Every day, bold actions — large and small — inspire and shape our future. Girls in northern Nigeria defy threats from violent extremists to go to school. Transgender women in Cambodia stand together against intolerance and discrimination that fuel HIV. And young people in Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone take the lead to rebuild their grief-stricken nation.
In this year’s annual report, we chronicle some of the many ways we are heeding the call to Be Bold. In the U.S. and around the world, we connected people to technologies that transformed the way they manage money and do business, diagnose and treat the sick, grow food and learn. We delivered lifesaving drug treatments and breakthrough tools to change the course of malaria, HIV, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases, such as chikungunya. Our researchers and technical experts continued to advance science by generating and using new knowledge — from developing affordable contraceptive technologies in low-resource settings to supporting communities in the U.S. to stop smoking and reduce obesity.
Our work led to a better understanding of how applying integrated approaches to the design, delivery and evaluation of programs can improve development effectiveness. And our second annual Gender Summit provided a platform for policymakers and practitioners to tackle the question of how to harmonize female empowerment and male engagement to achieve gender equality.
Through these initiatives and many others, we are reimagining how we confront the increasingly complex — and interrelated — global challenges that affect us all, no matter where we live.
The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by 193 nations last September, lay out a bold 15-year development agenda encompassing fundamental aspects of economic, social and environmental development. Some say the goals are too ambitious.
We believe the time for bold action is at hand. Yet, we will only succeed if we work together and if we push ourselves to ask the uncomfortable questions, to learn from failure and to dare to challenge the status quo. We must be willing to see and do things differently, develop new skill sets, devise new structures and conceive new partnerships. We must anticipate, adapt and enthusiastically embrace change to maximize our impact in the world.
I hope the call to Be Bold serves as an invitation to break boundaries, question conventional thinking and set lofty — even seemingly unachievable — goals that push us to go further than we might. In the end, building the future is a shared responsibility made possible by our funders, partners and the millions of individuals who lead and inspire with bold, brave acts every day.
With regards,
Patrick C. Fine
FHI 360 Chief Executive Officer
