WBU 2011 Annual Report - with compressed photos Report... · Web viewOur work with WIPO (World...

WORLD BLIND UNIONChanging What It Means to be Blind

ANNUAL REPORT2011

www.worldblindunion.org

http://www.worldblindunion.org/

Message from the PresidentBy Maryanne Diamond

I am pleased to introduce the 2011 annual report of the World Blind Union (WBU). This is the third report of the current term, 2008 – 2012. Together, these reports will provide a great deal of information on our work as we prepare the quadrennial report which will be circulated at the General Assembly in November 2012.

Our work continues to focus on the strategic plan developed in 2008 which was reviewed during 2010 by the officers and executive committee refining it where necessary. The plan continues to focus on three priority areas: representation, capacity building and information sharing.

This report outlines our work against these areas. In addition, to enable us to undertake the work in each of these priority areas, the plan contains one Enabling Priority.

As I read through this report and review the updated work plan which sits under our strategic plan containing the large number of activities undertaken in each priority area, we should be proud of what we have achieved. Of course, there are some areas where progress has been slower or minimal, however, others where we have been more successful.

Our advancement in the areas of: employment, WIPO, the CRPD and partnerships have progressed very well of the last year.

Efforts to achieve a treaty at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) continue taking us closer to conclusion. This would allow us to share across country boarders books produced in alternate formats. For millions of persons who are blind or partially sighted, this would provide access to thousands of books they are now denied because of our out-dated copyright law.

Work to establish a global employment resource bank continues to progress. We have been extremely fortunate to have been able to engage Karen Wolfe; a world recognised leader in development of programs and training in the area of employment for persons who are blind and partially sighted and the organisations that provide services to them to assist us with the content development for the website.

WBU Annual Report 2011 2

The development of an excellent CRPD toolkit for members brings together a large number of tools and resources developed by other organisations and ourselves. Our sincere thanks to Robyn Hunt from New Zealand for her work in designing the toolkit and identifying the resources contained therein. With support from CBM, we have been able to employ an advocacy coordinator which will provide the opportunity to work with members to support them use the toolkit. In addition, to coordinate our advocacy and representation work with the International Disability Alliance on the various UN treaty bodies.

One of the most successful elements of our work this term has been the development and fostering of partnerships and relationships with other organisations. One I would like to highlight is the partnership with Sightsavers and Perkins international for the IDP program. I had the privilege during 2011 at the 5th African forum to meet a number of graduates from this leadership program from across Africa.

I would like to thank the six Regional Presidents and 6 Table Officers for their leadership and hard work over the year. Particular thanks must go to our small but hard working staff:

Penny Hartin, Ianina Rodriguez and Marianne McQuillan without whom we could not have achieved what we have in 2011.

Special thanks must go to our sponsors and supporters who make it possible for us to undertake our work. There are huge, in-kind contributions at all levels provided to us which must be recognised and celebrated. These are drawn primarily from amongst our membership. We have begun to capture these contributions which evidence the generosity of our members without whom we could not achieve our work.

I look forward to continuing to work with all of our members and partners in 2012. I hope that many of our members, partners and interested individuals will join us in Bangkok, Thailand in November this year at our 8th General assembly.


Our Work During 2011, we continued to make progress on the achievement of our objectives that were set out in our 2009 - 2012 Strategic Plan which was developed in December 2008. The following pages discuss our Vision, Values and Priorities for the period as well as the work that has been undertaken so far in the advancement of those priorities, and in particular emphasizes the work carried out during 2011. This report focuses primarily on initiatives undertaken at the global level. Our six WBU Regions also undertake a great deal of work within their regions to further these priorities and objectives. The specific Regions should be consulted directly for information about their regional initiatives and activities.

Our VisionWe have adopted a pyramid Vision structure which reflects our Vision of what we would hope to achieve within a twenty year timeframe as well as our Vision for this strategic planning cycle which is four years.

