Advance Aid is a new charitable initiative, established in 2006 to revolutionise the way in which emergency relief supplies are manufactured and positioned worldwide. It's mandate is to enable emergency supplies for the world to be made in Africa and stored in strategic global locations - in advance of any emergency.

This time-saving new model for disaster relief will save thousands of lives when disaster strikes. It will also stimulate a healthy culture of trade, not just aid, on the continent of Africa. Advance Aid is partnering with the private sector, governments and the international community to provide this innovative solution.

Website: www.advanceaid.org

Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) - ^ Back to top ^

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency is a global humanitarian organisation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, working with people in poverty and distress to create positive change and justness through empowering partnerships and responsible action. The basis for its existence is to be a voice for serving and partnering with those in need. ADRA seeks to identify and address social injustice and deprivation in developing countries. The agency’s work seeks to improve the quality of life of those in need.

ADRA invests in the potential of these individuals through community development initiatives targeting Food Security, Economic Development, Primary Health and Basic Education. ADRA’s emergency management initiatives provide aid to disaster survivors. ADRA is a professional, learning and efficient network that embodies integrity and transparency. ADRA reaches across boundaries empowering and speaking out for the at-risk and forgotten to achieve measurable, documented and durable changes in lives and society.

Website: www.adra.org

CARE International - ^ Back to top ^

CARE International is one of the world’s top three aid agencies, fighting poverty and injustice in 70 countries around the world and helping 55 million people each year to find routes out of poverty. With more than 60 years’ practical and hands-on experience, CARE's programmes tackle the deep-seated root causes of poverty, not just the consequences. Just two examples of the way it achieves this is through helping farmers to grow their own food and helping people start small businesses.

CARE works in partnership with businesses and governments all around the world to help them do their bit to confront poverty. CARE has 13,000 employees, more than 90 per cent of whom are employed locally, providing an in-depth knowledge of local issues, cultures and languages.

Website: www.careinternational.org

Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) - ^ Back to top ^

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information, helping developing countries and countries in transition to modernise and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. Since its founding in 1945, FAO has focused special attention on developing rural areas, home to 70 per cent of the world's poor and hungry people.

FAO's procurement team from Rome have identified a number of key products and services required to aid the development of rural areas, these include vaccines and sera for animals, refrigeration equipment for vaccines, laboratory equipment and consumables, disinfectants and antiseptics, food seeds (wheat, maize, rice, potato, bean and vegetable), reagents, fertilisers, agrochemicals, herbicides, rodenticides, hand tools for agriculture, veterinary instruments, hand pumps, water pumps, sprayers, medical kits, fishing equipment and agricultural equipment. A full list of the goods and services procured by the FAO can be viewed at: http://www.fao.org/unfao/procurement/en/10/index.html

Website: www.fao.org

Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria - ^ Back to top ^

GBC is a Coalition of more than 220 companies united to keep the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria a global priority. The Coalition’s members share learnings from the front lines of the fight, and GBC provides tailored support so that companies can take an active role in defeating the pandemics. GBC also organises collective actions among companies, and links the public and private sectors in ways that pool talents and resources. The GBC works in concert with others who are critical to effective action—governments, NGOs, and strong partners around the world.

Business brings creativity and innovation, and pivotal core competencies—expertise in areas such as media and public education; logistics and distribution; and health care management. Its members also directly touch the lives of millions of people. It reaches its workforce, its customers, as well as public and private partners all along the supply chain. Business recognises the threat these diseases pose: to workforce, socioeconomic stability, community well-being and vitality. Business also knows that action is expected of them: It affects the quality of the talent they attract, their brands, their customers. Business turns to GBC to provide leadership and support to ensure they realise their potential in this fight, and maximise their impact.

Website: www.gbcimpact.org

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria - ^ Back to top ^

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria was created to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need. As a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities, the Global Fund represents an innovative approach to international health financing.

The Global Fund encourages new and innovative alliances among partners within recipient countries and seeks the active participation of local representatives of civil society and the private sector. By focusing upon the technical quality of proposals, while leaving the design of programs and priorities to partners reflected by the Country Coordinating Mechanism, the Global Fund also encourages local ownership. This approach serves not only to drive effective disease-specific strategies but also to support efforts to strengthen underlying health systems in recipient countries, consistent with national strategic plans. Programs underwritten by the Global Fund build upon existing poverty-reduction strategies and sector-wide approaches that have been developed to improve public health.

