2019 was a highly successful year, with gains in resourcing for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, growing political support for action on nutrition and education, and increasing sector leadership on vaccinations and child health. However, it is clear that 2020 is bringing both tremendous challenges as well as opportunities. There are three momentous things which have upended any plans we had made.
First, with COVID-19 dominating world events in 2020, it is fair to say that global health will never be viewed the same way again. While we should never think of something so horribly destructive as representing an opportunity, we must ensure the world can ‘build back better’ and emerge from this crisis with a renewed commitment to global health and meeting the sustainable development goals.
Second, the merger of the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to form the FCDO risks a shift away from critical and unfinished human development priorities at precisely the moment when the dual crises of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic damage will hit the most vulnerable and those living in poverty the hardest.
And third, the murder of George Floyd prompted organisations to challenge the voluntary sector’s relationship with race: RESULTS answers this call by pledging to do more and to do better. We had begun this work in 2019, but it has gained new urgency in 2020: we must examine our own workplace, our sector and its history and deliberately move towards a more just future.
Read our 2019 Annual Report to find out more about what we achieved in the fight against global poverty, and what we have built on through the momentous challenges of 2020 and beyond.