Our long term, twenty year Vision is:

A community where people who are blind or partially sighted are empowered to participate on an equal basis in any aspect of life they choose.

Our short term, four year Vision, has three ladders that together will move us towards the realization of our long term vision. These three Vision ladders are:

1. That WBU is recognized as the authentic voice representing blind and partially sighted persons at the international level

2. That our members at all levels have the capacity and capability to deliver their programs

3. That the WBU is recognized as an international source of information in matters related to vision impairment


Strategic Priority 1: RepresentationStrategic Priority Leaders: Ajai Kumar Mittal, Treasurer andWilliam Rowland, Past PresidentPromoting full participation and equal opportunities for blind and partially sighted persons in all aspects of social, economic, political and cultural life

Working towards a world accessible to blind and partially sighted persons

Specific initiatives have been developed in the areas of access to information, mobility & transportation and access to technology. A good deal of progress has been made in each of these areas under the leadership of Christopher Friend.

Right to Read

The Right to Read Campaign, whose objective is to dramatically improve access to printed material for persons with a print disability continued to demand a great deal of effort during 2011. Following up on the work done in 2009 and 2010, the focus was on moving the proposed treaty closer to acceptance by WIPO members. While progress has been made, it would also be fair to say that we also faced challenges during 2011 to advance this objective. We continue to face resistance from publishers as well as from certain countries.

Since 2008, the Right to Read Team has attended a number of meetings at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to advance the R2R campaign. These have included: 4 WIPO General Assemblies; 9 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings, and several additional Stakeholder Platform and inter-sessional meetings. In addition to the core R2R team of Maryanne Diamond, Chris Friend and Dan Pescod the campaign has been


significantly assisted by 30 WBU National Members taking out Ad Hoc Observer Accreditation with SCCR and has enabled the campaign to regularly field a delegation of 15 or more in attendance to lobby Member States at all meetings. The work has also been supported by other non-WBU member organizations who have become valuable supporters of our R2R campaign efforts.

In 2011 meetings, our focus was on merging the four proposals for the treaty proposal into a single document which is still being refined into a consolidated single text for review by SCCR in July. In addition, while there has been much pressure on the WBU to accept a non-binding

instrument, we have maintained our firm position that a binding treaty is required in order to truly effect the change that is needed. The SCCR meetings scheduled for July 2012 will be critical to moving this forward and our desired outcome is that the WIPO General Assembly, which will be held in September 2012, will call for a diplomatic conference to be held in 2013 to review a binding treaty instrument. We are pleased that the Director General of WIPO has accepted an invitation to speak at the General Assembly in Bangkok in November of 2012.

The support of many of our National and Regional members has contributed tremendously to advancing our campaign efforts. Their advocacy efforts with government representatives have ensured that these representatives are well informed when attending SCCR or other relevant meetings. In particular, we are beginning to see progress in the stance taken by the European Union as a result of significant efforts by the European Blind Union. We are hopeful of significant progress in 2012 to continue to get more countries on board.

Mobility & Transportation

Some of the issues that have been undertaken by the mobility & transportation group include: the issue of silent cars, access to airline services and standards for tactile wayfinding.

With respect to silent vehicles, some good progress has been made in achieving recognition of the safety issue imposed by silent


vehicles: Advocacy work has been undertaken in several countries with several car manufacturers now recognizing the need for adaptations; Legislation regarding hybrid cars has been passed in some countries; WBU wrote a letter to the international regulatory body dealing with the issue, calling for mandatory and consistent standards. The WBU was represented at a meeting convened in Geneva in September 2011 to consider the implementation of mandatory sound regulations. In addition, a silent/hybrid car statement has been drafted and will be finalized prior to the General Assembly.

Work was also undertaken with an ISO committee on the redevelopment of Tactile Walking Surface Indicators; a new standard was agreed by the working group in 2010 and has now been voted on by ISO member countries.