Website: www.theglobalfund.org/en

Inter-Agency Working Group on Emergency Preparedness (IAWG) - ^ Back to top ^

The last two years experience has been that disasters and crises in the region have increasingly taken a regional dimension, for instance the recent floods and drought in the Horn of Africa, the Avian Influenza and the Tsunami that affected coastal countries along the Indian Ocean. Operating agencies in the region appreciate that greater planning and response coordination is required to prepare for and address recurring emergencies. The Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) on Disaster Preparedness provides a forum for regional organisations – international NGOs, the Red Cross and UN Agencies – to enhance information exchange and regional coordination in order to respond to emergencies in a timely and cost efficient manner.

The IAWG seeks to improve the capacity of the members to prepare for and respond to emergencies in the East and Central Africa region through developing IAWG coordination mechanisms and training. The increased collaboration between partner organisations, fostered by the IAWG, recognises that the efforts of individual organisations can and should complement each other in emergency response. The group also seeks to strengthen the support that can be offered to country counterparts by participating regional organisations.

Website: www.humanitarianinfo.org/iawg-Nairobi

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - ^ Back to top ^

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organisation whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance. It directs and coordinates the international relief activities conducted by the Movement in situations of conflict. It also endeavours to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. Established in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

The ICRC maintains a strong operational presence in Africa, with activities focused on protecting and assisting people directly affected by armed conflict or other forms of violence. It also works to promote greater recognition and much wider implementation of IHL throughout the continent. The ICRC's African procurement team is looking to purchase goods and services such as shelters, medical supplies, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, irrigation, purification treatment, food seeds, fertilisers, agrochemicals and industrial tools.

Website: www.icrc.org

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - ^ Back to top ^

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is the world's largest humanitarian organisation, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. Founded in 1919, the International Federation comprises 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, a Secretariat in Geneva and more than 60 delegations strategically located to support activities around the world. There are more societies in formation. The Red Crescent is used in place of the Red Cross in many Islamic countries.

The Federation carries out relief operations to assist victims of disasters, and combines this with development work to strengthen the capacities of its member National Societies. The Federation's work focuses on four core areas: promoting humanitarian values, disaster response, disaster preparedness, and health and community care.

Website: www.ifrc.org

International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) - ^ Back to top ^

The International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) is a trade association whose mission is to promote high operational and ethical standards of firms active in the Peace and Stability Industry; to engage in a constructive dialogue with policy-makers about the growing and positive contribution of these firms to the enhancement of international peace, development, and human security; and to inform the concerned public about the activities and role of the industry.

IPOA is committed to raising the standards of the Peace and Stability Industry to ensure sound and ethical professionalism and transparency in the conduct of peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction activities. In this respect, all of our member companies subscribe to the IPOA Code of Conduct. The IPOA Code of Conduct represents a constructive effort towards better regulating private sector operations in conflict and post-conflict environments, and reflects our belief that high standards will both benefit the industry and serve the greater causes of peace, development, and human security.

As a forward thinking organisation at the forefront of the debate on the Peace and Stability Industry and its role in contemporary conflict, IPOA welcomes comments and criticisms from those concerned about the role of the private sector in conflict and post-conflict environments, be they from the government, NGOs, the media, or academia. IPOA is a dynamic organisation open to debate and dialogue, and welcomes constructive feedback.

Website: www.ipoaonline.org

International Procurement Agency (IPA) - ^ Back to top ^

The International Procurement Agency (IPA) is a general procurement services company with a sourcing capacity covering the widest range of trade and industry. Over the years it has developed core strengths in emergency relief and rehabilitation, essential drugs management including TB control programmes, organisational restructuring of public sector procurement, procurement training and capacity building, procurement auditing, quality assurance and logistics management.

It is IPA's mission to provide superior procurement, supply and advisory services to principals in all parts of the developing world on a strictly independent basis. IPA closely adheres to the specific rules and guidelines of its principals, guaranteeing an efficient, fully transparent and accountable procurement and advisory process.

IPA distinguishes three different areas of core business activities: acting as procurement and development aid consultants to projects and programmes throughout the developing world, competitively supplying qualified, well trained professionals on short, medium or long-term basis; acting as independent procurement agents for an on behalf of third parties, taking over the buying portfolio of our principals, from needs assessment and specification writing until final delivery and commissioning of the goods; acting as a registered supplier for a number of special products to a variety of UN agencies and NGOs. IPA is also regularly contracted as a turn-key supplier by a growing number of principals who realise the tremendous benefits of a reputable one-stop procurement, training and commissioning shop.

