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← Bbc Media Action

2025-03-31-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

BBC Media Action is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 1076235) and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (no. 3521587) at Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA.

The trustees, who are the directors for the purposes of company law, present their Annual Report and Accounts, including the Strategic Report, together with the financial statements of BBC Media Action for the year ended 31 March 2025.

© BBC Media Action Copyright 2025

BBC Media Action is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 1076235) and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (no. 3521587) at Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA. You can download this publication from bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/annual-reports/

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BBC Media Action | Annual Report and Accounts

Contents

IN THIS DOCUMENT

13 Impact report

9 Strategic report

Foreword
2
A letter from our CEO
3
A letter from our Chair
4
Who we are
5
Where we work
6
Our work around the world		 2
Strategic report 9
10Looking back
12Looking ahead
Impact report 13
15Stronger democracies
20Safer, more habitable planet
25More inclusive societies
29Thanks and acknowledgements
Financial report
31How we serve our stakeholders		 30
33Our funding
36Our people
37Our organisation
40Managing risk
43Managing our finances
45Statement of trustees’ responsibilities
Auditors’ report
Accounts		 47
51

Auditors’ report Accounts 30 Financial report 69 Additional information

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Foreword

A LETTER FROM OUR CEO

In increasingly tough times in media and international development, our work - in support of vibrant, trustworthy media essential to democracy, more inclusive societies and a safer and more habitable planet - is needed now more than ever.

This year, our teams have continued to deliver amid conflict in Ukraine, South Sudan and Myanmar. We have reached some of the farthest corners of the Pacific to strengthen local media’s ability to report on climate change and adaptation, local elections, health needs and gender-based violence.

We continue to support women in media in Afghanistan amid fastchanging and tightening restrictions on their basic rights. We have continued critical climate adaptation work in Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania, and expanded this work to Uganda. We have reached young children in crisis in Gaza, giving them precious moments to feel like children again.

Si Bishop, Chief Executive Officer

All of this impact comes amid one of the most difficult years in BBC Media Action’s 25 years of operation. We live in an increasingly polarised and conflict-affected world, and cuts to overseas development aid, including the loss of USAID, are taking a grave toll on the lives, livelihoods and health of the world’s poorest people. Our network of more than 400 media partners around the world feel these impacts acutely on their own people and operations, and on the communities they serve.

This report captures only a fraction of the impact we have delivered – a steady light of hope in an increasingly challenging world, reaching nearly 100 million people in 30 countries and 50 languages.

I am incredibly proud of how our global team meet these challenges, day after day. Thank you to our donors, our supporters, and our teams around the world who make it possible – and to our audiences, who are at the heart of all we do.

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Foreword

A LETTER FROM OUR CHAIR

I was delighted to be appointed Chair of BBC Media Action in April this year.

For the last 30 years – and currently as Director of Nations at the BBC - I have been focused on developing local media services in communities across the UK. The parallels with the work of BBC Media Action are striking: championing local journalism, delivering powerful stories and information that can transform communities, and harnessing local knowledge and expertise to drive the biggest possible impact.

Rhodri Talfan Davies, Chair of the Board of Trustees BBC Media Action

Every community around the world deserves local media they can trust to deliver the information, stories and ideas that matter most to their day-to-day lives. And that is BBC Media Action’s unique role – combining a deep understanding of local communities with the world class skills and expertise of the BBC to support media development on the ground that changes lives.

So, the chance to play my part as Chair was not an opportunity I had to think twice about.

This reports sets out clearly why the work of Media Action matters so much - whether it’s building mine awareness among audiences in Ethiopia and Ukraine, breaking down barriers for people with disabilities in Nigeria, or encouraging young people in South Sudan, Cambodia and Tanzania to take charge of their futures and challenge harmful traditions and stereotypes

These are, of course, challenging times for both journalism and international aid in many parts of the world and this has been a difficult period of change for BBC Media Action. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank all my colleagues for their resilience and their readiness to change and adapt. I’m inspired by their continued determination to deliver our goals with courage and conviction despite the pressures across our sector.

I would like to extend a special thank you to Fran Unsworth, who completed her term as BBC Media Action’s steadfast and dedicated Chair in April after nearly 11 years’ service, and to trustees old and new who have dedicated time, energy and expertise to supporting the BBC’s international charity.

Despite the real challenges, I am excited and energised about BBC Media Action’s potential to harness the best of the BBC to change lives for the better across the world. And I look forward to working with colleagues around the world to deliver our goals.

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WHO WE ARE

We are the BBC's international charity. We use media and communication to help deliver stronger democracies, a safer, more habitable planet and inclusive societies. We bring together a unique blend of journalistic, creative, research and international development expertise; deep local knowledge of our audiences in the places we work; our strong networks of local partners; and our invaluable link to the BBC and everything it stands for.

We support the BBC’s determination to pursue truth with no agenda, and to bring people together to counter polarisation. We champion impartiality, creativity, and diverse representation in some of the most vulnerable international media and information landscapes.

Our values

We are proud to be part of the BBC, and we share their values of AUDIENCES, CREATIVITY, TRUST, RESPECT, ACCOUNTABLE and ONE BBC.

AUDIENCES are CREATIVITY is TRUST is the We RESPECT each We are We are ONE BBC Se} at the heart of the lifeblood of e}o |e} foundation of other – we’re kind,[alo] ACCOUNTABLE – we collaborate, everything we do our organisation our work and we champion and deliver work of learn and grow inclusivity the highest quality together

Our purpose

BBC Media Action works with partners around the world to provide impartial, impactful, trustworthy media to people in need so that they can make informed choices to transform their lives. In a world of disinformation, distrust and division, we share the BBC’s values, skills and experience to bring people together, and foster greater understanding and trust.

Who we serve

We exist to serve people who are most vulnerable to information disorder, division and distrust, with a focus on people who are also under-served by public interest media and at the frontline of global challenges, risks and crises. We work with marginalised groups, and with young people as agents of change in their communities. We contribute to the UN SDG commitment to “leave no one behind”, by meaningfully including people who are most often marginalised, excluded, not seen or listened to.

Public benefit

In May 2024 the trustees approved a new BBC Media Action organisational strategy for the three years to 2027. When reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities, the trustees confirm that they have given due regard to the public benefit guidance as published by the Charity Commission, as required under the Charities Act 2011.

Our charitable objectives include education and training, advancing health, preventing or relieving poverty, and overseas aid.

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WHERE WE WORK

----- Start of picture text -----
USA office
Boston Coming soon, partner-led work in:
Ukraine
Kyiv Benin, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador,
Georgia
Moldova Jordan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mali,
London Armenia Mozambique, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria.
Afghanistan
Kabul
Algeria Tunisia Nepal
Kathmandu
Tunis
| |
Libya Myanmar
Yangon
Cambodia
Phnom Penh
Ethiopia
South Sudan Addis Ababa
Juba
Solomon
Islands
India
Sierra Leone Somalia
& Freetown wal Nigeria Fo W Hargeisa Delhi i 4 |
Abuja Bangladesh Samoa
Dhaka
Fiji
TanzaniaDar es Salaam IndonesiaJakarta Papua New Suva
Guniea
Zambia
Kenya Vanuatu
Lusaka
Nairobi
i Barbados Tonga |
Uganda
(2024-25) Kampala
----- End of picture text -----

Coming soon, partner-led work in: Benin, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Jordan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria.

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Foreword

OUR WORK AROUND THE WORLD

We reached over 90 million people around the world, in nearly 30 countries and 50 languages!

Photo by BBC Media Action Sierra Leone

We launched The Pursuit of Truth, our new initiative to support the young journalists of tomorrow, at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York in September 2024. BBC News Global Director and Deputy CEO Jonathan Munro made our pledge to mobilise $20 million over the next three years from our donors and supporters.

Photo by BBC Media Action

We officially expanded our work in the Pacific to five countries – Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Fiji – where we are supporting local media to strengthen their editorial and investigative skills as essential sources of trustworthy information as internet access begins to expand.

Photo by BBC Media Action Pacific Islands

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Foreword

We kicked off celebrations for our 25th anniversary with an event in London in November 2024, drawing donors, supporters and former BBC Media Action staff and trustees – with the BBC Director-General Tim Davie speaking warmly about our work.

Photo courtesy of BBC Media Action

Our radio programme for young children in Gaza, Zaza and Zuzu, was named Outstanding Initiative for Underserved Audiences in the BBC News Awards.

Graphic for Zaza and Zuzu courtesy of BBC Media Action North Africa

Our beloved radio programme and social media output for young people in Tanzania, Niambie! (Tell Me), turned 10! The programme has 3.9m listeners, and our research has found that 81% of listeners have an improved understanding of human rights and politics.

Photo by BBC Media Action Tanzania

Our peer-reviewed article on the impact of mine awareness education through media was published in the medical journal BMJ Injury Prevention – demonstrating the impact that media can have to help save lives in heavily mined contexts like Afghanistan.

Photo by BBC Media Action Afghanistan

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Foreword

We launched the latest phase of our impactful #Invaluables campaign in India, with #WashtheDabba, changing attitudes and building acceptance for Bengaluru’s wastepicking community by engaging influencers and the public with creative, engaging digital media.

Photo by BBC Media Action India

We launched two of our largest media support projects to date, spanning over 20 countries with a partner-led approach, with funding from the UK’s FCDO and the European Commission.

Photo by BBC Media Action

We began a pioneering, multi-country project on gender with support from the Gates Foundation, examining women and girls’ access to digital media and how to shift harmful gender norms for the benefit of everyone.

Photo courtesy of Nigeria

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STRATEGIC REPORT

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Strategic report

LOOKING BACK

In May 2024, we launched our new organisational strategy to 2027: TRUST. DEMOCRACY. TRANSFORMED LIVES.

This strategy represented a major shift for BBC Media Action. We have fully adopted the BBC values and refreshed our purpose for a fast-changing and increasingly polarised world: working with partners around the world to provide impartial, trustworthy media to people and communities in need so that they can make informed choices to transform their lives. In a world of disinformation, distrust and division, we share the BBC’s values, skills and experience to bring people together, and foster greater understanding and trust.

We worked through 2024 and into 2025 to develop our organisational operational plan to implement this strategy, developing a series of action plans with input from across the organisation. This operational plan sets our organisational goals for the next two years.

Supported by our key enablers - upskilling our people and partners and leveraging BBC expertise to achieve impact in an increasingly digital world, “walking the talk” in our own organisational sustainability, driving a culture of belonging, inclusivity and engagement and increasing our efforts to generate unrestricted income – our organisational goals for 2024–25 were:

1. To continue reaching 100 million people each year with our work

In the financial year 2024-25, we reached over 90 million people across nearly 30 countries, working in nearly 50 languages and with over 400 partners.