One of our initiatives had also been to undertake measures to improve access to air travel for blind and partially sighted travellers. We contacted the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is the UN organization responsible for setting air transport standards. They were very receptive to our issues and we worked with the International Disability Alliance and other IDA members to provide input to ICAO which has subsequently revised its guidelines and manual.

Access to Technology

The Technology working group has made some important progress in a number of areas:

Significant progress has been achieved in the area of improving access to television and film for blind and partially sighted persons through interventions with TV manufacturers and research work undertaken by RNIB and other working group members. This has included providing support to members and broadcasters from a number of countries looking at audio description on TV and film. A good deal of work has also been done on the development, sharing of and advocacy for standards for accessible TV and film and the standardization of the audio description process. Audio description guidelines have now been published by the WBU on our website with support from RNIB. In addition, commercial talking TV/set top boxes are now available.


Techshare continues to expand to other countries. Following the successful implementation of Techshare India in 2010, a Techshare event was incorporated into the IDP Africa Forum held in Ghana in 2011. This was a very successful event and was well received by both exhibitors and participants in the IDP Africa Forum. This is bringing technology closer to blind and partially sighted persons in developing countries. A major technology exhibition will also be planned for the General Assembly to be held in Bangkok in November. In addition, recent developments at the DAISY Consortium, which now merges the Daisy standard with E-Pub standard, will enhance accessibility even more.

We continue to emphasize our interventions with mobile telephone companies so that many more models are now fully accessible to blind and partially sighted persons, including the new Apple iPhone and iTouch and iPad products as well as a number of other smartphones. It is our belief that accessible mobile telephone technology will dramatically improve accessibility for blind and partially sighted persons in an affordable way given that applications for talking books, GPS wayfinding and other productivity tools are becoming integrated into mobile technology and are becoming increasingly accessible. These developments do, however, require constant vigilance and advocacy on our part to ensure that accessibility is built into the mainstream devices and applications.

The WBU Technology working group continues to work with the Accessible Design Foundation of Japan and the WBU has designated a representative to the ISO (International Standards Organization) working group dealing with the accessible design of products.

Representing blind and partially sighted persons at the United Nations and UN Agencies

The WBU has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and as such has the opportunity to participate in many sessions at the UN and its agencies. Some highlights of our participation over the past year include the following:


The WBU was represented at both meetings of the CRPD monitoring committee that were held in 2011 and at the Conference of States/Parties held in New York regarding the CRPD implementation.

Through the support of CBM, the WBU has now been able to hire an Advocacy Coordinator (effective March 2012) who will be able to assist the WBU and our members to respond to the opportunities that are available regarding the implementation and monitoring of the CRPD and other UN instruments.

We participated in meetings with the World Health Organization regarding the Vision 2020 program and the finalization of the World Disability Report and the CBR Guidelines and have attended a number of launch events related to the World Disability Report. We also submitted our triennial report to the WHO as well as our quadrennial report to ECOSOC, both of which have been accepted.The WBU and ICEVI also collaborated on a statement to the ECOSOC High level meeting held in July 2011 dealing with Inclusive Education.

Lord Colin Low has continued to represent WBU at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) meetings to advance discussions regarding the modernization of the “free post for the blind” provision, which we hope will be presented to the UPU General Assembly to take place in October 2012 for adoption.

Our work with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) is ongoing, as described above, as we work towards agreement of a Treaty to improve access to the printed word for blind, partially sighted and other print disabled persons.

The WBU also participates in joint responses on issues in collaboration with the International Disability Alliance which has staff to undertake the research and background work on behalf of the IDA member organizations. It is up to WBU, however, to develop responses and messaging related to blindness and partial sight, which we are increasingly able to do with the addition of our Advocacy Coordinator.

Discussions have been held with representatives from ILO in order to become more active with them and the WBU President represented the IDA at a special ILO meeting bringing together representatives from the business sectors.

