ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY 2012 To build a power ful movement to champion consumers rights and to help protect and empower consumers ever y where.
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
1
From our President Consumers today face an ever-expanding range of issues: from the security of online and mobile payments to the safety and security of our food supply, to the ability to seek compensation when a transaction goes wrong. Changes in technology, science and commerce are happening at break-neck speed and too often the consumer perspective is the last thing on anyone’s mind amidst all of these breath-taking developments. Demographic changes are also having a big impact on consumer rights. In some countries, growing middle classes are seeking new consumer opportunities while in other countries (and in many cases within countries) access to the most basic services remains a challenge. Governments, corporations and civil society must all play a role in protecting consumer rights. That’s why it’s imperative now more than ever that Consumers International (CI) is here – to make sure that the consumer’s voice does not go unheard. As the representative of more than 240 consumer rights organisations in nearly 120 countries, we are the definitive voice for consumers at the international level. We take this responsibility very seriously. With our Members, we closely monitor developments around the world so that we are able to respond to emerging as well as existing issues with our collective expertise. In 2012, we embarked on a new Strategic Plan with the aim of concentrating limited resources where we are best-placed to deliver meaningful change, focusing our efforts on a small number of issues that we can have the biggest impact on, providing the most benefit for the largest number of consumers. It is our way of ensuring that consumer rights are promoted and protected where they are needed most. Jim Guest President
2 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
From our Director General CI has achieved an amazing amount in the past year. Despite the uncertain economic climate, we have managed to ensure that the consumer voice is heard at some of the most high-level decision-making meetings and events of 2012. This annual report summary highlights some of these achievements, including our actions on World Consumer Rights Day; our role in the revision of the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection; our involvement in the G20/OECD taskforce to create principles for financial consumer protection; our contribution to the development of WHO policy on non-communicable diseases; and our organisation of a first-of-its-kind international gathering looking at the challenges consumers will face in the new digital landscape. Our new strategy of focusing on a small number of consumer issues for which there is something to be achieved at the international level is working. This is because we are concentrating on areas for which most of our Members have active work programmes and can therefore pool and share ideas: financial services, food, consumer protection, and digital rights. Our Organisational Empowerment programme is developing services which can bring Members together – either in their own backyard or across the globe – to share information and resources, to learn from the experience of others and to offer or receive mentoring services from those who have more years of experience or have developed an idea which is now transferable somewhere else. As always, we are seeking additional sources of funding – both to sustain CI itself and to support targeted activity within our four priority areas. Our new Strategic Plan is making it easier for us to achieve this. As always, none of this would be possible without the continued hard work of our membership. My time as Director General will come to an end in December 2013, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters and partners for your spirit, dedication and commitment to the movement. The way forward is now established and CI is in a great position to help realise the aim of supporting our Members by providing the benefits you need most and developing a powerful consumer movement equal to the challenges of the 21st Century. Helen McCallum Director General
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
3
Member perspectives “ Consumers in Afghanistan face the same issues as consumers around the globe: access to safe food and medical care and fair financial services. Our citizens fall victim to deceptive trade practices and adulterated commodities on a regular basis and they have little access to redress. Consumers in Afghanistan rely on CRSO to help them become aware of the issues and to seek justice. CRSO needs to be connected to organisations doing similar work so it can learn from their experience and Consumers International gives us that.”
Ahmad Masoud Director, Consumer Rights and Services Organization (CRSO), Afghanistan
“ As food policy advisor at CHOICE, my job is to campaign on behalf of Australian consumers for improvements to food labelling and regulation. My campaigns are about helping consumers make informed decisions about what they eat. I find it extremely valuable to be able to liaise with colleagues in consumer groups around the world, particularly when it comes to embarking on new campaign areas and revisiting existing policies. Consumers International plays an important role in linking me with food policy experts, providing opportunities to share information directly and also coordinating campaigning to support goals shared among the Member organisations.”
Angela McDougall Policy Advisor, Choice, Australia
4 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
World Consumer Rights Day: 15 March 2012 The theme for World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2012 was ‘Our money, our rights: real choice in financial services’. The global consumer movement, led by CI, highlighted this issue all over the world. CI Members took action to call for meaningful choice for consumers – whether through switching banks, buying insurance or transferring money overseas. More than 80 CI Member groups held 60 events across the world to mark the occasion: from a town hall debate on poor financial services in Afghanistan to interventions on the floor of the US Senate. The day was also an occasion to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s statement on consumer rights to the US Congress on 15 March 1962 – a milestone for consumer protection.