  1. To secure our financial future by moving closer to the heart of the BBC, working closely with our most important donors and investing in generating unrestricted funding

In this financial year, BBC Media Action shifted from the BBC’s News and Current Affairs division to the Corporate Affairs division, alongside Children in Need, the BBC’s domestic charity, allowing us closer access to our parent corporation’s policy, public affairs, partnerships and communications teams while preserving our special relationship with the BBC World Service. Partnership with the BBC remains one of our greatest assets – from drawing on BBC expertise to deliver specialised children’s programming in Gaza, to delivering programmes in Nigeria, Somalia and Afghanistan on the BBC’s language services; from gift-in-kind partnerships with BBC.com, the BBC’s global News television channel and BBC World Service to office-sharing arrangements in Kenya, Tanzania, Tunis and Nepal. We are also deepening our work with BBC Monitoring in understanding flows of mis- and disinformation in Nepal and Indonesia.

We continue to work closely with our most important donors, securing and maintaining important funding partnerships with the European Commission, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Norwegian aid agency (Norad) and the Gates Foundation, among others. We were also pleased to receive our largest-ever unrestricted donation from the #StartSmall philanthropic initiative of Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter (now X).

We have invested in our unrestricted fundraising and communications and marketing functions to drive further growth in this area.

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Strategic report

3. To deepen our global policy and influencing in keeping with our role as the BBC’s international charity

In September 2024, at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York, we launched The Pursuit of Truth – our pledge to mobilise $20 million from our donors and partners over the next three years to support the journalists of tomorrow, focusing on journalists under 35. We continue to work with other media support organisations on issues of journalist safety and freedom of speech; we play an active role in the Global Forum for Media Development and Communication for Disaster-Affected Communities (CDAC) networks.

At a local level, we continue to support efforts in Sierra Leone to build a national Fund for Public Interest Media; efforts in Zambia to develop self-regulation for independent media; and work in Bangladesh to support strengthening the policy environment for independent media and freedom of expression through self-regulating policies for the media sector. In part as a result of this work, the Bangladesh Media Reform Commission presented its findings and recommendations to interim government head Muhammad Yunus in March 2025.

Ahead of summer 2024 elections in Solomon Islands, we also supported local media’s efforts to contribute to a free and fair electoral process through self-regulation of campaign and election coverage.

4. Through our work on media development, media policy, media content and media research, contribute to more stable democracies, a safer, more habitable planet and more inclusive societies as part of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

In our work on governance and rights, contributing to UN SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong public institutions, we were delighted this year to launch two flagship media support projects, one supported by the European Commission and one by the UK FCDO. We continued to deliver media mentoring and training to ensure a freer, fairer press across the Pacific. We supported women to take their place in civic space through our radio programmes and online content in Tanzania. And we encouraged young people to understand their rights and responsibilities, and get involved in civil society and current affairs, in Cambodia, Tanzania and Indonesia.

In our work on health, contributing to SDG 3, we increased access to sexual and reproductive health services in Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania – with a focus on people with disabilities in Nigeria and Myanmar. We created content focused on vaccine hesitancy and accessing testing in Nigeria. And we shared critical ante-natal, maternal and child health information, and information on nutrition, in Afghanistan, as health systems collapse and healthcare access is increasingly restricted for women.

In our work on resilience and humanitarian response – including responding to the climate crisis, contributing to SDG 13 – we continued to work extensively with local and national media and government ministries in Nepal on disaster risk reduction. We to respond to the needs of communities in Somalia and Kenya through increasingly unpredictable weather extremes by providing mentoring and training for local radio stations, and producing content that helps people to survive and adapt.

We continue to work extensively with journalists in Ukraine to support audiences affected by armed conflict, including in mine awareness campaigns and with Lifeline training to help them to stay on air. We were proud to launch Gaza Lifeline programming to support children and their carers, giving children a moment to be children again amid incredibly difficult and dangerous conditions.

Our work also contributes to SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). Gender is a focus in all our programming and we were delighted this year to work with the Gates Foundation to deepen our research and understanding of the gender norms that shape women and girls’ use of digital media.

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Strategic report

In Afghanistan we are supporting several women-led, women-focused radio stations to stay on air and to deliver critical health and nutrition information. Our projects and programmes in Nepal, Zambia and South Sudan tackled gender-based violence. Our central communications team, and our teams in Ukraine and Ethiopia, all participate in BBC 50:50: The Equality Project on gender representation; they track their own content production (including content on our core social media and website) and share the approach with our local partners.

LOOKING AHEAD

Amid a challenging fundraising environment, BBC Media Action will continue to deliver its new organisational strategy in the coming financial year.

Our priorities include:

1. Implementing our bold, new strategy –

building on our track record of being impact-focused, we will finalise team and organisation-wide Action Plans, including clear KPIs to measure success.

2. Continuing to improve our financial health –

revising our financial model in response to UK, US and other aid cuts, and continue to achieve our unrestricted, restricted and expenditure targets.

3. Championing people and culture –

implementing our People and Culture Action Plan, ensuring we are an even better and more inclusive place to work.

4. Reinvigorating our BBC relationship –

implementing the ‘maximising link to BBC’ strategy shift Action Plan, to deliver more awareness, fundraising and partnerships.

5. Focusing on programme quality –

agreeing ways to further improve programme quality, to amplify our impact within our three strategic shifts in support of stronger democracies, more inclusive societies and a safer, more habitable planet.

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IMPACT REPORT

p.15

Stronger democracies

p.20

Safer, more habitable planet

p.25

More inclusive societies

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Impact report

Photo by BBC Media Action Kenya

We are the BBC’s international charity, and audiences are at the heart of all we do.

Our work is centred on support for local media and content producers, to ensure trustworthy, creative, impactful content for audiences who need it most.

We train and mentor local journalists and media workers, and support the production of information and content on issues that matter most to families and communities, so that people have the information they need to make critical decisions. In many parts of the world, we also produce content ourselves, working with local partners to ensure people have meaningful, engaging drama and discussion programmes that inform and inspire.

All our work is rooted in media research. Our expert research teams around the world use a variety of methods to reach audiences in even the

toughest contexts, to deliver valuable insights into how audiences use media and their beliefs and values on a variety of development issues, informing our approach and ensuring we and our partners can produce content that resonates.

At global, national and local levels, we also work to advance media policy, to help ensure a more open environment so that media can operate safely and effectively. At a time when more than 75% of the world’s countries do not have a free press, this work has never been more needed.

Our work across media development, media content, media policy and media research focuses on three areas of impact: stronger democracies; a safer, more habitable planet; and more inclusive societies.

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STRONGER DEMOCRACIES

Women journalists in Fiji

Media freedom and media support

Our support for local media around the world is anchored in four major multi-country projects. Brave Media, which began formative work in late 2024, is a consortium funded by the European Commission, focused on local, public interest media in 22 countries. BBC Media Action is leading work in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Zambia and Sierra Leone, and through nine implementing partners in Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Cameroon, Benin and Mali.

Public Interest Media and Healthy Information Environments (PIMHIE), funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), began in summer 2024, supporting local media outlets and content production in Bangladesh, India, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Zambia. We continued our Eastern Neighbourhood Countering Disinformation consortium, working with 26 credible and popular media outlets in Eastern Europe. And our major Pacific project is mentoring journalists and media workers in Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

In each of these projects, we’re working to support local public-interest broadcasters and media houses to become more sustainable, trustworthy and relevant voices for their audiences: through formative research into their audiences’ media usage and understanding, and by applying deep local cultural understanding and our BBC expertise and creativity. We also support the creation of more modern and efficient newsrooms with effective workflows, to ensure these media outlets are better able to reach their audiences.

These projects promote the pluralistic views essential to democratic society, while combatting mis and disinformation for more constructive and civil debate and discussion. In Bangladesh, for instance, we

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are supporting a media coalition led by the Broadcast Journalist Centre working for a more open and trustworthy media environment amid political changes.

Also in Bangladesh, our Freedom of Expression for Effective Democracy project is working with 200 representatives of civil society and 100 media practitioners, covering topics including how to harness digital platforms and new digital technologies effectively and safely and to tackle mis- and disinformation and online harassment.

In Moldova, we’ve supported public broadcaster Teleradio Moldova (TRM) in its transformation from a state to a public service broadcaster, strengthening journalists’ ability to produce informative, modern and engaging news and current affairs programmes, to use multimedia platforms, and to reach wider and diverse audiences. We also supported them to create their first policy on diversity and equity in the workplace. Last year, we trained 70 newsroom staff on multimedia planning, over 40 journalists on mobile journalism, and contributed to the production of Moldova’s first morning show, Buna Dimineata, with a blend of live news segments and practical and current topics – learning from BBC Breakfast.

In Afghanistan we are proud to be working with 52 local radio stations including 12 female-led media houses across the country. This work has been threatened by the abrupt end of our Afghan Support Project funded by USAID in February 2025, although we will continue to train, mentor and provide small grants to our radio partners who are focused on, led by or owned by women, under European Commission funding.

In Afghanistan, women’s voices are often ignored, and this fear remains ever present. I fear that my efforts will be in vain, and my voice will be lost amidst the noise of society and laws. As a female journalist active in the media, my recommendation is that women’s presence in the media should be prominent as it once was. Media leaders should recruit women and create job opportunities both within and outside the media environment without fear simply because I’m a woman. Female journalists are often better equipped to reflect women’s issues as women feel more comfortable and open when interviewed by other women. The presence of female journalists in media not only highlights women’s challenges but also serves as a motivating force for women’s progress and advancement. ”

‘Mursal’ (not her real name), a journalist in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, supported by our training

Photo by BBC Media Action Afghanistan

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In Zambia, with our partner Press Freedom Initiative, we again ran the Moto (Fire) initiative, a nine-month training and mentoring course for nine female broadcasters covering news and current affairs, factchecking and investigative journalism. Some of the journalists went on to win awards for their content.

In Sierra Leone, we supported the launch of the National Fund for Public Interest Media to help strengthen local media and increase the production of public interest content in the country. Our contribution was matched by the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) and will help deliver 15 grants to various media outlets – providing these outlets with first-of-its-kind support in West Africa to produce good journalism. This is just one of several initiatives with local and international partners to implement the National Action Plan for Media Viability, itself an outcome of our earlier work to support public interest media in the country. Combined with our work to push forward media reform, strengthen the national journalists’ union, address gender imbalances in the media and promote accountability and governance, BBC Media Action remains the lead international organisation for media development in the country.

In Tanzania, our Rural Radio Support Project supports local radio stations to become more commercially viable, while producing quality content that meets the needs of people who are most marginalised – including women and young people.