Advocating for human rights of blind and partially sighted persons


A Human Rights and Advocacy working group was established. Through the efforts of this working group, the WBU has attempted to advocate on behalf of members facing difficult situations. We have addressed our concerns to the UN and other international bodies and have been disappointed with their lack of response.

As a result of several natural disasters that took place in 2010, some requests were made to WBU members to provide assistance to members in countries that were particularly affected. These included interventions related to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the floods in Pakistan. There was also the flooding in Thailand in 2011 and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan that affected our members. As a consequence of the impact of these disasters, the WBU has developed a position statement on our response to situations of emergency and disaster in member countries and has begun work with other Vision Alliance members to develop an advocacy strategy to ensure that mainstream aid organizations are better equipped to meet the needs of blind and partially sighted persons affected by these disasters.

Supporting our members to implement the CRPD at the national level

As of May 20th 2012, 153 countries have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 112 countries have ratified the Convention, 90 countries have signed the “Optional Protocol” and 64 countries have ratified the “Optional Protocol”.

We have now prepared a CRPD toolkit for our members to assist them with the implementation and monitoring of the CRPD. This toolkit provides specific information about the implications of the CRPD for blind and partially sighted persons and also brings together a variety of resources from a number of other sources. It has been forwarded to all WBU members and is also available from the WBU website.


Blind therapeutic masseurs providing massage to Thailand flood victims

We also conducted a study related to the CRPD in a number of African countries, with the assistance of the African Union of the Blind and funded by the Open Society Institute foundation of the Soros Foundation. The purpose of the project was to research the availability and suitability of mainstream CRPD training resources in Africa. The study revealed that while mainstream resources are willing to include blind/partially sighted participants in their general human rights training programs, they need support and training to do that. It appears that they have little ability to conduct CRPD specific training as it is applicable to blind/partially sighted persons and their organizations.

We have begun the process of establishing Regional CRPD networks with National CRPD champions to support the work of our national members. Role descriptions have been developed but there has been little recruitment thus far.

As noted earlier in the report, the engagement of the Advocacy Coordinator, through the support of CBM will significantly strengthen our capacity to support members in their CRPD implementation and monitoring efforts.

Strategic Priority 2: Capacity Building

Strategic Priority Leaders: Arnt Holte, 1st Vice President and Frances Candiru, 2nd Vice PresidentStrengthening the capabilities and capacity of the WBU regional structures and member organisations

Improving employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted persons


Following the Employment Summit, held in London in June 2009 a working group was established and has met numerous times either face to face and via telephone in order to elaborate a strategy to improve the employment situation of blind and partially sighted persons around the world. The four key initiatives identified were: the collection of case studies, the development of an employment resource bank, documentation for peer support/mentoring programs, and initiatives related to micro-enterprise/income generating projects.

In addition, a major project proposal was developed regarding the establishment of the employment resource bank. This proposal was accepted by the funder in early 2011 and the work is well underway. This is a two year project with the research phase now completed and website under development. It will be launched by the time of the General Assembly.

An updated position statement on employment has been developed and will be presented to the Officers’ meeting in May 2012.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has established a global network of Business, Corporates and DPOs. The purpose being to find ways to improve employment rate of people with disability and particularly raising awareness among employers about the capabilities of people with disability. Maryanne Diamond represented IDA at this meeting and we hope to have an on-going involvement in this network as it has a direct relationship to our work on employment.

Working with Lions International, we have been notified that a project has been approved under the Sight for All program of Lions International, to work with WBU member AICB in India on the Micro Credit program.

Developing the capacity of our members

The Development Committee has continued to be active with representation from key international organizations involveed in development work together with the Regional Presidents. As reported last year, the Committee held a Development summit in Madrid during 2010 at which time a number of issues were identified.

