

Teach a Man to Fish trains teachers to deliver experiential education and embeds sustainable tools for entrepreneurship education in schools.

By planning, creating and running a business at school, students develop the knowledge and skills to do better in school, go on to (self-)employment or further education, while generating much-needed income for schools.
The project was designed so that their School Businesses benefit the wider school ecosystem as teachers use experiential learning methodology in their teaching and education is further improved with the additional income. In the School Enterprise Challenge 2018, an amazing 69,736 young people in 74 countries improved their entrepreneurship and business knowledge, life skills and confidence.

The Humanitarian Award acknowledges the often-overlooked heroes working in the humanitarian field. The 2020 award went to a Somalian health worker operating in one of the most difficult humanitarian contexts in the world.
Khadija Farah has served her country and the humanitarian community for 27 years as an aid-worker on issues spanning from child protection and advocacy, to nutrition and maternal health.

The 51-year-old, currently based in Baidoa serving refugees and IDPs, was nominated for her work with International Medical Corps UK.

Khadija began her career in 1991 as a nurse with International Medical Corps, helping people wounded in the civil war. Over the course of her long career, Khadija’s work in maternal health has helped to increase the number of safe baby deliveries and successfully reduced the number of women dying in childbirth.

Finally, the Volunteer of the Year award went to a Mumbai doctor for her pioneering community health programme.

Dr Shabnam Rangwala a Paediatric Occupational Therapist from Mumbai was nominated for her volunteer work with disability charity Matis, helping to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities. In this small charity, Shabnam has been the clinical lead and has led on rolling out the Community Health Worker programme in India, Jamaica and Sri Lanka so that children with disabilities and their families can receive practical support in their own homes from trained staff.

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1. Bond’s International Development Awards showcase the life-changing achievements and devoted people in global development and humanitarian assistance.
2. Full details are available at https://www.bond.org.uk/awards
3. The Bond Awards are sponsored by Key Travel
4. Bond is the leading UK membership body for organisations working in international development. The 450 members range from large organisations such as Oxfam, World Vision and Unicef, to a wide selection of smaller local charities including Tools for Self-reliance and Medical Aid Films