Our priority programmes Safe and fair financial services CI is campaigning to make sure all consumers get a fair deal when they save, borrow, or transfer money. Given the enormity of the global financial crisis, CI has dedicated one of its priority programme areas to financial consumer protection. The knock-on effects of the crisis are likely to be felt for many years to come and consumers will bear the brunt of most of it. This is why CI has continued to lobby for the fulfilment of the G20’s commitments to improve protection for consumers of financial services. And the work is paying off. As an illustration of CI’s growing profile in international financial consumer protection, CI President Jim Guest held a one-to-one meeting with the Mexican finance minister and chair of the G20 finance ministers meeting in 2012 to discuss progress on the G20 agenda. CI’s theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2012 was ‘real choice in financial services’. With CI’s advocacy support, many CI Members campaigned for consumers to switch bank accounts in order to get a better deal, while others used the campaign material to call for increased competition to reduce the cost of international money transfers. CI launched a campaign film in 2012, Know Your Money: how to provide financial education in Africa. The film documents the activities of a financial education pilot project established by CI in Kenya and Tanzania to help consumer groups provide financial education. Primarily aimed at consumer rights advocates in the developing world, the film sought to show how easy it is to use CI’s free training materials to provide financial consumer education. In Latin America, CI’s Model Law on Family Insolvency has been put to good use. Argentina, Chile and El Salvador have used it as the base for discussions on the issue in their parliaments. In Brazil, it has been the impetus for discussions on including insolvency in amendments to the Consumer Protection Code.
6 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Did you know: 150 million new consumers of financial services join the global economy each year; the majority in countries where financial consumer protection barely exists.
Consumer justice and protection CI is at the forefront of efforts to revise the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection so that they reflect the real needs of consumers in the 21st Century. In 2012, CI continued to work with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN body tasked with reviewing the UN’s Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP). Agreed in 1985, the UNGCP is the blueprint for consumer protection around the world and it acts as an international reference point for the consumer movement. Its most recent update took place in 1999 with the addition of a new section on sustainable consumption and production. In 2012, CI began to consider revision of the document to once again ensure that it continues to be relevant to the challenges facing consumers in the 21st Century. In consultation with its Members, CI has drawn up provisions on financial services, energy, consumer representation and digital rights. As the only consumer voice recognised by UNCTAD, CI will be pushing for these changes to be included in the new revision, set for completion in 2014.
Did you know: The current UN Guidelines do not make a single reference to the Internet. When they were last revised in 1999 barely anyone had heard of Google and Facebook was still five years away!
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
7
Our priority programmes Access to safe, healthy food CI is pushing for restrictions on junk food marketing to children, better nutrition labelling and tougher food safety standards. CI’s food programme stepped up a gear in 2012, helping its Members explore issues such as sub-therapeutic use of drugs in food production and nano-technology in the food chain. CI continued to participate in major Codex Alimentarius meetings, and welcomed their recommendation on food labelling for mandatory nutrition information to be given on the back of processed food packaging. Following the rise of food prices in 2012, CI published a quarterly Food Prices Monitor, describing the processes and shared work that CI Members and others were doing. CI published a new report in 2012 exploring the rise of supermarkets titled: The relationship between supermarkets and suppliers: What are the implications for consumers? It describes some of the unfair buying practices employed by leading supermarkets and concludes that these practices are likely to have negative consequences for consumers in terms of price, quality and choice. CI continued to contribute to the development of World Health Organization (WHO) policy on non-communicable diseases (NCD), including interventions on the topic at the WHO Executive Board meeting in January and the World Health Assembly in May. CI joined other NGOs to continue to call for the WHO to address the problem of conflict of interest within its programmes.
8 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Did you know: More than 60% of all deaths are caused by NCDs like heart disease and diabetes, with 80% of these occurring in low and middle-income countries.