A good deal of the committee’s work has focused on the issue of emergency situations. A Position Statement was developed and approved by the Executive; in addition a joint committee has


been established with other Vision Alliance members to work on this issue jointly. The committee has reviewed emergency assistance work that has been undertaken by members and a themed session on the issue of emergency assistance is being planned for the General Assembly. The Committee had set as an objective to generate resources for the hiring of a Development Coordinator to assist with capacity building. While a proposal was accepted by CBM, this work will focus on capacity building related to WBU’s advocacy work and the CRPD.

The Development Committee also oversaw the evaluation and approval of WBU scholarships from the Pedro Zurita Youth Fund, the Hermoine Grant Calhoun Scholarship Fund for Blind Women and the Arne Husveg Development Fund. In total they approved 16 scholarships for a total value of $12,370.

Supporting our target populations for full inclusion

The Diversity Committee has continued to work towards improving the attention to and participation of different target groups within the WBU.

As mentioned in previous reports, networks were established to support the different target groups. It would be fair to say that some of these have functioned well while others have struggled for a variety of reasons.

The Elderly Persons network has continued with a number of its initiatives: A report was developed and presented to the Officers focusing on the situation of the elderly blind and calling for more attention to this within the WBU. In addition, the Elderly Persons network has undertaken a partnership with AMD Alliance International to launch a joint awareness campaign regarding issues faced by elderly blind persons. This will be launched at the General Assembly in Bangkok. The EP network is also working to develop a good practice web portal which will become part of the WBU website. This work is currently underway.

The Children’s network commissioned a survey of parents’ organizations to which they received over 30 replies. They are now working on the strategy for ongoing engagement with these parents’ organizations.

Following discussions with other members of the Vision Alliance, a decision was made to establish a joint Low Vision committee with representatives from each of WBU, ICEVI and IAPB. This


committee was established very late in 2011, and its work is now getting underway.

The Diversity Committee has focused a good deal of its energy on planning the Diversity Forum which will precede the General Assembly in Bangkok. The Diversity Forum aims to raise awareness among WBU members about the unique needs of persons from various diverse groups and give them strategies for including diverse populations in their work.

Strengthening of WBU World Braille Council

The WBU World Braille Council was reconstituted in 2009 with representation from the major language groups within the WBU, from our Regions and from key stakeholder sectors. The WBU World Braille Council has now had 3 face-to-face meetings, and is being ably led by Mr J.L. Kaul from India. Some of the initiatives underway include the following:

Guidelines for the establishment of National Braille Authorities have been drafted, based on a paper delivered at the Braille 21 conference (held in Sept. 2011). These will be further refined shortly and made available on the WBU website.

A survey of credible Braille libraries from around the world was conducted among WBU member organizations. The result is a list of 150 Braille libraries from 72 countries has been compiled and available from the WBU website.

A comprehensive bibliography of research material concerning Braille has been compiled covering the period from 1912 to close to the present. It is being finalized and once complete will be placed on the WBU website.

The WBC has also been working on the identification of uniform Braille notations for mathematics, science, computer symbols and so forth and has developed recommendations for further work in this area as it is very complex.

The World Braille Council has also had interaction with ISO committees dealing with Braille on consumer products and public spaces.

The publication of the 3rd edition of the World Braille Usage has been undertaken by the Library of Congress in the United States with the support of Perkins School for the Blind. This project is scheduled for completion in mid-2012.


A major undertaking of the World Braille Council in 2011 was the Braille 21 Conference held in Leipzig Germany in September 2011 and hosted by the German Central Library for the Blind. This was a very successful conference with 420 delegates from 51 countries participating, 68 papers presented on 6 topics. A special award was also presented to an organization demonstrating innovation in Braille.

Strategic Priority 3: Information Sharing

Strategic Priority Leader: Enrique Pérez, Secretary GeneralServing as an international information and resource centre on matters in respect of blind and partially sighted persons

Developing a Resource Repository for members including website

A good deal of work has been done to update the website and ensure materials are available in our three working languages. A new website structure was designed and launched in early 2011. It is now easier for us to update information on the site. We have done some further revisions to the site as part of an upgrade to the later version of our software and those revisions will be launched by end of May 2012.