Governance and civic participation

Shoring up local, trustworthy media is essential to development and democracy, and many of our projects are focused on ensuring media can uphold its role as the trustworthy ‘fourth pillar’ of a more free, fair and democratic society.

Some of our most compelling governance work is in Zambia, where, through our Radio Waves project, we continued supporting 15 media outlets across television, radio and digital and social media to produce stronger and more responsive public interest content including news and current affairs, debates, youth programming, and investigative journalism and fact checking packages.

We are working with the national broadcaster, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, to reform news output and produce live audience debates representing diverse and critical views from across the country. We continue to support the Media Institute of Southern Africa to work on policy reform to improve media freedoms in Zambia, following on from the 2023 establishment of a media self-regulation council. And we are working with the National Parliament of Zambia Radio and TV network to produce better programming, helping to ‘open up’ parliament and the work of MPs to the public to allow for greater transparency, scrutiny and engagement.

Through Moto, I have learned about different angles and how to go more in depth on stories. I’ve also become part of a great network of female journalists – who work together and collaborate to bring change. ”

Joan Musabila, from Prime TV, Lusaka, attended our latest Moto mentoring programme

After the first round of training, I produced a piece about how people with albinism in Zambia are being affected by climate change. I submitted it for an award… and it won! Best Media Report on Environment and Health in the Open Spaces Zambia Awards. ”

Justina Grace Matandiko, Journalist, Radio Icengelo in Kitwe, Copperbelt Province

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Our research in Zambia has found that 33% of the population across our eight focal provinces were reached by our governance programmes.

In Tanzania, where local elections were held in 2024 and general elections are expected later in 2025, our Broadcasting for Change project – focused on gender equality and women and girls’ rights - and our National Conversation project both turned a sharper focus on political and democratic rights and participation, particularly for women and girls.

In South Sudan, our beloved radio programme Life in Lulu began its 12[th] year, continuing its 10[th] season, aimed at improving civic engagement among young people while also tackling everyday issues including sex- and gender-based violence. We continue to broadcast in six languages, working in partnership with 26 radio stations and 8 local civil society organisations across five states in South Sudan, and we’re expanding our work in social media to reflect the needs of the fast-growing young population in the country.

I was not interested in sending my daughter to any meetings because I thought she was too young. After watching the drama, I realized that my daughter is at Kdeb Ampil’s [the main character in the TV drama] age too. Later, I encouraged her to join [community meetings] and she has attended twice already. ”

A Sok San Family viewer Photo by BBC Media Action Cambodia

In Cambodia, our Klahan9 (Brave 9) SPACE project wrapped up this year after 10 years of combining media programming with support for local media and on-the-ground outreach. Since 2022, our hugely successful TV show, Sok San Family (delivered as part of Klahan9 ) has been inspiring young people to get involved in their communities, through youth clubs, mobile libraries, environmental clean-ups and improving road conditions, while stepping away from stereotypical expectations to seek new opportunities in education and work. Our programming reached 2.46 million people across the country and 8 million online users; we found that 69% of young people we surveyed who had been exposed to the content said they participated informally in civic life, while 52% participated formally—an increase from 41% and 26%, respectively.

Klahan9 has also helped cultivate acceptance, inclusion and equity among its audiences, including nonbinary young people, girls from rural areas, and young people who have been marginalised.

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Information disorder

The World Economic Forum continues to list mis- and disinformation as among the top threats faced by all nations. We’re working in multiple countries around the world to train and mentor journalists to conduct their own fact-checking. We’re also conducting cutting-edge research into the narratives, threats and factors that make people vulnerable, and piloting new interventions to try to counter these growing threats.

Our Nepal Integrity initiative research project aimed to strengthen evidence around mis- and disinformation narratives and actors, as well as to understand what heightens people’s vulnerability to false and misleading information. We worked closely with BBC Monitoring and the BBC Nepali Service. This six-month study, the first of its kind in Nepal, highlighted clear and growing concerns around mis- and disinformation, particularly ahead of upcoming elections. We found that about 70% of Nepali people now use the internet daily; when combined with low levels of digital media literacy and limited fact-checking, this makes audiences particularly vulnerable to emotionally charged or widely shared mis- and disinformation. Our findings will inform further work in the region.

In Indonesia we deepened our understanding of the flows of mis- and disinformation with our Information Integrity Initiative. We worked with BBC Monitoring and CASM Technology on this collaborative research project, using a combination of techniques to map the disinformation landscape, assess public perceptions, and identify the most prevalent types of disinformation. Our research found high levels of trust in Indonesian media and in information from regular people; our researchers also used audience segmentation to further understand how people engage with information, which will inform our future work.

We continue to partner with the University of Cambridge to understand how to build resilience to misinformation even in complex contexts. In Libya, where we have conducted several years of media landscape and misinformation research, we worked with UNDP to design digital media literacy videos and graphics, which will be tested and analysed with plans for sharing our learning. And we also conducted formative research in Somalia to understand what makes people vulnerable to mis- and disinformation, how people check information and the role of social media. Our findings of reliance on traditional media, family, friends and community leaders informed further work in the country.

In Zambia, we partnered with BBC Monitoring to examine the originators and trends in mis- and disinformation; based on this insight, we trained and supported a network of 30 fact-checkers across the country to produce trustworthy information and content.

In Sierra Leone we worked with UNDP to create a digital media literacy fellowship for journalists and influencers, leveraging our BBC expertise to deliver world-class training activities.

And in February 2025, with funding from the UK’s FCDO, we began a new project in Uganda, focused on identifying and countering mis- and disinformation ahead of planned elections in January 2026.

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SAFER, MORE HABITABLE PLANET

In the consecutive hottest years on record, and in an increasingly polarised and conflict-affected world, our work addresses the most pressing needs to help create a safer and more liveable planet: from the impacts of climate change, to conflict prevention and peace-building, to providing life-saving information and support in humanitarian emergencies. We strengthen aid efforts, amplify the voices of crisis-affected people and support climate adaptation and climate justice with content and storylines that resonate with audiences’ own experiences.

Before working with BBC Media Action, we just relayed technical information to broadcasters who would then relay on the same message to communities. There was no feedback mechanism. We did not even know if people understood these messages.

Now, we have simplified the messages and have revised our messaging based on audience feedback. We’ve started using social media to reach audiences directly, listen to feedback and keep the messaging simple, clear and precise without using too much technical jargon. The response from audiences from across the country has been overwhelmingly positive. ”

Bindu Chaudhary, journalist from Bardiya, Nepal – Producing content for Guru Baba FM

Photo by BBC Media Action Nepal

Shanti Kandel, Senior Meteorologist, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Nepal. The department recently started their own TikTok channel, based on BBC Media Action’s national media survey of media habits, and with Media Action’s advice, one of their earliest posts received 2.1m views, 100,000 likes and 11,000 shares in just seven days.

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Climate and resilience

Our multi-country projects: BRIDGES, RiCA and Down2Earth

Our flagship climate and resilience project, BRIDGES, is funded by Norad and is focused on Bangladesh, Nepal and Kenya. We’re working to build stronger weather and climate information services, building collaboration between scientists and climate experts, civil society, and journalists and content producers, and ensuring that content is trusted, timely, relevant and useful to their audiences – because you can’t adapt and prepare for an early monsoon if you don’t have information that is accessible and that you can trust.

As part of BRIDGES, our Bangladesh team worked to support millions affected by post-monsoon flooding in south-east Bangladesh in August-September 2024, putting out rapid responses with information services – which reach people effectively wherever they are. By March 2025, our Bangladesh team had reached more than 2 million people with flood preparedness and response information through its social media platforms.

In Kenya, we’re working with our network of 16 local radio stations to strengthen their weather and climate information, building on previous work in this area; we’ve also conducted a significant survey to understand how people understand and are affected by weather and climate changes, and what information they need to adapt and cope.

In Nepal, under BRIDGES, this year we worked with 14 local radio stations across all seven provinces, conducting training and supporting the broadcast of 96 radio episodes and accompanying social media content, focused on more effective weather and climate communication.

In 2024, we also completed our Risk Communication for Early Action (RiCA) project, funded by USAID with support from UNDRR. We worked across Cambodia, Somalia and Barbados with government departments, technical experts, media professionals and community members to determine how to create inclusive and effective early warning systems, and more effective communication with at-risk populations for natural hazards like cyclones, flooding and landslides. As part of this project, we produced two pocket guides with guidance and practical tips for effective communication before disaster strikes.

As part of the Down2Earth consortium, an EU Horizon 2020 Project that ended in early 2025, we focused on understanding the impacts, and supporting people to adapt, to climate change, food insecurity and water scarcity in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. A series of powerful films amplified the voices and experiences of those affected and examined locally generated solutions.

Wambaz, a young journalist from Narok County in Kenya, took part in BBC Media Action’s project Down2Earth. This initiative helped him gain more skills and bring a real change to his community through his journalism.

Wambaz presenting his radio show on Radio Jangwani in Marsabit County

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Other climate-related work

In Algeria, our WISER project with the UK’s Met Office, funded by the FCDO, helped local communities, governments and media producers effectively collaborate with national emergency services, meteorologists and broadcasters to understand the needs of the populations most at risk of wildfires and produce more effective early warning media content to help people prepare and cope. A second phase of the project will produce content informed by behavioural insights in Algeria and in Tunisia and share lessons learned with broadcasters from across the Middle East and North Africa region.

In Nigeria we have been working to support media and communication for improved water resources management and climate change adaptation in the Niger basin. Our scoping visits allowed us to identify media partners and research agencies in support of future work in this area.

In Nepal, as part of our Sajag Nepal project led by Durham University and funded by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, we produced two documentaries, from each of Sindhupalchowk and Kavrepalanchowk districts. Hardest hit by the 2015 earthquakes, both districts have had escalating natural hazards including flooding, landslides and milder earthquakes; our two documentaries highlight the challenges faced by those who have lost homes and family members in these disasters and their calls for more government support. Our ‘Living with Landslides, Part 1’ film was shortlisted and screened at the Royal Geographical Society Conference in August 2024, while the second film was screened for the UK’s National Environment Research Council and other partners.

Sridevi from Nepal affected by monsoon rains and landslides

In India, our Cool It Down climate podcast funded by USAID ran for 26 episodes, in an engaging series covering every aspect of climate change—from green weddings and energy efficiency to sustainable fashion and beyond. By 31 March it had already reached nearly 600,000 listens from over 200,000 listeners across 39 countries.

In Somalia, we finished an 18-month project, funded by FCDO, focused on supporting women to become more resilient and prosperous amid climate change, biodiversity loss, conflict, and gender inequality. We worked with six local media partners across Somalia and Somaliland, providing mentoring and coproduction of content, for more effective and engaging coverage of these issues, engaging religious and community leaders, women and men’s groups and schools to promote discussion and action.