Website: www.ipa-bv.nl

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - ^ Back to top ^

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies. As the global focal point for governments and the private sector, ITU's role in helping the world communicate spans 3 core sectors: radiocommunication, standardisation and development. ITU also organises TELECOM events and was the lead organising agency of the World Summit on the Information Society. ITU is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and its membership includes 191 Member States and more than 700 Sector Members and Associates.

ITU’s mission is to enable the growth and sustained development of telecommunications and information networks, and to facilitate universal access so that people everywhere can participate in, and benefit from, the emerging information society and global economy. The ability to communicate freely is a pre-requisite for a more equitable, prosperous and peaceful world. ITU also assists in mobilising the technical, financial and human resources needed to make this vision a reality.

Whether through developing the standards used to create infrastructure to deliver telecommunications services on a worldwide basis, through equitable management of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits to help bring wireless services to every corner of the world, or through providing support to countries as they pursue telecommunication development strategies, all the elements of ITU’s work are centred around the goal of putting every human being within easy and affordable reach of information and communication and to contribute significantly towards economic and social development of all people. ITU remains dedicated to helping the world communicate.

Website: www.itu.int

Jacana - ^ Back to top ^

Jacana is an international non-profit organisation based in the United States, with field headquarters in Mozambique. Its mission is to equip individuals and organisations to improve the quality of aid and development operations worldwide. Jacana believes that durable solutions are those which are ultimately independent of charitable organisations. We work also with the private sector, governments, and civil society.

Jacana was founded in 2002 by a group of experienced humanitarian aid and development professionals whose goal was to create an organisation dedicated to “real world development.” This is a term Jacana uses to characterise development initiatives that are valuable, efficient, durable, and accountable. Its programs and services serve beneficiaries in developing areas as well as development organisations.

Jacana supports peer organisations to strengthen field operations through procurement and importation services, fleet management, and logistics training. It implements empowerment programs that add value to existing aid and development efforts. Its programs and services inform each other, helping Jacana to achieve a perspective that is both personal and practical.

Website: www.jacanaworld.org

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) - ^ Back to top ^

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative joint venture of the United Nations family, bringing together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organisations in the AIDS response to help the world prevent new HIV infections, care for people living with HIV, and mitigate the impact of the epidemic.

With its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the UNAIDS Secretariat works on the ground in more than 80 countries worldwide. Coherent action on AIDS by the UN system is coordinated in countries through the UN theme groups, and the joint programmes on AIDS.

Co-sponsors include UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP,UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank.

UNAIDS helps mount and support an expanded response to AIDS – one that engages the efforts of many sectors and partners from government and civil society.

Website: www.unaids.org

Maji na Ufanisi - ^ Back to top ^

Maji na Ufanisi (Water and Development) is a unique organisation. We are a Kenyan NGO, working in partnership with local communities, government, donor agencies and the private sector to bring innovative water and environmental sanitation solutions to poor and disadvantaged people in Kenya. Indeed, for the last 10 years, our organisation has been working with marginalised urban and local communities with a view to designing and implementing pro-poor water and environmental sanitation solutions.

Over the years, Maji na Ufanisi has been variously recognised for its high quality support to marginalised Kenyans. The latest such event was the 2007 Habitat Day (celebrated as a national holiday on 1 st October 2007), when Maji na Ufanisi was honoured as one of the NGOs which have made a noticeable contribution to the improvement of human settlements by increasing accessibility of water and sanitation in slum areas.

Website: www.majinaufanisi.org

Mercy Corps - ^ Back to top ^

Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.5 billion in assistance to people in 106 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America and Europe, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,500 staff worldwide and reach nearly 16.4 million people in more than 35 countries.

Mercy Corps' strategy is to work in countries in transition, where communities are recovering from disaster, conflict or economic collapse. The experience gained through this work demonstrates that turmoil and tragedy often create opportunities for lasting, positive change. Mercy Corps adds its greatest value on the ground by supporting those pockets of positive change with community-led and market-driven action.

Website: www.mercycorps.org

Merlin - ^ Back to top ^

Merlin is the only specialist UK charity which responds worldwide with vital health care and medical relief for vulnerable people caught up in natural disasters, conflict, disease and health system collapse. Its vision is of a world that provides basic health care to all, responds immediately to save lives in times of crisis, and looks beyond emergencies to safeguard long term health.

Every year, natural disasters leave people in need of medical help at a time when the services on which they once relied are destroyed. Wars claim the lives of innocent victims and leave refugees susceptible to malnutrition and sickness. And in many of the world’s poorest countries, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV threaten entire communities in regions where health centres or hospitals are poorly developed or non-existent.