The receipt of a major grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to develop the Employment Resource bank will enable us to utilize this technology to develop other aspects of resource sharing through the website over time.

We have also been examining opportunities to utilize social marketing to communicate with members and to convey our messages to more of the General Public. There are many social media outlets and their management can be very resource intensive. We do plan to move into this in a limited way in support of some of our campaigns – in particular the Right to Read and Employment project, and will also utilize these opportunities at the General Assembly in Bangkok.


Developing international partnerships and collaboration

We continue to work closely with other international organizations to strengthen our partnerships and collaboration. While we have many international collaborations, these are some of the highlights of our work in 2011.

The Vision Alliance continues to meet regularly and has established two priority areas of joint work: a joint Low Vision committee and joint work on situations of emergency preparedness. We will also be taking prominent roles at each other’s General Assemblies which take place later this year.

WBU continues to be an active member of the International Disability Alliance and has participated in all of its meetings during 2011. IDA has become a strong network, well recognized within the UN system. William Rowland took a leadership role in a committee to develop and implement a Capacity Building pilot project that will provide training to leaders of IDA member organizations to assist them with CRPD implementation and monitoring at the National level. This pilot project is now underway. In addition, our new Advocacy Coordinator is able to assist us with responses on behalf of WBU to IDA documents and is a member of a Human Rights Officers team developed by IDA to facilitate networking and support among the Advocacy/Human Rights staff of its member organizations.

We continue to work very cooperatively with ICEVI on the EFAVI campaign which has included attendance at all ICEVI Executive meetings and we prepared a joint submission to the ECOSOC High Level meeting on Inclusive Education held in July 2011. And of course we are planning the joint General Assembly events to be held in Bangkok in November.

We also play an active role in the IDP (Institutional Development Program) and hosted the 2011 IDP annual meeting in Toronto in November. We also took an active role in the IDP Africa Forum (July 2011), providing sponsorship to some participants to attend and presenting on both the WBU Employment Initiative as well as the CRPD toolkit.


Developing the capacity to include our various language communities within the work of the WBU

The languages working group is continuing to develop strategies for improving our ability to serve our multiple language groups within the WBU. We continue to translate materials for the website and for distribution to our members and we believe that this is helping to facilitate communications. In addition, we are encouraging our members to utilize no-cost programs such as Google translate to enable them to have a basic translation of external websites and other materials that could be of value but that have not been translated.

As part of our effort to increase translation of materials as well as to assist members who are struggling to pay their WBU membership fees, we have developed a pilot program to enable approved members to provide translation in lieu of fees. We now have two organizations that have asked to participate in this program.

Enabling Priority: Effective OrganizationEnabling Priority Leader: Maryanne Diamond, PresidentEnsuring the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the WBU

Working to expand the membership

Fifteen new membership applications have been approved since the General Assembly and more applications are pending. The processing of new applications has been challenging in some instances due to the lack of response of some of our national members. In addition, three of our International members have withdrawn their membership for various reasons, and two have asked to change their status from international to Associate member. The application process for new members has been streamlined since we posted information about the process and a membership application on the WBU website.


Maintaining the membership

We continue to have ongoing communication with WBU members on a number of topics and the Regional Unions are engaged to facilitate communication as appropriate. This frequent communication has resulted in improved fees payments and better quality contact information. The WBU office is now well established as the point of contact for members.

Coordinating the development of and reviewing WBU Policies and Position Papers

The policy working group has categorized the policies, determined those that need review and updating and these have been assigned for revision. A protocol related to policy papers was developed and approved by the WBU Executive; revised policy papers on Braille Literacy and Employment have been approved and new policy papers on emergency relief and guidelines for the provision of in kind translation in lieu of fees developed. All new and revised policies and procedures are translated and posted on the website.

