Concern ties into European aid alliance

Ireland's largest aid agency, Concern Worldwide, will form a strategic alliance with three Continental agencies with a joint turnover of more than €180 million (£141.76 million).

The partnership, the first such arrangement to be entered into by an Irish aid agency, will involve co-operation during emergencies in developing countries, the sharing of assets, resources and staff, and the joint implementation of development programmes.

Concern's partners in Alliance 2015 - a reference to its aim of eradicating world poverty by the year 2015 - are Hivos from the Netherlands, Ibis from Denmark and Deutsche Welthungerhilfe from Germany. All four organisations were founded in the 1960s in response to emergencies and have worked together over the past decade.

The alliance hopes to achieve cost savings through the sharing of resources as well as being able to tender for large projects that are beyond the capacity of any one agency. Concern's turnover rose last year to £33.75 million (€42.85 million), according to the agency's annual report for 1999, which has just been published. Donations from the public rose by a quarter to £14.82 million, confounding fears of "aid fatigue" or a possible adverse impact attributable to the National Lottery. Of this, £2.7 million was raised during Concern's Christmas campaign, while £1.2 million came from fundraising activities in Britain and £2.1 million from Northern Ireland.

Income raised for co-funded projects also rose significantly, to £15.32 million last year from £11.44 million in 1998. The Government contributed £3 million, the British government £2 million and the EU more than £4 million.

Last year, Concern was active in 23 developing countries. The agency spent more than £3 million in both Kosovo and Bangladesh dealing with natural and man-made disasters. Country programmes in Angola, Burundi, Cambodia, Honduras, Mozambique, North Korea, Sudan and Rwanda/Democratic Republic of Congo all had annual budgets in excess of £1 million.

Concern employs 94 staff in Britain and Ireland and 108 expatriate staff overseas, according to the accounts. It also employs 1,947 local staff in the developing world.

One member of staff, presumably chief executive Mr David Begg, is recorded as earning between £50,000 and £60,000 a year. Seven members of staff earn between £40,000 and £50,000. These figures include salary and benefits in kind, but exclude pension scheme contributions.

In his report, Mr Begg argues that it is time for the West to implement a "Marshall Plan" for Africa. Africa needs sustained help to reconstruct its ravaged economies and collapsed states, in the same way as post-second World War Europe benefited from US assistance, he says.