A digital age that works for consumers CI is campaigning for tougher online protection, more accountable internet service providers, and equitable access to the world wide web. Often, governments and institutions making decisions regarding the new digital environment do so without first hearing from consumers about their rights, interests and concerns. To look at the challenges and opportunities for consumers in this landscape, CI launched Consumers in the information society Access, fairness and representation, an international gathering to discuss and set an agenda for advocacy on these issues. Internet access is another big issue for CI’s digital programme. Now that the Internet is fundamental to the lives of today’s consumers, and will only continue to become more important in developed and developing countries alike, we have embarked on a two-year campaign to empower consumer organisations around the world to demand more equitable and accessible broadband service offerings, respecting consumers’ rights and broader human rights, as a necessary condition of achieving a socially-inclusive information society. As part of this programme, CI published Holding Broadband Providers to Account: A Consumer Advocacy Manual, which is being actively used by Members to campaign on the issue. CI also represented the global consumer movement at a number of important meetings during the year, including several negotiating rounds of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications.
Did you know: Despite huge increases in user numbers, over 60% of the world’s population are still not online.
Our Citizenship, collaborative technologies and regulation project in Latin America has made it possible for consumers in Peru and El Salvador to influence their former public services using social media and mobile texting.
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
9
Success at Rio+20 As the leading international voice on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and one of the organising partners for the UN Major Group of NGOs, CI was instrumental in putting together the first draft of the Rio +20 Earth Summit outcome document, The Future We Want. Although overall responses to the final text during the Summit were muted, CI scored a major success in ensuring SCP was well reflected in the outcomes. SCP was acknowledged at the Summit as a fundamental issue and ‘the ten year framework of programmes’ was endorsed by governments on a voluntary basis, meaning SCP will be central to future national initiatives on sustainable development. This opens the door to CI Members looking to play a major role in how consumers adapt and contribute to a sustainable future; making sure consumer rights and responsibilities are centre stage.
10 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Organisational empowerment Helping our Members to help themselves The cornerstone of CI’s organisational empowerment strategy is to create a ‘self-service’ network and support system for Members using CI’s unique position as the international federation of consumer organisations. CI wants to help Members to help themselves. To support this, CI conducted a one-of-a-kind sustainable business model survey of Members. The results of the survey enabled CI to assess the collective and individual strengths and weaknesses of Members, as well as potential threats faced by them. The results are a major contribution to CI’s strategic approach for deciding where to target capacity-building support and what criteria to use for such support. This intelligence will inform CI’s efforts in 2013 and beyond. CI has made significant strides this year in improving communications with Members, targeting information more effectively, providing online interactive services and improving information about Members for the benefit of others through our website. CI has added more online events to its programme this year with webinars held on nanotechnology, mobile payments and drugs in the food chain. These events have proved popular with Members: offering an engaging means of learning about CI campaigns, and emerging consumer issues. CI also ran its first President’s webinar alongside the Annual General Meeting which gave Members and other stakeholders an opportunity to ask questions of the President and Director General online.
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012 11
Going forward CI’s ongoing mission is to build a powerful movement to champion consumer rights and to help protect and empower consumers everywhere. Our future plans seek to ensure that CI is strong and sustainable, has the capacity to meet Members’ needs, and serve consumers in a changing world. In late 2012, CI established a ‘hub’ office in the Middle East, hosted by The Public Authority for Consumer Protection, Sultanate of Oman, and welcomed a new head of Africa, Onica Makwakwa, to lead CI’s permanent new home on the African continent in Pretoria, South Africa. Both will play a major role in building the movement in these under-served regions. CI has created a new membership category, that of ‘Supporter’, for those individuals and organisations who are sympathetic to its cause and who are keen to support its work but who may not think of themselves as consumer organisations. This will be rolled out in 2013, and will seek to make a major contribution to CI’s influence and strength in the coming years. In addition to the recruitment of more Members, CI aims to recruit more donors and sponsors to help us achieve change. We will continue to serve our Members, our stakeholders and the public as the global voice for consumers.
12 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Member perspectives “ Safe and fair financial services are a huge issue for the consumers I represent. People just don’t trust banks at the moment and, as consumer advocates, we need to make sure these concerns are raised, addressed and acted upon. By being part of an international network like CI, I am able to see how other consumer groups are tackling similar issues in other countries. It also allows me to bring the weight of the international movement to my campaigning – allowing us to speak with even greater authority.”