Overseeing WBU financial resources

The Finance Committee continues to meet on a regular basis to review financial statements and our position compared to the budget. The year 2011 was completed within the approved budget. A detailed operating budget was developed and approved for each year up to and including 2012. The Finance committee also reviews policies and procedures to ensure compliance with proper financial practices.

The membership fees committee continued to meet to manage the implementation of the new membership fee structure that had been approved by the General Assembly in August of 2008. The committee streamlined the process for accepting and reviewing applications for fees relief with the result of continued improved payment of fees by members. The two year evaluation review that was conducted in 2010 and that revealed positive results for the program provided the Membership fees committee with valuable information to enable them to continue to


strengthen and streamline the process. A new measure implemented in 2011 in order to provide even more flexibility to our members that are struggling with the new fees, enables approved members to provide in-kind translation support into French and Spanish in lieu of fees payment. While this was not taken up by members in 2011, two have been approved in early 2012 to participate in this program.

Developing and implementing the Funding Strategy

We have continued to build on the work done in prior years to strengthen our fund raising capabilities. While it remains challenging to generate funds for core operations, we were successful in 2011 in getting approval for three new projects: the CRPD research project in Africa funded by the Soros Foundation in the amount of $25,000; funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to develop our employment resource bank in collaboration with the CNIB, in the amount of $307,000; and support for our new Advocacy Coordinator, supported by CBM in the amount of $60,000. We have been revising our project concept papers and are continuously looking for new funding opportunities. We have also implemented an online donation link through the WBU website and although new, we are beginning to receive small regular amounts of funds through this donation portal.

The WBU Resource Generation Working Group has been strengthened and given a stronger mandate. That group met for a day in November 2011 to develop a sustainability strategy for the WBU. This strategy includes a number of initiatives to enable the WBU to develop more sustainable funding into the future. This plan was reviewed and adopted at the early 2012 Officers meeting and its implementation is already underway.

Our work with Lions International, while not resulting in increased funding opportunities for the WBU, has resulted in some program expansion from the Sight First program that will benefit WBU members.

There is still much work to be done to develop our external sources of funding. While we are very grateful for the supplementary support provided by a number of our members, we believe that we are still too reliant on our members for our sustainability and must continue to investigate other opportunities for generating income. It is our hope that the


implementation of the sustainability strategy mentioned above will help us to do that.

Two of our members – NABP (Norway) and RNIB (United Kingdom) have undertaken to conduct direct mail campaigns within their countries in order to generate some additional revenues for the WBU. This initiative is a very generous undertaking on the part of these two members and it is hoped that the results of the program will demonstrate a win-win scenario for both our members and for the WBU. Results of these pilot project will be shared and the learnings used by the Resource Generation Working Group to inform its future work.

Monitoring the effectiveness of the WBU operations to support its work

The President works closely with the CEO and office staff to monitor the performance and functioning of the office operations. This includes regular email and Skype calls as well as face to face meetings whenever made possible by travel schedules. The President also provided regular updates to the Officers, and held two face to face meetings of the Officers in 2011.

Planning is well underway for the next General Assembly to be held in collaboration with ICEVI in November 2012 in Bangkok. A number of joint committees have been established, including the International Organizing Committee and Program committees, both of which meet regularly, mostly by teleconference. The Thai Association of the Blind, the local host, has received some significant support from the Thai government to support organization of the meetings and have engaged the support they need to organize the event. Because the AFUB General Assembly, the Diversity Forum and ICEVI events are all held in conjunction with the WBU General Assembly, it is a much more complex event to organize than in the past. Nonetheless we are getting good response from members and possible presenters and look forward to an excellent General Assembly. A public launch was held in Bangkok in January 2012 during the IOC meeting, with more than 40 representatives from the media present


Our Finances The following is a summary of our financial position. Please see our audited financial statements for detailed information.

