Last year, CARE International committed to supporting 200 million people to overcome poverty and social injustice by 2030 (CARE Vision 2030). The work conducted in 2021 shows the first steps towards this goal: 8 million people in 62 countries have seen positive changes in their lives through 382 projects implemented by CARE and its many partners.
These positive changes include improvements in people’s economic situations, better access to food, health, water, or other services, a greater sense of power, and at the heart of all of this, progress in gender equality. In 2021, nearly 80% of the reported projects showed how they were contributing to improving equality for the women and girls CARE works with.
To measure these transformations, CARE has developed 30 indicators that are closely aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a set of objectives to better orient the path to fight poverty, protect the planet and secure peace and prosperity for all. Last year, we contributed to 12 out of the 17 SDGs, with particularly high impacts on the ones closest to our core mission: Reducing Inequalities, Ending Poverty and Gender Equality.
CARE’s work with multiple partners around the globe is key to achieving these results. We work with a variety of local civil society organizations and social movements, local and national governments, multinational organizations, including the UN, international NGOs, and individuals who are essential to amplifying specialized knowledge and expertise in the programs and countries where we work.
Despite substantial efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the implementation of CARE’s projects and on measuring their contributions to people’s lives in 2021. The restrictions imposed during the health crisis have often made it harder to collect relevant data. In addition, the negative social and economic impacts of the pandemic may have overshadowed positive changes for many of our program participants. This trend may be reversed in 2022, but we are also facing significant new challenges.
Conflicts, climate change and high inflation in essential items are rapidly increasing the number of people facing poverty and hunger, which is already at a staggering 800 million. CARE and our partners will continue to work for its Vision 2030 to be a powerful tool to face these alarming challenges, increasing equality and dignity around the globe.