Chairman's report Chairman’s report When COVID-19 closed countries and borders in the spring of 2020, we found ourselves – like so many others – in an entirely different situation.
For Engineers Without Borders The pandemic brought even roDenmark the year 2019 has been bust health systems to their knee a year of growth. We have gained and put some of the communities we access to more resources from work in under lockdown. In these donors and members. Ahead of us communities, many depend on a daiis the task of determining how best ly income to eat, so we put the fight to maintain and utilise these extra against COVID-19 and its conseresources in the longer run. quences at the centre of our efforts. Number of active projects has increased by 38% during the 2019. Our project groups managed the From 26 active projects in 2018 to 36 transformation, and our volunteers in 2019. This was possible due to an made a huge effort to live up to our increase in funding for the projects. commitments and responsibilities to Nearly 40,000 people have seen our partners and beneficiaries. a positive impact from our efforts. From access to clean water, health, In close collaboration with our partenergy, from climate risk adaptation, ners in Sierra Leone, we secured waand from other improvements to the ter to health facilities and food aid to livelihood of those most in need. the neediest in our work areas. With The children and youngsters were the University of Southern Denmark well-represented in our activities (SDU), we developed face masks to throughout the year. In Sierra Leone, be produced and distributed locally, we have established a strong collahence boosting the local economy boration with a technical school for and providing COVID-19 protecyoung people with disabilities and tion gear to over 100,000 persons renovated rural maternity clinics. In in West Africa. As part of the projZimbabwe, we secured funding for ect, researchers from SDU are now the renovation of four schools and a finalising to examine the effect of daily meal for the students. face masks in a broader population. Two hundred new members Potentially, this will give important joined Engineers Without Borders information on how to deal with - Denmark in 2019. Our members future epidemics. are the core of our organisation. It is their contributions through hard Several projects initiated in 2019 work and donations that allow us to came to a closure in 2020. We have do what we do. In 2019 volunteers contributed 23,500 hours of highly skilled work. At the end of the year, we had more than 1,200 members In 2019 we have increasingly
finished renovating four health clinics our organisation, to accommodate better the growing interest in bein Sierra Leone, finalised a highly coming a volunteer with us. Fursuccessful community waste manthermore, in 2021 CISU decided to agement project in Togo, secured nominate EWB-DK to the "Initiaschool meals to schools in Zimbative award" connected with a grant bwe, and a strong locally based clisought collaborations with univeris absent. In Denmark we have a rich under the Commitment Fund (Enmate adaptation project in the slums sities and businesses. We share the and strong tradition of civil society gagementspuljen). in Freetown. vision and the framework of the involvement in decision-making UN Sustainable Development Goals and in local governing institutions. In 2020 we assisted more than 2020 has also been a year in which (SDGs). We also share a common In that respect, we find the new 111,000 persons with COVID-19 we have looked ahead. We have access to a technical knowledge-base corporate membership by Danske relief interventions, which makes me agreed on a strategy for the next five that can improve the lives of people Vandværker valuable as they have a very proud, not least due to the treyears. It is an ambitious strategy. We in the developing world. rich experience in democratic local mendous effort from our 250 volunwill strive to help more than twice Partnerships with Danish compagovernance and civil society particiteers. They contributed their highly as many people each year, involve nies is a significant way to facilitate pation in public service delivery. qualified skills and 15,000 hours of more volunteers, and focus our joint efforts to support the SDGs Another equally significant result their time, and solid financial support effort on fewer countries to benefit for the benefit of the less fortunate in 2019 is that we have been certified from our donors. from stronger relations with local around the world - the communiby EU to have our volunteers sponsocommunities, local partner organities that never will be able to hire red when they are on a mission. This Engineers Without Borders (EWBsations and institutions. In 2021 and a consulting engineer to advise on we believe will provide our organiDK) will enter 2021 with a consolithe years to come, we will develop technical livelihood improvements. sation with the possibility of having dated base of volunteers and a mem- EWB-DK from a project-based orour volunteers placed in long term ber's base that grew from around ganisation to a program focus. postings working in the field with 1,200 to approx. 1,350. There is our partners. It is a recognition of also significant funding for projTo achieve this, we will build stronthe work we are doing and we hope ects in the coming year with seven ger relations with local partners to benefit from this in the years to million DKK. and institutions. For instance, in come. Sierra Leone, we are in the proWithin our organisation, we have With the many new volunteers and cess of creating stronger ties to the started a process that will lead us members, the board's strategic focus national association of engineers in towards a new strategy for 2020is to ensure a solid onboarding and Sierra Leone – along with the Nor2025. We are grateful for the valuable platform for volunteering. We will dic Association of Engineers (ANE). input provided by our members and ensure that new active EWB-DK Besides making a strong platform for volunteers in this process. The new members feel well welcomed as a transferring knowledge from north to strategy will be implemented during part of the community and feel that south, it will also give our volunteers 2020. they contribute value to the organiand us a local resource that can bring We see a strong commitment to In 2020 we hope to see a continusation. more context and local experience to the SDGs among all our corporate ed strong support from our volunour projects – expressed in a commembers. Therefore, we are proud teers and from our corporate and priIn 2020 we received a CISU mon professional technical language. to welcome EKJ, ARUP, and FORS as vate members. We are also working grant, supporting an initiative that new corporate members. hard to establish new and strategic will span two years to develop In many of the locations, where partnerships in the partner countriwe are present, the main part of es we work in as we have identified our work is focused on basic public strong potential for synergy and service provision as in water and joint action between our partners in electricity mainly because the state the specific countries we work with.
»Volunteers contributed 23,500 hours of highly skilled work«
Bent Michael Nielsen Chairman of the board
Annual Report 2020 Engineers Without Borders – Denmark
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