In Zambia, where the country faced its worst drought in 40 years, contributing to soaring food prices, widespread power cuts and hunger, we worked to understand what information people needed most, and then with broadcasters to ensure they were delivering accurate, timely information to help people to cope. A participatory video project, in which a local farmer was given a mobile phone to record his experiences and the positive impacts of putting his learning from radio programmes into action, was shared across our social media channels and by BBC Africa.

In Indonesia, our For the People project supported by Norad ended in March 2025. This project focused on promoting forest-friendly policies, protecting indigenous rights, and improving local livelihoods in

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Indonesia while tackling a critical challenge: how to help young, urban Indonesians connect and engage with environmental issues. Our AksiKita media brand set out to empower young people, journalists, content creators, and indigenous communities to take action on deforestation, climate change, and sustainable growth – and demonstrated exciting evidence of reach and impact:

Our production team has partnered with dozens of universities in Indonesia, leading public lectures, seminars, and training sessions on media, climate, and youth advocacy, and had numerous collaboration requests from communities, organisations, and youth-focused media.

Our work through conflict and humanitarian emergencies

We have continued to work closely with media partners across Ukraine, helping to ensure they can stay safe and stay on air in wartime. With funding from UNDP and Humanity and Inclusion, we have worked particularly to raise awareness of the dangers of unexploded ordnance, focused on media partners in Mykolaiv, Kherson and Donbas territories and other areas near the frontlines, and including a nationwide Notice the Changes campaign that achieved an estimated 40 million views, including billboards and TV public service announcements, and on screens in trains, supermarkets, pharmacies. Our partners created more than 200 pieces of content on the risks of unexploded ordnance, and our research found a 34% increase in knowledge about how to respond safely among audiences who consumed our partners’ content.

At the very beginning of my journalism career, more than 10 years ago, I was surprised by the rather frequent press releases from the State Emergency Service about discovering and neutralising mines left over from World War II. This means more than half a century had passed, and mines were still being found. We’ve been at war for three years now, and I fear that it will be future generations who will have to clear our land of mines. That’s a terrifying prospect. ”

Oleh Dereniuha, CEO of NikVesti, Mykolaiv

In Mykolayiv, Ukraine, local media outlet NikVesti produces mine-awareness content with the support of BBC Media Action to raise awareness about the dangers posed by unexploded mines.

NikVesti CEO Oleh Dereniuha in the newsroom

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Also in Ukraine, we worked with funding from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance to help humanitarian agencies and media to communicate more effectively so that people receive useful and timely information; through this project, we also trained media workers with public broadcaster Suspilne in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, both hard-hit by the conflict, in how to produce Lifeline content. Nearly 250 pieces of content were published across different platforms with our mentoring, to support the most vulnerable people – including IDPs, women with children, and people under direct shelling – with practical information about shelters and community hubs, access to medical assistance, psychological support and water purification guidelines. This project ended just before the dismantling of USAID.

BBC Media Action produced content for audiences living through war in Gaza this year, partnering with the UN Refugee Works Agency for the Palestinian people to produce 52 – 15 minute audio episodes for the children of Gaza and their carers, allowing them to have a moment of childhood in the midst of ongoing war and hunger, and providing psycho-social support and advice to their carers. These episodes were aired more than 200 times in child-friendly spaces, reaching an estimated 17,000 children.

In North Africa, our award-winning El Kul (For Everyone) platform for Libyan audiences reached over 10 million people on Facebook in 2024/25, with nearly 900,000 interactions with its public interest and digital media literacy content. Several individual posts reached over a million people each, with stories that celebrated shared culture and peacebuilding in Libya, which otherwise continues to struggle with divisions that inhibit peaceful and sustainable development. El Kul remained one of the top Libyan current affairs pages on social media, with nearly 1.4 million followers – 87% of them in Libya, and 42% female. At the time of writing, we are continuing to work to secure new donors for El Kul , as it was badly affected by the sudden end to USAID funding.

In Ethiopia, we have built on our mine awareness learning and expertise from prior work in Afghanistan and Ukraine to become a key player in the mine action community. We worked this year with other NGOs in a UN Mine Action Service-funded project to increase awareness of the dangers of unexploded ordnance. Focused on the Afar and Tigray regions in northern Ethiopia, we’ve supported risk awareness campaigns reaching 31,983 people, and supported the distribution of 80,433 banners, leaflets, and posters that help increase awareness and inspire individuals to use the toll-free centre for assistance. We also created public service announcements in Afaric, Amharic, and Tigrigna, aired on Ethiopia and Amhara Broadcasting Corporations, and worked with community focal points to support further training and mass awareness. Our films supporting this project focus on individuals who were saved from harm following this work.

In Nigeria, until February 2025, we worked with USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance funding to improve the humanitarian response in Borno and Adamawa states, where people have been badly affected by insurgency and extreme flooding. We delivered Lifeline training, co-produced content with local radio stations and worked to improve co-ordination between humanitarian agencies, local organisations and media partners – all to ensure that both displaced people and host communities have better access to timely, trustworthy and understandable information and stories that inspire understanding. This project ended before completion due to cuts to USAID funding.

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MORE INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES

When she got to Italy what she saw was not what she was told, she was totally deceived. And when she got to Italy all her documents were taken, and she was forced into the sex trade. The reality was that she was stripped of everything including her own freedom. ”

Sister Justina Odunukwe, Community for the Support of the Dignity of Women, Edo state, Nigeria, in an interview for our series of minidocu-dramas on the dangers of sex trafficking

Photo by BBC Media Action Nigeria

Media has the power to advance equity and inclusion. It can also deepen inequality – where people are excluded from information access, public discussion, and fair media representation. Across all our work, we ensure that we meaningfully include people who are most often marginalised, excluded, not seen or listened to. Transformative change for women and girls, and reaching young people on the channels they use most, are key components of our new strategy.

We were grateful this year to receive a significant planning grant from the Gates Foundation, contributing to our work and understanding of the role of gender norms in digital access. Drawing on our existing work in India and Nepal, in the coming year we will produce a series of learning briefs expanding on our insights.

In Nigeria we had four projects this year focused on different aspects of equity and inclusion – from raising awareness and supporting survivors of sex trafficking in Edo state, to supporting IDPs and host communities, to tackling stigma and misinformation around the sexual and reproductive rights and health for people with disabilities, and work to support access to testing and vaccines. Our work in Edo state is funded by the US State Department; our survivor-informed approach to tackling sex trafficking is informed by in-depth audience research and focuses on reaching vulnerable women and girls and their key influencers, including families and community leaders, through media. We have produced powerful docu-dramas and mini-documentaries, are working directly with local radio stations to co-produce programming, and have sub-granted funds to a survivor-led service provider in the state. We are grateful that this funding has continued after a pause in February 2025.

Also in Nigeria, we have worked in consortium on the Emergency to Resilience project in Adamawa state, focused on reaching internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities to provide essential information and help reduce violence and conflict. Our research found that residents are most worried about early marriage, kidnapping, rape and conflict between herders and farmers; women, children and

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people with disabilities were seen as particularly vulnerable. While respondents interviewed identified media’s role in promoting peace and public awareness on these issues as essential, they also said that local media were unlikely to verify information and that much of it was false.

In Northern Nigeria, we worked in the Inclusive Futures consortium led by Sightsavers to promote access to inclusive family planning for people with disabilities. Based on formative research, we have developed a radio drama – a new season of our beloved Madubi (Mirror) - to tackle the stigma and discriminatory norms that prevent people with disability from accessing sexual and reproductive health care; we have also developed social media content, worked to strengthen the skills and understanding of local media partners, and contributed to community outreach activities, including work to increase the representation of people with disabilities within healthcare committees.

Finally, we continued to work with Gates funding to support young Nigerians to make informed decisions about vaccination for COVID-19 and human papillomavirus (HPV), and adopting preventative measures to protect against sexually transmitted infections, as part of practising healthy lifestyles. Our outreach events in multiple university campuses later featured in radio discussion programmes broadcast across the country. Our endline research demonstrated that of those surveyed, two-thirds of adults in Rivers and Ebonyi states listened to our Talk Your Own programming and nearly half of adults in Katsina state listened to Mu Tattauna ; nine in 10 said they learned lessons from listening to the programming, including understanding the risks and how to access testing and vaccines.

In Sierra Leone, we worked with World Vision to help increase the participation of women and girls in decision-making in Pujehun District, Southern Sierra Leone. We supported our local partner, Radio Wanjei to produce a series of programmes and town halls that provided a platform for women and girls to hold conversations that address issues that affect them.

Our social norms research, funded by UNFPA, in Sierra Leone delved into the norms that shape and affect contraceptive use by young people, and contribute to teenage pregnancy.

Photo by BBC Media Action Sierra Leone

In South Sudan, the Girls’ Education South Sudan consortium wrapped up the current phase of work, aiming to change attitudes towards sending children – particularly girls and children with disabilities - to school by addressing key barriers to education. Our endline research, a mixed-methods study, demonstrated that the ‘Our School’ radio programme reached 2.5 million people, or nearly half of listeners aged 15+ across six states; just over half of those listeners were female. We found that more than 69% of our audience said they discussed the programme with others, and parents who listened to Our School regularly were more likely than non-listeners to have done something to support the education of their children, such as sending a daughter or sister to school, or saved money or sold something to help finance fees.

Also in South Sudan, we continued working in a consortium led by Amref Health Africa on a groundbreaking project to tackle mental health and psychological resilience. South Sudan has the fourthhighest suicide rate in Africa and an estimated one-fifth of its population are thought to be experiencing or at high risk of developing psychological or psychiatric conditions. Our factual radio show, Let’s Talk About Us, is designed to engage with audiences as well as supporting effective conversations between MNS service providers, educators and their communities.

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And our factual radio programme Sout Bitanina (Our Voices) in South Sudan aims to tackle gender-based violence, in part by featuring leaders from all walks of life: government, military, UN missions, religious, judiciary, traditional, diplomats, women in leadership, and civil society.

In Zambia, we wrapped up work in partnership with Restless Development and funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) this year through our Tikambe! (Let’s Talk) programming, to share critical information about sexual and reproductive health and rights focused on younger audiences. Our research found that 35% of young people across four focal provinces were reached within the last year through radio, TV and Facebook.

In Afghanistan we have retained a primary focus on female audiences with our Darman (Healing) programme. Our research this year demonstrated that women are significant listeners to local radio, and, amid severe restrictions on their rights and movement, they are also most in need of accurate information on nutrition, health care – particularly during pregnancy and in the first months after birth – and on their rights under Sharia law.