Merlin is a British medical charity driven by one aim: to provide health care for people at times when they are most in need. Its medical teams act fast to help people during emergencies. They work in the world’s most difficult and dangerous environments: in countries torn apart by civil war; in territories plighted by drought; or across mountain regions devastated earthquakes and landslides.

Merlin's teams of doctors, nurses and public health specialists don’t stop working just because an emergency is over. They stay in place until lasting health care services are rebuilt.

Merlin believes that everyone has a right to essential health care. To achieve this, it works with national health ministries to establish effective primary health services. It develops health policies, trains medical staff, refurbishes clinics and hospitals and leads health education programmes.

Website: www.merlin.org.uk

Save The Children - ^ Back to top ^

Save the Children is a leading international organisation helping children in need around the world. First established in the United Kingdom in 1919, separate national organisations have been set up in more than twenty-eight countries, sharing the aim of improving the lives of children through education, health care and economic opportunities, as well as emergency aid in cases of natural disasters, war and conflict.

Today, twenty-eight national Save the Children organisations participate in the International Save the Children Alliance -a global network of nonprofit organisations working in over 120 countries around the world. Founded in Geneva in 1977, the Alliance relocated to London in 1997.

In addition to promoting greater public awareness of the needs and rights of children worldwide, Alliance members coordinate emergency relief efforts, helping to protect children from the effects of disasters, both natural and manmade.

Most recently, members of the Alliance launched Rewrite the Future, a programme to bring quality education to 8 million children living in countries affected by conflict. Together, they are working in sixteen countries to try to ensure access to education for 3 million children and improve the quality of education for 5 million more, to make schools safe and protect children from exploitation and abuse, and to influence national governments and international institutions to make quality education a priority for conflict-affected children.

Website: www.savethechildren.org.uk

Stop TB Partnership - ^ Back to top ^

The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2000 to realise the goal of eliminating TB as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB. It comprises a network of international organisations, countries, donors from the public and private sectors, governmental and nongovernmental organisations and individuals that have expressed an interest in working together to achieve this goal.

From humble beginnings, the original Stop TB Initiative has evolved into a broad Global Partnership to Stop TB. The Partnership involves all those organisations and individuals committed to short- and long-term measures required to control and eventually eliminate TB as a global public health problem. Partners have coalesced into Working Groups to accelerate progress in seven specific areas: DOTS Expansion, TB/HIV, MDR-TB, New TB Drugs, New TB Vaccines, New TB Diagnostics, and Advocacy, Communications and Social Mobilisation. These mechanisms have enabled the Global Partnership to Stop TB to expand, carry forward work plans, and support countries in their efforts to accelerate action against TB, as called for in the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB.

Website: www.stoptb.org

United Nations Global Compact - ^ Back to top ^

The Global Compact is a framework for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption . As the world's largest, global corporate citisenship initiative, the Global Compact is first and foremost concerned with exhibiting and building the social legitimacy of business and markets.

Business, trade and investment are essential pillars for prosperity and peace. But in many areas, business is too often linked with serious dilemmas - for example, exploitative practices, corruption, income equality, and barriers that discourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Responsible business practices can in many ways build trust and social capital, contributing to broad-based development and sustainable markets.

The Global Compact involves all the relevant social actors: governments, who defined the principles on which the initiative is based; companies, whose actions it seeks to influence; labour, in whose hands the concrete process of global production takes place; civil society organisations, representing the wider community of stakeholders; and The United Nations, the world's only truly global political forum, as an authoritative convener and facilitator.

Website: www.unglobalcompact.org

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - ^ Back to top ^

UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. UNHCR’s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle permanently in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight.

UNHCR seeks to reduce situations of forced displacement by encouraging States and other institutions to create conditions which are conducive to the protection of human rights and the peaceful resolution of disputes. In pursuit of the same objective, UNHCR actively seeks to consolidate the reintegration of returning refugees in their country of origin, thereby averting the recurrence of refugee-producing situations.

In its efforts to protect refugees and to promote solutions to their problems, UNHCR works in partnership with governments, regional organisations, international and non-governmental organisations and the international private sector. UNHCR is committed to the principle of participation, believing that refugees and others who benefit from the organisation’s activities should be consulted over decisions which affect their lives.

Website: www.unhcr.org

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) - ^ Back to top ^

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), is dedicated exclusively to implementing projects for the United Nations system, international financial institutions, and governments.