Sources of RevenueMembership fees 51.4%Member donations 37.3%Other revenue 11.3%

Use of fundsCapacity development 31.5%Mission representation 17.9%Information & education 15.4%Membership activities 20.8%Fundraising 4.4%Administration, & governance 10.0%

Our Key SupportersClose to 90% of our funding comes from members at this time. In addition to the membership fees paid by all WBU members, many of our members contribute to support our work in cash and in kind.

The following lists voluntary monetary contributions from WBU members over and above their membership fees:

Platinum Sponsors

CNIB (The Canadian National Institute for the Blind)ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles)RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind Persons)Sightsavers InternationalVision Australia

Diamond Sponsors

NABP (Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted)RZNFB (Royal New Zealand National Foundation of the Blind)


SFB (Swiss Federation of the Blind and other partners)

Gold and Loyalty Sponsors

National Industries for the Blind Danish Association of the BlindThai Association of the Blind

Other Major Contributors

Ontario Trillium FoundationCBM (Christian Blind Mission International)Open Society Institute Foundation (Soros Foundation)

In-Kind Support

Many members also support our work through their support of staff or volunteers on WBU committees and working groups. While we are unable to quantify the exact monetary value of that support, we have begun to capture it through reporting of our Officers and Strategic Objective Leaders. While this does not capture the entire contribution, it is nonetheless very significant. The contribution of travel costs by our members is over $225,000 USD per year. And the amount of time spent on the work of the WBU that is contributed by key sponsoring organizations is the equivalent of 3 staff. Of these, there are five organizations that have contributed in excess of $50,000 in time and travel costs to support our work. These organizations are:

NABP (Norwegian Association of the Blind & Partially Sighted)ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles)RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind Persons)Sightsavers InternationalVision Australia

Many other organizations also contributed significantly to our work through their in-kind contributions. These include: All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB), The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), Jordan Friendship Society for the Blind, and individuals: A.K. Mittal, Frances Candiru, William Rowland and Judith Varsavsky. Clearly the WBU would not be able to achieve its objectives without the monetary and in-kind support of our members, Officers and other volunteers and we are


most grateful for their assistance in making us a strong, collective voice of blind and partially sighted persons.

OUR WBU LEADERS in 2011WBU OFFICERSMs. Maryanne Diamond, [email protected]. Arnt Holte, 1st Vice [email protected]

Ms. Frances Candiru, 2nd Vice [email protected]. Enrique Pérez, Secretary [email protected]. A. K. Mittal, [email protected]. William Rowland, Immediate Past [email protected]

REGIONAL PRESIDENTSAFRICA (AFUB)Mr. Mohammed [email protected] (ABU)Mr. Ahmad Mohammed Mousa [email protected] PACIFIC (WBU-AP)Dato` Kulasegaran [email protected] EUROPE (EBU)Lord Colin [email protected] Angermann (elected October 2011)[email protected] LATIN AMERICA (ULAC)Dr. Guillermo Moreno

[email protected] AMERICA /CARIBBEAN (WBU-NA/C)Mr. Carl [email protected]

WBU STAFFDr. Penny Hartin, Chief Executive [email protected]. Ianina Rodriguez, Administrative Assistant [email protected]. Marianne McQuillan,Manager Fund Development & [email protected]

Committee & Working Group ChairsRight to ReadChristopher FriendMobility & TransportationMitch PomerantzTechnologyStephen KingHuman Rights & AdvocacyWilliam Rowland & Colin LowEmploymentMaryanne DiamondDevelopmentArnt HolteDiversityFrances CandiruWomen’s NetworkIleana ChaconChildren’s NetworkSusan LaventureYouth Network


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Kerryanne IfillElderly Persons NetworkAlan SuttieWorld Braille CouncilJ.L. KaulLanguagesGuillermo MorenoPolicy ReviewEnrique PérezConstitutionEnrique PérezFinanceA.K. MittalMembership FeesA.K. MittalNominationsColin Low

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WBU 2011 Annual Report - with compressed photos Report... · Web viewOur work with WIPO (World...

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