Photo by BBC Media Action Zambia

We are also expanding our focus in Afghanistan to ensure we are fully serving people with disabilities; in addition to ensuring our public service announcements include sign language, we have conducted three major surveys on their specific challenges to help inform future work.

In Bangladesh, until the end of USAID in February 2025, we continued our YouthRISE project in Cox’s Bazar, working with young people in host communities and in Rohingya refugee camps to build their digital literacy and skills in content creation, and working on conflict mitigation and creating more cohesive societies. In Ukhiya and Teknaf, we worked with nearly 150 young men and women, including many with disabilities, to support them to use digital tools responsibly and constructively and to build critical thinking. Our curriculum addressed pressing topics such as misinformation, hate speech, ethical digital practices and personal data protection. Some of the group went on to further develop their digital skills by producing high-quality, thematic social media content for the YouthRISE official Facebook page, A’aiyo Jani (I know), which recorded a total reach of nearly 500,000 by the end of 2024.

As part of this project we also created 45 episodes of an audio drama focused on peaceful conflict resolution through engaging storytelling, broadcast on Radio Naf , based in Teknaf, reaching an estimated audience of 400,000 listeners, and through Radio Soikat in Cox’s Bazar Sadar, with an estimated listenership of 800,000.

In Asia-Pacific, we supported Unicef with their innovative Oky period app project, leading research in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Philippines into the app’s use and impact.

And in India, we continued work through the PRIDE project, funded by H&M Foundation and led by the Saamuhika Shakti initiative, focused on our #Invaluables campaign to banish stigma and improve the

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A waste picker in Bengaluru, India. Photo courtesy Saamuhika Shakti/ Vinod Sebastian

lives of the waste pickers of Bengaluru. By the end of 2024, our #WashTheDabba campaign, focused on encouraging Bengaluru’s residents to take greater care with waste disposal to help in recycling, had reached approximately 10 million people nationwide, including 3.5 million in Bengaluru itself – nearly a quarter of the city’s population. Our social media videos went viral and together received over 15 million views, with an overall engagement rate for the campaign of 24%! In April 2025 we launched the next phase, 'Got Old Clothes?', putting a spotlight on the skills and expertise of waste pickers in recycling old clothes and bringing them back to the waste value chain.

In Myanmar, working with funding from the H2H network and in an increasingly difficult environment, we implemented a five-month humanitarian communication project for people with disabilities, working with the Myanmar Independent Living Initiative to understand their humanitarian needs and ensure aid efforts were more effective and accountable. We trained 13 people in research skills and data collection and supported them to collect data and conduct interviews across six regions and three states: in-person where the situation allowed, and online in areas of high conflict. These insights were shared with local civil society organisations, disability networks and humanitarian agencies to help improve their response. We also worked with humanitarian agencies to map and refine their communication, and produced public service announcements highlighting the importance of including people with disabilities in emergency responses.

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THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

BBC Media Action is grateful to all our donors, partners and supporters, without whom our work would not be possible.

ACTED

AICS (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation)

The Asia Foundation BMB Mott Macdonald

Cardiff University

Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (UK)

Counterpart International

Danish Refugee Council

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Deutsche Welle Akademie

Diakonia

Durham University

Embassy of the Netherlands Equal Access International European Commission

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK

Gates Foundation

Global Affairs Canada

Global Center on Adaptation Government of Belgium

H & M Foundation

Humanity and Inclusion International

IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC)

International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)

International Media Support

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Irish Aid

Koalaa

Minderoo Foundation

National Democratic Institute (NDI)

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Sightsavers

StartSmall

Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC)

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

UK Met Office

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

United Nations

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

US State Department

University of Bristol

World Bank

World Food Programme (WFP)

World Health Organization (WHO)

World Peace Foundation

World Vision

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

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ZA \ b>) 7 \ FINANCIAL \ « ‘ REPORT "4 J

p.31 How we serve our stakeholders

p.37 Our organisation

p.45 Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

p.33 Our funding

p.40 Managing risk

p.47 Auditors’ report

p.36 Our people

p.43 Managing our finances

p.51 Accounts

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HOW WE SERVE OUR STAKEHOLDERS

BBC Media Action complies with section 172 of the Companies Act 2006. Our board of trustees acts in the way it considers, in good faith, is most likely to enhance BBC Media Action’s impact for the people we work with, while considering the long-term effect of decisions on our organisation and our stakeholders. Our mission sets out our need to work with partners to reach our audiences.

Our internal stakeholders are our employees, who are our greatest strength. We continued to make championing people and culture a clear organisational priority in 2024–25, with a dedicated People and Culture board, more emphasis on regular internal communications and improving opportunities for all our global team to access BBC training and development opportunities such as Hot Shoes placement schemes.

All our employees have access to an employee assistance programme, with enhanced support in times of crisis in the countries where we work.

Our external stakeholders include:

Our audience members

Reached directly and through our partners, these are the people who most benefit from our work. Our research into what viewers and listeners need helps inform our work. Our project evaluations ensure that we learn from our work and achieve positive impact.

We are expanding and deepening our digital work as audiences’ media habits change, while ensuring that we include people who still live in media-dark or media-poor communities. We follow BBC and media sector best practice in obtaining consent from anyone who participates in, or features on, our media outputs, and we maintain a strict code of conduct and safeguarding protocol for our staff and partners.

Journalists, media workers and media houses

Working to the BBC’s Editorial Values, the heart of our work is mentoring and training journalists, content producers and other professionals in local public service media, in many countries and contexts. We also work with media organisations on business planning, marketing and economic viability.

The BBC

We enjoy strong support from across the BBC, and work closely with the World Service and other parts of the BBC; in May 2024, we formally moved into the BBC’s Corporate Affairs division, alongside its domestic charity, BBC Children in Need, in support of closer ties to its partnerships, communications, policy and public affairs teams.

The BBC World Service founded us, many of our trustees come from the BBC, and we are grateful for the support of senior BBC correspondents and personalities who help us with fundraising and publicity to support our work.

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Our partners in project delivery and sector learning

Partnerships are critical to our success. We work in several project consortia, we participate in sector collaborations and events, and we are members of Bond, the umbrella group for UK-based international NGOs. Most of our partners around the world are local NGOs.

Our suppliers

We have established procedures to ensure that our external suppliers are individually verified to ensure they meet our required health and safety, regulatory and financial security standards.

Our donors

Our largest donors include the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Global Affairs Canada, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and, until February 2025, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). We also enjoy support from other institutional donors, UN bodies, private foundations and corporate partners. We are committed to delivering high-quality work and reporting on our impact, both directly to donors and through events and sector engagement, our website and social media.

Our wider communities and our planet

Responding to the changing climate is a growing priority in our programme work, reflecting the urgent need for action among the communities we serve, our partners and donors. We are also working hard to examine and mitigate the environmental impact of our own operations. The BBC’s Sustainability team has helped us to measure the carbon footprint of all our offices in a consistent way, which helps to support our drive toward decarbonisation in line with our Environmental Policy.

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OUR FUNDING

Fundraising remains challenging in an environment of shrinking overseas development aid. Consequently, in the second half of 2023–24, BBC Media Action made improving our financial health a major organisational priority. Our response plan, approved by our trustees in May 2024, includes investment in building our sources of unrestricted funding and exploring more flexible sources of funding from our largest donors. We also conducted a major restructure of our cross-country support team, many of whom are Londonbased, in autumn 2024.

The sudden end to US overseas aid funding through USAID also took a toll on our operations and on those of our partners. Compounded by cuts to overseas aid by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and by several other European nations, we expect that our institutional funding will also contract in coming years.

We were encouraged to receive a significant grant from the #StartSmall philanthropic initiative of Jack Dorsey, co-counder and former CEO of Twitter (now X), and a planning grant from the Gates Foundation. We continue our efforts to build our unrestricted funding while shoring up our efforts to deliver institutional and restricted funding in an increasingly challenging environment.

We are grateful to all our donors who make our work possible. Together, our donors funded our work to the value of £26.0 million (£25.2 million in 2023–24). As of 31 March 2025, we had 110 (2024: 107) active projects around the world.

Institutional funders remain our largest source of support. In 2024–25, our main donors included the UK FCDO, USAID and Sida, among many others.

Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) Foreign, Commonwealth and £3,262k Development Office, UK (FCDO) £2,657k United States Agency for Norwegian Agency for Development International Development (USAID) Cooperation (Norad) £2,100k £1,675k Swiss Agency for Development Norwegian Ministry of Cooperation (SDC) Foreign Affairs £1,237k £1,415k World Vision Counterpart International £1,075k £1,100k Swedish International Development Corporation European Commission Top 10 donors Agency (SIDA) £1,039k 2024-25 £1,033k

USAID £2,613k CSSF £1,397k SIDA & SDC £1,188k GAC £907k Top 10 donors SDC 2023-24 £867k

FCDO £3,020k SIDA £1,625k European Commission £1,342k

----- Start of picture text -----
Unicef
£1,042k
Counterpart
International
£875k
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UK Government
Conflict, Stability and Security Fund		 £5,969k
£3,262k
Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office		 £2,038k
FCDO Good Governance
fund for Moldova
The Met Office		 £619k
£50k
International and
Nongovernmental
Organisations
Counterpart International		 £4,268k
£1,100k
World Vision £1,075k
Humanity and Inclusion International £377k
Diakonia £299k
International Media Support (IMS) £244k
Sightsavers £193k
International Foundation for
Electoral Systems (IFES)		 £168k
The Asia Foundation £161k
Equal Access International £137k
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) £137k
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) £118k
IDRC £97k
ACTED £69k
International Committee
of the Red Cross
Global Center on Adaptation
World Bank		 £31k
£27k
£14k
Deutsche Welle £11k
Minderoo Foundation £7k
National Democratic Institute (NDI) £2k
IFRC £1k
Private Sector & Educational
Establishments
Koalaa		 £20k
£10k
Durham University £8k
Cardiff University £2k
National Governemts
USAID		 £10,985k
£2,100k
Norad £1,675k
Norwegian Ministry £1,415k
Swiss Agency for Development £1,237k
Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency		 £1,033k
SIDA & SwissAgency for
Development Cooperation		 £950k
Global Affairs Canada £646k
US State Department
Irish Aid		 £435k
£424k
European Union £385k
GIZ £283k
Dutch Embassy £270k
AICS £132k
Private and Corporate
Foundations £1,554k
H & M Foundation £579k
BMB Mott Macdonald £425k
Gates Foundation £318k
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund £167k
Danish Refugee Council £65k
United Nations
UN Development Programme		 £2,221k
£745k
Unicef £482k
UNDRR £354k
UNOPS £346k
World Food Programme £154k
World Health Organization £99k
UNFPA £30k
Food and Agriculture Organization £11k
European Commission £1,039k

£26,023k

£12,737k Stronger democracies

£5,027k A safer, more habitable planet

£8,259k

Inclusive societies

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Corporate donors

Our corporate partners in 2024–25 helped us by donating income and gifts in kind in the form of IT support, technical equipment, software and professional advice. We are grateful for all their support.

