© Disasters Emergency Committee
The Disasters Emergency Committee brings together the leading UK aid agencies to
raise money at times of humanitarian crisis in poorer countries. By working together
we can raise more money to save lives and rebuild shattered communities.
The Board reviewed the role of its independent trustees and confirmed that an independent trustee would chair all Board subcommittees. The Chair of each subcommittee is shown on page 24. In January, the Trustees considered the challenges highlighted by the fundraising evaluation at an awayday and agreed many areas of change and development. For example, we will be seeking stronger links with new media organisations such as Google in the way that we already have agreements with major broadcasters.
The mechanism for funding our Members’ aid work was changed to comprise two phases – the emergency relief phase and a recovery phase during which Member Agencies would help survivors rebuild their lives. The Board agreed that each member should spend at least 30% of appeal funds in the emergency relief phase. The Secretariat has continued to implement changes to the way in which aid programmes are monitored and reported to the Board. To ensure the proper preceedures are followed, the DEC has a clear format for reporting to the Accountability subcommittee on programme delivery, accountability activity and Member Agency support for media and fundraising activity during the period of joint action.
There have been a number of staffing changes within the Secretariat, as well as changes to roles to ensure they reflect the vision and objectives set by the Board. This year’s challenges also included implementing a new finance system and developing a new fundraising database.
A new Board subcommittee for Membership and Nominations was established and its remit is shown on page 24. The subcommittee monitored the UK aid sector for developments that might require changes to our membership criteria and redrafted the Chairman’s role description in preparation for the recruitment of a new Chairman in 2010.
Plans for the future
With the recruitment of a new Chairman we will ensure that there is an appropriate period of induction and handover. Together with embedding the changed staff team this will provide opportunities to reconfirm the commitment to delivering the objectives set by the Board.
We will review the priorities of the subcommittees, to ensure they are helping to inform strategic decisions made by the Board. There are likely to be changes to Secretariat and Member activity arising from the work of the Fundraising subcommittee. We will continue to facilitate DEC learning and improvement and thus help to ensure that donations are spent on high quality aid work. The new fundraising database will come into use to support DEC core functions and to continue to improve our efficiency.
