Social Report 2022: AVSI presents “the future we want”

We are proud to be a field-based or “last mile” organization, because we are convinced that, for our projects to be effective and to change the lives of people for the better, they must begin and end on the ground, alongside the people they serve. And it is our experience in the field and meeting the real needs of people, that inspires each of the policy proposals and activities that we offer to institutions, for public debate, to the media, and in our relationships
with stakeholders.

In 2022 AVSI supported more than 7 million people with 364 projects.

In the 40 countries in which we operate, Education is still our principal development sector (43% of our budget is dedicated to this element) and is always integrated into our other sectors of activity: Agriculture and food security; Child protection; Energy; Environment; Vocational training and job creation; Economic strengthening and livelihoods; Nutrition; Sustainable cities; Human rights, democracy and peace; Health; Water and sanitation.

We managed €105,849,928 of private-sector and institutional funds in 2022, including extraordinary income, 13 million more than in 2021. For every Euro we receive, 91.16 cents are allocated to projects, whilst 8.84 cents are used to cover operating costs.

The title we have chosen for our Social Report is The future we want: with this phrase we have summarized our ambition to look forward, to push ourselves further, beyond the barriers of inequality, of poverty, of war, to help build a future in which we can overcome these barriers and in which the continued discoveries, the advances in education, in healthcare, in technology, in protecting the environment, in human rights, are accessible to all, and can help everybody to grow. An ambition fueled by being present in the field.

2022 opened with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. We responded to this emergency immediately thanks in part to our ability to form networks: working alongside our Founding Members in Poland and Romania, we quickly put in place actions to help and welcome thousands of fleeing Ukrainian refugees. The method we use to deal with humanitarian emergencies - going beyond the immediate and looking to the long term - also steered us toward new partnerships and to strengthen partnerships with new donors.

The arrival of tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Italy led us to open a dedicated hub in Milan to receive them and to provide information and to develop new projects to help them settle.

In addition to the Ukraine emergency, the activity in Italy has continued to expand thanks to new project opportunities, related to the recovery and resilience plan and the themes of global education and climate change. We also opened a new office in Caltagirone, in Sicily.

During 2022 we have seen constant growth in terms of projects, budget and beneficiaries across all the countries where we work. The only exception to this was in Lebanon, where recovery has been hindered by the global shocks of the past few years. We also began new activities in the MENA region, after opening a new office in Libya.

2022 marked AVSI's 50th anniversary. As we define ourselves as a learning organization, we took this chance to reflect on the future and the path we walked so far. The series of #AVSI50 initiatives we have promoted over the year have strengthened AVSI's positioning and reputation in Italy and internationally.

We put together a calendar of events, each aimed at highlighting some of the special features of our history, our approach, our network of relationships, and our vision. We had the opportunity to listen to our Founders' testimonies and to go back to our origins, while also looking ahead, at the future of the development cooperation sector and at the future we want to build.

In our Social Report, in addition to an overview of all the events we organized, you can find a special section dedicated to the series "A promise we renew", produced for our anniversary. 5 different episodes that portray AVSI's journey and everyday work through the eyes of 5 different storytellers.

A Social Report is a document that provides a series of information on the organization performance. It does not only include economic results, but also the organization's impact on society and on the actors (called stakeholders) involved in the activities it carries out.

We chose to write our Social Report in a simple narrative style, focusing on how to better convey the work we do and the results we achieve in a transparent manner, by highlighting the unique features of our approach, providing tangible examples of our activities on the field and explaining our management process.

This publication has been made possible thanks to contributions from all AVSI staff in Italy and worldwide.