Fundraising events and individual giving

Our BBC Correspondents’ Charity Dinner in July 2024 was our most successful yet, raising over £212,000 for our work. We extend our thanks to our Fundraising Board and Steering Group for their ongoing support of the event, and their assistance as we grow new fundraising streams. Thank you also to Memcom and Isio for their generous donations.

We held a BBC Payroll Giving campaign, alongside BBC Children in Need, in February 2025. We also ran a small test public awareness and fundraising campaign in November-December 2024, building on our existing partnership with bbc.com and a new partnership with BBC World Service English.

Our JustGiving page and PayPal Giving remain the main donation point for individual giving and can be accessed from our website and social media accounts.

Fundraising governance and compliance

At BBC Media Action, we ensure that our donors are protected by using well-established, reputable platforms that display clear terms and conditions, including on UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance. Both JustGiving and PayPal Giving, our main donor platforms, adhere to the Code of Fundraising Practice and subscribe to the Fundraising Regulator. Our prize draws with Givergy.com are subject to review from the BBC interactivity technical advice and contracts unit.

Our Communications team monitors and moderates our social media accounts according to BBC Editorial Policy. There have been no formal complaints regarding our fundraising activity but any future complaints or concerns about our fundraising activities will be investigated and responded to. We voluntarily subscribe to the Fundraising Regulator.

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OUR PEOPLE

BBC Media Action’s greatest strength is our global team. Championing our people and culture continued to be an organisational priority in 2024–25 as we continued to strive to create a working environment that is diverse, fully inclusive and more locally led.

As of 31 March 2025 we had, in full-time equivalents:

We do not normally work with volunteers, although we have internship schemes in some countries focused on women, young people or minority groups. This year, we participated in the BBC’s Hot Shoes and 80:20 placement schemes to bring in fresh perspectives and voices from across the BBC, and to give our staff – both London-based and global colleagues - a chance to learn in other parts of the organisation.

All BBC Media Action managers take part in fair recruitment and unconscious bias training to ensure that our recruitment process is as fair as possible. We encourage flexible working and development opportunities for all employees.

Staff salaries

We strive to ensure that our salaries are competitive by benchmarking against other international development organisations. Our UK-contracted employees are paid based on harmonised charity bands within the BBC salary framework, which are publicly available, and in line with BBC pay reviews.

Our chief executive officer carries out a regular salary review for other members of the management team, while his salary is reviewed by our trustees, also in line with BBC pay reviews.

Gender pay gap

BBC Media Action is committed to gender equality and building a fully inclusive workplace. As such, we are again voluntarily choosing to report on our gender pay gap among UK-contracted employees. We have begun to conduct gender analysis in employment and pay across our global organisation, while understanding that there are significant differences in the employment markets where we operate.

All figures include UK-contracted employees based overseas. Gender is based on our employees' self-reported gender. As of 31 March 2025, 61% of employees in our UK team were women (2024: 59%) On the same date, our senior management team comprised five men and three women. The mean (average) salary for women was 19% lower than that of men (2024: 17%). The median (midpoint) salary for women was £41,900 and was £53,597 for men (2024: £43,380 for women and £52,916 for men). This disparity remains because there are few men in junior posts in our UK office.

The table below shows the proportion of women and men in each pay quartile of our UK team, dividing staff into four equal quartiles, where first quartile is highest paid.

Quartiles
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Female
(2025)		 45%
52%
76%
70%
38%
62%
65%
70%
(2024)
Male
(2025)		 55%
48%
24%
30%
62%
38%
35%
30%
(2024)

We continue to monitor our gender pay gap and are committed to eliminating it.

Our salary bands for employees earning £60,001 or more, including our Chief Executive Officer, can be found in the Accounts (Note 9).

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OUR ORGANISATION

Safeguarding

BBC Media Action remains committed to supporting sector-wide improvements in safeguarding policies and practices, to better protect vulnerable people from exploitation and abuse.

Our director of programmes is our designated safeguarding officer, working with our country offices to ensure that our employment policies and training are appropriate. This post also guides work with our partner organisations around the world to improve knowledge and performance in these areas.

We continued to ensure that our employees are trained in, and fully implement, our policies to protect any children and vulnerable adults we encounter through our work. Training courses in safeguarding and respect at work are mandatory for all employees and operational freelancers, and all our offices have received additional guidance on safer recruitment.

Safeguarding is reviewed and discussed at every trustee meeting, as well as at monthly management team meetings, and we have a lead Trustee for safeguarding. Any reported concerns are carefully reviewed and investigated as needed, in accordance with BBC policies. As required, our trustees report any relevant safeguarding incidents to the Charity Commission.

All these measures are designed to help keep our employees, partners and contributors as safe as possible. A staff code of conduct ensures that everyone working for us understands our expected behaviour, knows that any concerns they have will be taken seriously, and understands that we will support anyone who reports a safeguarding issue.

Energy use

BBC Media Action is required to disclose its annual energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for its UK operations, in line with SECR guidance.

In March 2024 our London-based team moved offices, from Ibex House in east London to a smaller space in the BBC’s Energy Centre in west London. We also retain some desks in BBC Broadcasting House. The following data applies from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2025 and is based on our office occupancy across both sites.

These figures have been calculated using energy consumption data compiled from utility bills and energy meters for all UK premises used by the charity during the reporting period, with UK government approved conversion factors applied.

Estimated energy consumption:

Natural gas kWh 9,701 (2024: 36,006) (2024: 36,006)
Electricity kWh 42,043 (2024: 45,679)
Estimated emissions:
Naturalgas kgCO2e 1,774 (2024: 6,586)
Electricity kgCO2e 8,705 (2024: 9,459)
Total equivalent
carbon emissions		 10,479 16,045
163.73 2024: 188.76
Intensity ratio KgCO2e per
employee		 per employee
(based on 64		 per employee
(based on 85
employees) employees)

D Transport fuel: n/a. We do not own fleet vehicles in the UK. Employees travel by public transport in all but exceptional cases, and many commute by bicycle.

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Our reported emissions have fallen this year because we have moved offices to shared BBC premises where our overall property footprint has decreased.

We continue our hybrid working practices, with all UK based staff expected to spend the equivalent of at least two days per week in the office, helping to keep our energy use and commuter journeys to a minimum. We continue to implement our global environmental policy and minimise international travel where possible to lower our carbon footprint.

We draw on support from the BBC Sustainability team to accurately measure operational carbon emissions for each of our offices around the world, to help us improve our energy consumption and lessen our environmental impact. Several of our offices have green teams who advocate for improved environmental practices. Our UK employees have access to locked bicycle storage and showers to encourage cycling to work. Our organisational action planning includes sustainability as a focus.

Legal structure

BBC Media Action is a charity (registered number 1076235) and a company limited by guarantee (registered number 3521587). Our financial statements will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies.

BBC Media Action was established under its Memorandum of Association with the objects and powers of a charitable company. It is governed by its Articles of Association. The sole member of BBC Media Action, the BBC, undertakes to contribute to the assets of BBC Media Action in the event of it being wound up while it is a member, or within one year after it ceases to be a member for payment of the debts and liabilities of BBC Media Action contracted before it ceases to be a member, and of the costs, charges and expenses of winding up, for the adjustment of the rights of the contributors among themselves such amount as may be required, not exceeding £10.

Subsidiary companies

BBC Media Action has three subsidiary companies, which were 100% owned by BBC Media Action as at 31 March 2025: BBC Media Action (India) Limited, BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited and British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte (a Nigerian entity).

Our work in India in 2024–25 was largely conducted through BBC Media Action (India) Limited. BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited is an entity established in Nepal. British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte is an entity established in Nigeria on 26 October 2017. It therefore meets the criteria for consolidation. It did not trade during the year ended 31 March 2025.

BBC World Service Trust India is an Indian entity over which BBC Media Action exercises effective control by way of the right to nominate trustees. This entity was set up in India on 28 December 2007. Although BBC Media Action has no investment in BBC World Service Trust India, it meets the criteria for consolidation in accordance with paragraph 24.14 of the Statement of Recommended Practice Financial Reporting Standard (SORP FRS 102) and is therefore regarded as a subsidiary undertaking. However, it remained dormant in 2023–24 and 2024–25.

Governance

Our trustees, who are also directors of BBC Media Action, are listed on page 46. They come from the BBC, and the private, media and international development sectors, with a range of skills and expertise. They meet quarterly and for an additional away day each year.

The trustees seek to ensure that all BBC Media Action activities comply with UK and relevant local laws, and fall within agreed charitable objectives. Their work includes setting our strategic direction, agreeing our

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financial plan, and approving key policies at board meetings. Trustees receive reports on progress at each board meeting, highlighting areas of risk.

In 2024–25, our trustees particularly focused on our organisation’s finances and sustainability, our new organisational strategy development and operational plan, our position within the BBC, and on our project delivery and ways of working.

Our trustees perform some of their functions through sub-committees of the board. The chair is a BBC nominated trustee. Our Governance Committee comprises the chair, vice chair and up to two other trustees.

Our Finance and Audit Committee comprises four trustees. This committee has strategic oversight of our controls, risk management, and internal and external audit. It reviews and recommends to the board our annual budget, any multi-year financial plans and our Annual Report and Accounts.

The trustees delegate a range of day-to-day decision-making powers to the chief executive officer and other members of the management team. Trustees have established appropriate controls and reporting mechanisms to ensure that the management team operates within the scope of these delegated powers. The delegation policy is formally reviewed and approved by trustees. Our management team members are listed on page 46. They are not directors for the purposes of company law.

The board has appointed some of its members as lead trustees in particular areas, who feed back to the rest of the board. All new trustees participate in an induction programme and training on duties and responsibilities. We encourage our trustees to visit BBC Media Action projects to obtain first-hand experience of our work at country level – this year we held a virtual project visit. Knowledge-sharing sessions before board meetings continue to give trustees a more detailed understanding of particular areas of our work.

Organisational structure and management

BBC Media Action’s head office is in London, where many of our central support functions are based. We are actively working to a goal of moving many of our central – now cross-country – support posts outside the UK, taking advantage of our fully connected global organisation and expertise in the countries where we work. Nearly all of our central support teams are now global in nature.