For more than a decade UNOPS has helped its partners meet the world’s needs for building peace, recovering from disaster, and creating sustainable development. Responsible over the years for operations totalling billions of dollars in project resources, today UNOPS is one of the world’s premiere procurement, logistics, and management providers. With specific operational expertise in engineering, infrastructure, mine action, elections and census support, public works, and environmental rehabilitation and recovery, UNOPS has extensive and growing involvement throughout the world.

Website: www.unops.org

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - ^ Back to top ^

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) is a United Nations body formed in December 1991 by General Assembly Resolution 46/182. The resolution was designed to strengthen the UN's response to complex emergencies and natural disasters by creating the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA), and replacing the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, which had been formed in 1972. The OCHA was therefore the result of a 1998 reorganisation of the DHA and was designed to be the UN focal point on major disasters. Its mandate was also expanded to include the coordination of humanitarian response, policy development and humanitarian advocacy. OCHA is headed by the Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, currently John Holmes.

OCHA has some 1,064 staff, distributed across the world, with some support staff in New York City and Geneva. Major OCHA country offices are located in Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, the Palestinian territories, and Sudan (including a sub-office in Southern Sudan's capital Juba). Regional offices are located in Panama City, Dakar, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Bangkok.

OCHA does not procure goods and services, its role primarily being to serve as the key coordination point for the UN's response to the various challenges posed in the developing world and the involvement of NGOs, donors and the private sector.

Website: www.ochaonline.un.org

World Food Programme (WFP) - ^ Back to top ^

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian agency. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children. From its headquarters in Rome and more than 80 country offices around the world, WFP works to help people who are unable to produce or obtain enough food for themselves and their families.

WFP is governed by the WFP Executive Board which consists of 36 member states. Josette Sheeran is the current Executive Director, appointed jointly by the UN Secretary General and the Director-General of the FAO for a five-year term. She heads the Secretariat of WFP.

WFP has a staff of 10,587 people (2006) with 92% operating in the field. WFP strives to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, with the ultimate goal in mind of eliminating the need for food aid itself. The core strategies behind WFP activities, according to its mission statement, are to provide food aid to save lives in refugee and other emergency situations; improve the nutrition and quality of life of the most vulnerable people at critical times in their lives; and help build assets and promote the self-reliance of poor people and communities, particularly through labour-intensive works programmes.

WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS. Food-for-work programmes help promote environmental and economic stability and agricultural production.

Website: www.wfp.org

World Health Organisation (WHO) - ^ Back to top ^

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organisation, which had been an agency of the League of Nations.

The WHO's constitution states that its objective "is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health." Its major task is to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases, and to promote the general health of the people of the world.

As well as coordinating international efforts to monitor outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as SARS, malaria, and AIDS, the WHO also sponsors programs to prevent and treat such diseases. The WHO supports the development and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and drugs. In addition to its work in eradicating disease, the WHO also carries out various health-related campaigns — for example, to boost the consumption of fruits and vegetables worldwide and to discourage tobacco use.

The WHO is financed by contributions from member states and from donors. In recent years, the WHO's work has involved more collaboration; there are currently around 80 such partnerships with NGOs and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as with foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Voluntary contributions to the WHO from national and local governments, foundations and NGOs, other UN organisations, and the private sector, now exceed that of assessed contributions (dues) from the 193 member nations.

Website: www.who.int

World Vision International - ^ Back to top ^

World Vision, founded in the United States in 1950, is an international Christian relief and development organisation whose stated goal is "working for the well being of all people, especially children." Working on six continents, World Vision is one of the largest Christian relief and development organisations in the world with a $2.6 billion budget (2007).

World Vision International operates as a federation of interdependent national offices, each overseen by their own boards or advisory councils. A common mission statement and shared core values bind the partnership offices and members together. Each national partner abides by common policies and standards and holds each other accountable through an ongoing system of peer review.

The partnership offices – located in Geneva, Bangkok, Nairobi, Cyprus, Los Angeles, and San José, Costa Rica – coordinate strategic operations of the organisation and represent World Vision in the international arena. Each national office, whether in the developed or developing world, enjoys an equal voice in the organisation's governance of world vision.

According to World Vision's 2006 Consolidated Financial Statements, around 40% of their revenue comes from private sources, including individuals, World Vision clubs in schools, corporations and foundations. 27% comes from governments and multilateral aid agencies such as USAID and the Department for International development (DFID) in the UK. 30% comes from other World Vision programs and nonprofit organisations. Aside from cash contributions, World Vision accepts gifts in kind, typically food commodities, medicine, and clothing donated through corporations and government agencies.

Website: www.wvi.org