David Miguel Ortega Head of International Public Affairs, Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios (OCU), Spain
“ Participating in international projects involving various consumer organisations from different countries has been very important to our work. It has increased our impact, for example, in defending consumers in innovative areas such as ICT. It has also given a new impetus to our work with young consumers and seniors. Our digital work has been made possible by international financing of projects, which has allowed us to focus on relevant areas for consumers.”
Alfonsina Cuesta Executive Director, Fundación por los Derechos del Consumidor (FUNDECOM), Dominican Republic
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012 13
Financial summary Trustees statement The figures on these pages are extracted from the full trustees’ report and financial statements that have been audited by Baker Tilly UK Audit LLP, who gave an unqualified opinion. The full accounts were approved on 6 June 2013 and will be submitted to the Charity Commission and Registrar of Companies. This summarised financial information may not contain sufficient information to gain complete understanding of the financial affairs of the charity. The full trustees report, audit report and financial statements may be obtained from the Consumers International’s offices. The auditor has issued unqualified reports on the full consolidated annual financial statements and on the consistency of the trustees report with those financial statements.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and auditors The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ report and the financial statements in accordance with the applicable law and United Kingdom accounting standards. The auditor’s responsibility is to audit and express an opinion
Expenditure by type
to the members of Consumers International on the financial statements in accordance with the applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). They require them to comply with Auditing Practices Board’s (APB’s) Ethical Standards for Auditors.
Opinion of the auditors The auditors have reported that in their opinion the full consolidated financial statements: • give a true and fair view of the state of group’s and parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 December 2012 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended • have been prepared in accordance with the United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice • have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011 • the information given in the trustees report for the financial year is consistent with the financial statement.
Income by donor type
• Programme costs: 84%
• Membership fees: 68%
• Support costs: 10%
• International and multilateral agencies: 8%
• Fundraising cost: 3% • Governance cost: 3%
• Foundations:14% • Government agencies: 8% • Others: 2%
14 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Consolidated Income and Expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2012 Unrestricted funds Unrestricted funds Restrictedfunds Group total General Designated Projects Incoming resources £ £ £ £ Incoming resources from charitable activities Membership Fees Income
1,640,444
Project Income Other Income
1,640,444
728,324
728,324
28,736
28,736
1,669,180
728,324 2,397,504
Incoming resources from generated funds Investment income Total Incoming resources
330 1,669,510
330
728,324 2,397,834
Resources expended Charitable activities A fairer future for all consumers
735,576
1,935
461,115
1,198,626
Developing the consumer movement
750,106
1,939
250,109
1,002,154
Fundraising costs for project funds
59,640
59,640
Governance costs
63,860
63,860
Total resources expended
1,609,182
3,874
711,224
Net income/(expenditure)
60,328
(3,874)
17,100
73,554
264,836
3,874
34,335
303,045
(2,805)
(872)
(3,677)
Funds brought forward as at 1 January 2012 Retranslation on exchange
2,324,280
Funds brought forward as at 1 January 2012
262,031
3,874
33,463
299,368
Funds carried forward at 31 December 2012
322,359
50,563
372,922
Details of auditors: Baker Tilly UK audit LLP. Statutory auditor, St Philips Point, Temple Row, Birmingham B2 5AF.
Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012 15
For more information about Consumers International Visit www.consumersinternational.org Email consint@consint.org www.facebook.com/consumersinternational @Consumers_Int www.youtube.com/consumersintl www.linkedin.com/company/consumers-international
Consumers International offices
Office for Africa 4th Floor Park Corner corner Park and Hilda Streets Hatfield, Pretoria South Africa T +27 111 00 2120 Office for Latin America and the Caribbean Presidente Juan Antonio Ríos 58 – Piso 7 Santiago Centro, Santiago, Chile T +56 2 632 20 84 F +56 2 638 86 12
Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, Taman Tun Dr Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia T +603 772 61 599 F +603 772 68 599 Hub office for Middle East P.O Box : 1472, P.C: 130 Azaiba, Street no 4030 Building no 3558 Sultanate of Oman T +968 2411 9304 T +968 2411 9315
CI is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered in the UK (company no. 4337865). We are also a registered UK charity (no. 1122155). 16 Consumers International: Annual Report Summary 2012
Design by weareneo.com • Illustration by ellywalton-illustrations.com
Global Office 24 Highbury Crescent London N5 1RX United Kingdom T +44 20 7226 6663 F +44 20 7354 0607