As part of the summer 2024 restructure, our senior management team was expanded to include our regional directors; we have also invested in a new director of fundraising in keeping with our objective to increase our unrestricted fundraising team. As of March 2025, our senior management team comprised eight people: our chief executive officer, chief operating officer, director of programmes, director of strategy and partnerships, two regional directors, our director of fundraising and our people and culture lead.

In this new structure, our director of fundraising now leads our business development as well as our unrestricted fundraising teams in a new directorate focused on income generation. Our director of strategy and partnerships now leads our advisory team, a new BBC collaborations team which includes our capacity strengthening lead, and our communications team. Our programmes department includes our regional teams, along with our digital growth and product leads, programme support team and research team.

Our chief operating officer oversees our finance and technology and change teams, and our legal function.

Our chief executive officer directly manages our management team including our human resources function. Both our legal and human resources functions are also supported by the BBC.

Our leadership team includes the heads of our cross-country support teams – many of whom are London-based – and our country directors around the world.

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MANAGING RISK

BBC Media Action works in countries where a certain level of risk is inevitable. Both as part of the BBC and as an international NGO, we face risks to the health, welfare, safeguarding and security of our people, our partners and our audiences, as well as to our funding and our reputation. These risks are compounded as spaces for public interest media and civil society contract around the world, leaving our local media partners facing increased political, economic and legal pressures that make it harder for them to operate.

We have an active risk management process in place to make sure that appropriate steps are taken to manage and mitigate risk across our global organisation. Our board of trustees has overall responsibility for ensuring that we have a system of internal control, management and audit to take advantage of opportunities while effectively managing risks.

Our risk management process

We maintain a risk register that prioritises risks based on their likelihood and impact, and outlines controls and mitigating actions.

We identify risks through monthly reports by our country directors (or more frequently as needed), which are escalated to our management team that meets bi-monthly. Our Finance and Audit Committee conducts a regular risk management review and our board of trustees reviews our risk register quarterly. We also conduct an annual, in-depth review of our risk profile at both management team and board levels.

We have maintained an internal audit function, based in London but with the ability to travel regularly. Our chief executive officer oversees this function. Our head of internal audit has reported directly to the Finance and Audit Committee and meets them privately each year. In the last three months of the financial year, amid staff changes, we transitioned from this model to one led by our COO.

We conduct multi-year planning and budgeting, with quarterly reforecasts to compare our spending against our budgets. As part of the BBC, we use the principle of Value for All, to guide us in how we procure goods and services and ensure we deliver value for our donors and our audiences. We benchmark salaries based on a mix of the BBC’s publicly available bands, international NGO salaries and local markets in the countries where we work. Our policies on investment and reserves are guided by our board of trustees, based on best practice in the charity sector and the BBC.

Risks and mitigations

RISK MITIGATION IN 2024–25 Funding, finance and business model ¶ Our heavy reliance on restricted, mainly institutional, This financial year, we have conducted a staff restructure funding poses risk to our sustainability, as the donor to reduce costs, and invested in our fundraising team landscape changes, funding mechanisms and service to deliver more unrestricted income, while maintaining contracts become more restricted, donor payments close relationships with existing donors. We are working are delayed and overseas aid is increasingly stretched closely with BBC and external partners to explore new across multiple world crises. opportunities for unrestricted fundraising. We have also Gaps between projects lead to costs that must be appointed a new fundraising director to lead on this work. covered by limited unrestricted funds, and project We continue to apply strong budget tests to ensure that costs are also vulnerable to high inflation. project budgets cover a fair share of our support costs. Our ability to conduct public fundraising is somewhat We conduct close and regular reviews of our income and limited by our relationship with the BBC. margin forecasts, and review donor requirements carefully.

Our ability to conduct public fundraising is somewhat limited by our relationship with the BBC.

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RISK

Operating environments

Challenges in our operating environments include:

Safeguarding

We work in complex environments and through local partner organisations, where there is risk of harm to those we work with and for.

MITIGATION IN 2024–25

We continued to benefit from dedicated support from the BBC High Risk team. BBC Media Action staff attend mandatory hostile environment training before high-risk deployments and follow protocols to minimise risks. We regularly update and clearly communicate emergency plans in every country office, tailored to each context, and frequently review the level of risk faced by our staff. We have home-working in place in high-risk situations wherever possible and feasible.

We are fully equipped to access critical systems and deliver work remotely, to explore alternative operating models, to liaise with donors and to repurpose activities at short notice as needed.

We continue to strengthen our approach to safeguarding, in line with the NGO sector and donor expectations.

We thoroughly communicate our policies across our organisation and with partner organisations, conduct regular training and review our processes for safe recruitment, including criminal background checks.

We had no incidents to report to the Charity Commission in this financial year.

Cyber-security

A data breach (hacking or accidental), could lead to business disruption, and serious reputational and financial damage.

We continued to have strong support from the BBC’s Information Security team, including monitoring of social media accounts, in addition to our own dedicated team’s work.

We have maintained our Cyber Essentials accreditation standard.

We have confidential incident reporting for any data loss or breaches. Our laptops are encrypted and cyber security training is compulsory for employees.

We work to ensure full compliance with the UK 2018 GDPR legislation, with mandatory training for all employees, and our information security policies comply with strict BBC requirements.

We had no incidents to report to the Charity Commission in this financial year.

Changes within the BBC

The BBC is undergoing major strategic shifts and restructuring. While we are funded independently, these changes affect our relationships across the BBC and our supporter base.

We made deepening our relationships across the BBC a cross-cutting priority.

We maintain good relationships with many BBC correspondents, presenters and editors, and work regularly with many parts of the BBC.

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RISK

Compliance

We operate according to complex regulations set by donors and by local laws. A lack of specialist knowledge may result in an inability to comply with donor, tax or audit requirements, with a knock-on impact on our finances and our reputation.

Risk of fraud

We work in some environments where there is a high risk of fraud and corruption, with associated impacts on our finances, our reputation and our staff morale.

MITIGATION IN 2024–25

We have a dedicated compliance manager and we practise proactive stakeholder management, starting with donors and external auditors.

We receive BBC support for tax and legal advice in relevant countries. We do not open country offices without registration in place, allowing for payment of payroll taxes.

Our controls are regularly reviewed, including by internal audit, external audit and project audit teams.

We deliver and regularly update staff anti-bribery and fraud awareness training across all countries of operation, and have a whistleblowing policy in place.

We fully investigated minor incidents of attempted fraud. None were reportable to the Charity Commission.

Reputation

As the BBC’s international charity we are at risk of accusations of bias and misinformation, as well as from press campaigns against the BBC or the international development sector, which might affect our funding, our reputation, and the morale and well-being of our employees. In February 2025, we were targeted by misinformation on social media and in traditional, ‘alternative’ and digital press linked to our funding from USAID and our work in Afghanistan.

Our employees receive regular training on BBC editorial standards, and we monitor the quality of our own output and that of our partners. We consult BBC Editorial Policy when required.

Our communications team is experienced in handling negative media coverage, prepares reactive lines and works closely with the BBC Press Office, BBC World Service Communications and other BBC teams as needed.

We actively manage safeguarding with dedicated employees and training, and we maintain close relationships across the international NGO sector and with our funders.

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MANAGING OUR FINANCES

In response to serious financial challenges, BBC Media Action conducted a major restructure in this financial year, with support from the wider BBC. This, accompanied by new success in unrestricted fundraising, helped initially to restore some financial stability in the first half of this financial year. However, the abrupt end to USAID funding – which amounted to around £3m per year of BBC Media Action’s expected restricted income for the next three years – combined with changes to our VAT status, increases in employer payments toward national insurance costs, and changing priorities and aid reductions by other institutional donors including the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have thrown new challenges to our finances and longer-term sustainability. Conflict and crisis, combined with a shift from ‘soft’ power to ‘hard’ power approaches, exert greater pressure on a decreasing total spend on overseas development aid.

The organisation continues to manage this pressure in part by further reducing roles through attrition, continuing to move positions closer to the places in which we work where feasible, and continuing efforts to develop our unrestricted fundraising while maximising opportunities for institutional fundraising. This year we again conducted a payroll giving campaign across the BBC. We also tested a short public fundraising and awareness appeal through bbc.com and World Service English radio slots, and will build on learning for future efforts.

Our total income in 2024–25 was £32.9 million (2023-24: £32.0 million). Income from institutional donors increased to £26.0 million (2023–24: £25.2 million). Our fundraising income increased to £6.83 million (2023–24: £6.75 million), of which £4.3 million were gifts in kind (2023–24: £6.4 million).

Our total expenditure during the year was £33.0 million (2023–24: £33.8 million). Expenditure on our charitable activity, providing public benefit by changing lives through media and communication, represented 99% of our total expenditure (2023–24: 99%). Our income and expenditure account for the year ended 31 March 2025 shows a deficit of £0.1 million (2023–24: a deficit of £1.8m). The Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows shows that our cash increased the year to a position of £5.7 million (2023–24: £2.3 million).

Reserves

BBC Media Action’s net assets in the consolidated balance sheet decreased to £1.4 million at 31 March 2025 (31 March 2024: £1.55 million). Our board of trustees reviews our reserves policy on an annual basis in the context of our multi-year plans and a review of the risks and opportunities for our organisation. Our policy is to ensure that we hold sufficient reserves to continue operating after negative financial shocks, while not tying up too much funding that could be spent on charitable activities.

In January 2023 our board of trustees confirmed that our reserves policy, taking a risk-based approach, recommends minimum net cash holdings of £3.5 million in any one month, and general funds (total unrestricted funds less designated funds) of £4.0–5.0 million at year-end.

The upper end of this range (£5.0 million) represents the reserves impact of a worst-case scenario that might conceivably take place over a 12-month period. This combines three risk components: a funding gap or urgent closure of country operations; a funding gap from under-recovery of central costs; and potential

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materially adverse events such as foreign exchange losses or disallowed costs. The lower end of the range was set at 80% of the amount for the worst-case scenario.

Our trustees revisited this policy in April 2024, and reduced the minimum level of net cash holdings to £2 million in any one month, and general funds (total unrestricted funds less designated funds) in a range of £2.8–3.5 million at year-end. This was based on recalculating our risks, and our projections that the overall size of BBC Media Action will reduce, thereby reducing the reserves impact of a worst-case scenario. Our trustees also approved extending an agreement to operate outside the recommended minimum range. We are able to do this with support from the BBC through an underwriting arrangement.

Our total unrestricted funds held at 31 March 2025 amounted to £1.4 million (31 March 2024 £1.5 million), of which reserves in the general fund amounted to £1.4 million (31 March 2024: £1.5 million). This is below the lower end of the recommended minimum range.

