International, Example of Excellence

Barclays & Guardian News Media - The Katine Partnership - It starts with a village

The Coffey International Award supported by the Department for International Development
Example of Excellence

Very little progress has been made towards meeting the MDGs in Africa, especially to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health. We must act now. Good healthcare is a basic human right, and we have the power to make this a reality for all.

Claudia CodsiUganda Partnerships Manager, AMREF

Barclays’ partnership with The Guardian and NGO AMREF has increased access to clean water from 42% of people in 2007 to 66% and given voice to a community trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty

About the Project

The Katine project is a partnership between Barclays, The Guardian newspaper group and NGO AMREF (African Medical Research Foundation). Launched in 2007 it supports the 25,000-strong population of Katine, an area of north-eastern Uganda which has suffered civil war, drought and extreme poverty.

The MDGs have provided a framework around which the project was structured from the beginning with five components: health, education, water and sanitation, income generation and empowered communities.

The project addresses the causes of poverty and ill health in Katine, working with the local community to bring lasting positive change. The skills, influence and reach of each partner are vital. The Guardian’s innovative media coverage and its position as one of the top two news websites in the UK provides the initiative with extensive impartial publicity, the opportunity to share learning with diverse audiences and, uniquely, a voice for the residents of Katine.

AMREF has worked on development projects in Uganda for more than 13 years and has unrivalled experience and expertise in our priority areas.

For Barclays, the project is aligned to our global community investment strategy, intrinsically linked to our business capabilities and our commitment to support the communities where we operate. We’ve operated in Uganda for more than 80 years and our team there is working closely with the people of Katine to develop banking services that meet their needs.

Barclays has invested £1.5 million in the project. A further £1.2 million has been leveraged from Guardian readers.

By engaging the community at every stage, we’re building sustainability into each component of the project. It’s an approach we hope will ensure continued progress towards the MDGs long into the future.

Why this programme won - Judge's Quote

“The power of the three-way partnership between Barclays, The Guardian and AMREF to address all of the Millennium Development Goals is impressive. This is a partnership in which each of the organisations is genuinely learning from each other. 

"It is easy to see that the work being done in Katine, Uganda, through this partnership has great potential for being scaled up and is replicable in other communities in Africa and beyond.  Bringing together inclusive financial products and the power of the media with the expertise of an NGO is something very exciting.”

Charles Duff, COO Europe & Middle East, Coffey International Limited, Chairman of the International Award judging panel

 

Impact

Society benefits

  • At the start of our collaboration, Katine had one of the worst indicators for health and underdevelopment for rural areas of Uganda. Now, in the third year of the partnership, we’ve achieved significant improvements. 66% of people have access to clean drinking water compared to 42% in 2007.
  • Our drive to promote inclusive education has seen more disabled children, orphans and girls join schools, with an enrolment increase of 17%.
  • More than 4,000 textbooks have been supplied to Katine’s 15 schools. Consequently, 10 schools are meeting the district and national standard of textbook to pupil ratio of 3:1 and 1:1 respectively
  • Incidences of malaria in children under five fell from 75.5% in 2008 to 72.9% in 2009. For adults malaria cases reduced from 57.7% in 2008 to 54.9% by 2009.

Business Benefits

  • The experience in Katine is helping Barclays identify innovative ways to provide disadvantaged, remote communities with access to financial services and has catalysed linkages between Barclays community and Emerging Markets commercial teams.
  • Through governance and communication work in Katine strong, productive working relationships have been built with key stakeholders in local government and the media. A Barclays branch just 20km from the project’s hub means Barclays colleagues have benefited from volunteering, sharing skills and improving their understanding about Barclays commitment to inclusive banking in the process.

See also

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