Qatar Charity launches its annual report for the year 2020

His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani: Our revenues reflect the volume of trust in Qatar Charity, which provided the highest standards of transparency and the ability to track the donations of benefactors with the latest technology

Mr. Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari: We have reviewed our strategic plans in the countries where we work to keep pace with the challenges related to the Corona pandemic, which has turned from a health crisis to a development crisis.

Director-General of the International Organization for Migration: We thank Qatar Charity for its cooperation with us in several countries

Qatar  Charity launched its annual report for the year 2020 in the presence of its Chairman, His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani,  its CEO, Mr. Yousef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, and the Assistant CEO of the Governance and Institutional Development Sector at Qatar Charity, Mr. Muhammad al-Ghamdi, and the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, Mr. Antonio Vitorino and His Excellency the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of the Somali Republic, Doran Farah.

This event celebrates the most important achievements made by Qatar Charity and reviews the most important challenges it faced during the past year (2020).

Transparency and trust

At the beginning of the annual report launch event, His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani thanked the guests for their attendance.

"The moment I address you, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has succeeded in reaching almost every country in the world, exacerbating the humanitarian needs of millions of people," he said.

He added, "The total revenues of Qatar Charity from donations during 2020, exceeded $500 million, 90% of which came from the Qatari community and individuals who responded to our successive humanitarian campaigns, which reflects the trust in Qatar Charity because it provided them with the highest standards of transparency and the ability to track their donations using the latest technologies."

He said, "We feel reassured about our work during the past year (2020) because we used our resources in the best possible way, and at the same time, we realize the magnitude of the difficult challenges that await us in the coming years with the global economy under great pressure, as aid is expected to decline while humanitarian needs escalate."

His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani affirmed his pride in the partnership and cooperation between the various international and local partners. He also thanked the State of Qatar, led by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his continuous support to Qatar Charity since its establishment.

Multiple difficulties

For his part, the CEO of Qatar Charity, Mr. Yousef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, spoke about the difficulties and challenges that Qatar Charity faced in 2020 and said that it was a year full of difficulties that NGOs were not prepared for.

He added, "The Corona crisis quickly turned from a health crisis to a "development crisis" in a few months, as its effects erased years and perhaps decades of progress and development in fragile countries, and poverty, food insecurity, and education rates reached their worst levels in decades in 2020."

He said Qatar Charity had to review all its strategic plans in the countries where it operates to keep pace with this decline and rearrange priorities.

He added that the organizations witnessed continued difficulties in accessing the financial system, as it became difficult to transfer funds necessary to provide life-saving aid in some countries due to the imposition of sanctions or because of the measures taken by banks to reduce the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, which negatively affect humanitarian work.

 It entails the loss of many lives because we are not able to deliver aid promptly.

He also called on governments, donors, and financial institutions to assume the responsibility based on all to facilitate the process of providing humanitarian and development assistance to achieve the unified goal in 2030.

Revenue and spending

A presentation was made of the most important achievements of Qatar Charity during the past year (2020) by presenting an overview of the most important information and figures included in the annual report. The number of donors reached 223,000, and individual donations made up 92% of the revenue.

The report indicated that the total number of beneficiaries of Qatar Charity's projects amounted to 14 million beneficiaries, and the annual report referred to the new Qatar Charity strategy, which is to focus on child protection, helping communities affected by disasters, comprehensive development, and promoting social harmony.

The report indicated that 54 million people worldwide benefited from development projects over the past five years, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.

International Partnerships

  The report emphasized that Qatar Charity intensified its partnerships with various international organizations. It affirmed that it had committed itself to cooperate with the United Nations Economic and Social Council to raise public awareness about the purposes, activities, and issues of the United Nations. Qatar Charity is the first organization in the Middle East and North Africa to be granted advisory member status.

 At the International Organization for Migration, this affiliation has allowed us to deal with and cooperate with a wide range of global migration issues.

Since 2016, Qatar Charity has joined the StartNetwork

  It is an initiative of 42 international NGOs, Start Network

Working to tackle challenges

Qatar Charity also enjoys membership in the Department of Global Communication of the United Nations, which achieves permanent communication at the media level between the two parties. Qatar Charity is committed to spreading the messages and goals of the United Nations permanently.

Qatar Charity is also a member of the Basic Standard Coalition for Humanitarian Action.

Qatar Charity joined this Geneva-based network in 2019.

 More than 150 organizations work together to promote accountability and put those affected by crises at the center of humanitarian and development responses.

Joint work

Commenting on the annual report of Qatar Charity, Mr. Antonio Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration, thanked Qatar Charity for its generous support to the International Organization for Migration, noting that the organization had received continuous support from Qatar Charity in several countries such as Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.

The event included an intervention by His Excellency Doran Farah, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of the Somali Republic, who affirmed the importance of Qatar Charity role in neutralizing the effects of the grave Corona crisis on the Somali community valued Qatar Charity's flexibility in facing this crisis.

He said, "Qatar Charity is working with the Somali government to provide humanitarian support in several areas, including food security, water, and relief."

The Assistant CEO of the Governance and Institutional Development Sector at Qatar Charity, Mr. Muhammad Ali Al-Ghamdi, concluded the event with a speech in which he said:

We have revised all our policies and interventions to align with issues of gender justice, climate issues, and inclusion for people with special needs, building the capacities of organizations and local communities and providing them with tools to withstand future disasters and conflicts.

He added, “Qatar Charity has launched an office concerned with advocating just humanitarian issues to convey the voices of the vulnerable and enlightening humanitarian decision-makers with recommendations supported by evidence and outputs from the field.”

He also said, "Qatar Charity will work in the coming years with small organizations in North Africa and Middle East region to share experiences in the field of knowledge and tools developed by Qatar Charity in the field of governance, risk management, and smart solutions."