During the year we have implemented a number of actions to address our financial challenges including a major restructure to reduce our overall costs and investment in our fundraising efforts. Over the next few years we aim to rebuild our reserves until we reach our minimum recommended range.

Investment policy

Cash balances are set out in the consolidated and BBC Media Action balance sheets, consolidated statement of cash flows, and in the notes to the financial statements. Our policy is to only hold short-term cash deposits. As at 31 March 2025 we did not hold any short-term cash deposits.

Going concern

Our Finance and Audit Committee met eight times in 2024-25. It monitored key risks and opportunities related to our funding, operating uncertainties and sustainability.

Our plan to return our finances to good health was approved by trustees in May 2024 and was implemented from summer 2024. This included investment in our fundraising team to increase our unrestricted and semi-restricted fundraising; exploring limited commercial income streams; a decision to maintain, rather than increase, our institutional funding; and a restructuring of our UK- and cross-country support teams.

In summer 2024, we announced a major staff restructure and an expectation to become a smaller organisation by income, while continuing to develop our unrestricted pipeline with some early success, and working to maintain levels of restricted funding.

Given the continued challenging external context, including limited overseas aid budgets in the UK and other countries, and the challenging environments in which we work, our restricted income projections were revised following the cut to USAID to levels slightly lower than expected.

Our trustees are satisfied that continued monitoring of activity is in place and that business development indicators are in place to track our investment against expectations. We will continue a controlled use of reserves while maintaining a going concern position. Our liquidity position is also deemed satisfactory.

Our board of trustees is of the opinion that BBC Media Action has adequate resources to continue as a going concern, as is further explained in Note 1 of the Financial Statements. In the unlikely circumstances where sudden significant shocks might compromise the financial viability of the organisation, BBC Media Action has received written assurance of support from the BBC Group. There is no intention to request that support in the foreseeable future.

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STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

BBC Media Action’s trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report (incorporating the strategic report and the directors’ report) and financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law, they have elected to prepare the group (subsidiaries’) and parent company financial statements in accordance with UK Accounting Standards and applicable law (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Under company law the trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the group and the charitable company, and of the group’s excess of income over expenditure for that period.

Trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions. They must also disclose with reasonable accuracy, at any time, the financial position of the charitable company and ensure that its financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.

They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the group, and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities. The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

As far as the trustees are aware, there is no relevant information of which the charity’s auditor is unaware. The trustees have taken all the steps they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information, and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

The trustees, in their capacity as both trustees and company directors, have reviewed and approved the Trustees’ Report, which incorporates the directors’ report and the requirement for a strategic report as set out in the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013.

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Trustees, senior staff and advisors

Our trustees**

4

Francesca Unsworth (Chair) (to April 2025) Rhodri Talfan Davies (Chair) I (from April 2025) Awo Ablo (Vice chair) 4 (to October 2024) Myles Wickstead (Vice chair) 4 (from October 2024) Reeta Chakrabarti (to June 2025)

Phil Harrold NX Freshta Karim (to April 2025)

Gavin Mann

Nicholas Pickles

Julia Rank Sophia Swithern 4 Shirley Cameron ‘J Michael Wooldridge (to June 2024) Lindsey North “

Company Secretary:

Dushani Karunatilleka

Management team:

Simon Bishop Chief Executive Officer

Laura Collier-Keywood Chief Operating Officer (parental leave from April 2024 to May 2025)

Seamus Gallagher Regional Director, Africa and Middle East (added to MT in September 2024)

Gemma Hayman Regional Director, Asia, Pacific and Europe (added to MT in September 2024; resigned May 2025)

Richard Lace Director of Programmes

Md Al Mamun Interim Regional Director, Asia-Pacific (from May 2025)

Rob Melvill

Director of Fundraising (from March 2025)

Eva Ng'ang'a People and Culture Lead (resigned July 2025)

Shobhana Gurung Pradhan Interim Regional Director, South Asia (from May 2025)

Scott Rutherford

Chief Operating Officer (acting, from April 2024)

Caroline Sugg Director of Strategy and Partnerships

Registered office:

Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA

Auditors:

Bankers:

Barclays Bank Plc 1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP

Lloyds Bank Plc

10 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7AE

Buzzacott Audit LLP

130 Wood Street, London EC2V 6DL

BBC employee Member of finance and audit committee

a,

Rhodri Talfan Davies, Chair

23 October 2025

On behalf of the board of trustees of BBC Media Action

BBC Media Action is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 1076235) and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (no 3521587).

Find out more: bbcmediaaction.org

On Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, LinkedIn: @bbcmediaaction

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AUDITORS’ REPORT

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of BBC Media Action (the ‘charitable parent company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which the comprise the group statement of financial activities, the group and charitable parent company balance sheets and statement of cash flows, the principal accounting policies and the notes to the financial statements. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group and charitable parent company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report and financial statements, other than the financial statements and our

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auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the charitable parent company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ report including the strategic report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and the charitable parent company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the charitable parent company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

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Auditors’ report

Auditors’ responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

How the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities including fraud

Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:

We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:

To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:

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Auditors’ report

In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:

There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of noncompliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the trustees and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.

Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Edward Finch

(senior statutory auditor)

24 October 2025

For and on behalf of Buzzacott Audit LLP, Statutory Auditor, 130 Wood Street, London EC2V 6DL

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ACCOUNTS

Consolidated statement of financial activities

(including the income and expenditure account) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
Note 2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income from
Donations 2
Gif-in-kind 553 3,786 4,339 852 5,515 6,367
General 2,282 - 2,282 250 - 250
Other trading activities 3 212 - 212 137 - 137
Investments 4 57 - 57 96 - 96
Charitable activities
Funding for specifc
charitable activities		 5 2,231 23,792 26,023 2,291 22,884 25,175
Total income 5,335 27,578 32,913 3,626 28,399 32,025
Expenditure on:
Raising funds 6 (378) - (378) (265) - (265)
Charitable activities
Changing lives
through media and
communication
Stronger Democracies 6 (2,596) (14,105) (16,701) (2,802) (15,536) (18,338)
Inclusive Societies 6 (1,663) (9,032) (10,695) (1,830) (8,830) (10,660)
Safer More Habitable
Planet		 6 (818) (4,441) (5,259) (486) (4,033) (4,519)
Total expenditure on
charitable activities		 (5,077) (27,578) (32,655) (5,118) (28,399) (33,517)
Total expenditure 6 (5,455) (27,578) (33,033) (5,383) (28,399) (33,782)
Net expenditure for
theyear		 7 (120) - (120) (1,757) - (1,757)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought
forward		 1,516 34 1,550 3,273 34 3,307
Total funds carried
forward		 16, 17 1,396 34 1,430 1,516 34 1,550

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised during the year. All income and expenditure derives from continuing activities. The notes on pages 54-68 form part of these financial statements. As permitted by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006, the individual charity’s statement of financial activities has not been included in these financial statements. The gross income of the charity is £32,913,000 (2024: £32,025,000) and the net result is a deficit of £120,000 (2024: £1,757,000).

Following a strategic review in the year 2024-2025 as noted in the trustees' report, thematic areas were changed from Governance, Resilience and Health to Stronger Democracies, Inclusive Societies and Safer More Habitable Planet. 2024 comparatives for both income and expenditure have been re-classified to reflect these new thematic areas with notes 5 and 6 also being impacted. This is not a prior year adjustment and overall results are unchanged.

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Accounts

Consolidated and BBC Media Action balance sheets

At 31 March 2025

At 31 March 2025
Group Group Charity Charity
Note 2025 2024 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets
Investments 10 - - 23 23
Total fixed assets - - 23 23
Current assets
Debtors 11 5,937 5,536 5,819 6,587
Cash at bank and in hand 12 5,692 2,323 5,564 2,137
Total current assets 11,629 7,859 11,383 8,724
Liabilities
Creditors: amounts fallingdue within oneyear 13 (9,680) (6,009) (9,567) (6,897)
Net current assets 1,949 1,850 1,816 1,827
Total assets less current liabilities 1,949 1,850 1,839 1,850
Provisions for liabilities 14 (518) (300) (408) (300)
Net assets 1,431 1,550 1,431 1,550
Funds
Unrestricted funds 16, 17 1,397 1,516 1,397 1,516
Restricted funds 16, 17 34 34 34 34
Total Funds 16, 17 1,431 1,550 1,431 1,550

The notes on pages 54-68 form part of these financial statements.

The financial statements on pages 52-68 were approved by the Board of Trustees on 23 October 2025.

Rhodri Talfan Davies, Chair 23 October 2025

BBC Media Action is the BBC's international charity registered in England and Wales (no 1076235) and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (no 3521587)

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Accounts

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2025

For the year ended 31 March 2025
Total Total
Note 2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Net cash infow/(outfow) from operating activities 18 3,312 (2,028)
Returns on investments and servicing of fnance
Interest received 57 96
Increase/(decrease)in cash in theyear 3,369 (1,932)
Cash at the start of theyear 12 2,323 4,255
Cash at the end of theyear 12 5,692 2,323

Analysis of changes in net debt

Analysis of changes in net debt
At 1 April Cash At 31 March
2024 fows 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash 2,323 3,369 5,692
Total net debt 2,323 3,369 5,692

BBC Media Action does not have any borrowings or lease obligations. Net debt consists therefore of the cash balance.

As permitted by paragraph 1.12 of FRS 102, BBC Media Action has not prepared a statement of cash flows for the parent entity. The consolidated statement of cash flows above includes both the parent and subsidiary entities.

The notes on pages 54-68 form part of these financial statements.

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NOTES

(forming part of the financial statements) for the year ended 31 March 2025

1. Accounting policies

The following accounting policies have been applied consistently in dealing with items which are considered material in relation to the financial statements.

a) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and applicable UK accounting standards and under historical cost accounting rules. The Group’s financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Assessment of Going Concern

The Financial Review in the Trustees’ Report reviews the finances of BBC Media Action and the group in the year ended 31 March 2025 in comparison to the prior and earlier years.

The trustees are satisfied that continued monitoring of the financial strength of BBC Media Action is in place and that sufficient indicators have been put in place to track performance against the organisation’s multi-year planning.

The BBC Media Action Group has a sufficient cash balance as set out in note 12. Forecasts indicate that payments can be made as they fall due and negative adjustments to the forecast can be managed.

Board of Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the annual financial statements.

The financial statements are prepared in pound sterling and rounded to the nearest thousand pound.

b) Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the financial statements of BBC Media Action and its subsidiary undertakings made up to 31 March 2025. For the purposes of complying with FRS 102 the entity is a public benefit entity.

The financial statements of BBC Media Action (India) Limited (formerly BBC WST Limited), a company registered in England and Wales (no: 2746733), the financial statements of BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited, an entity established in Nepal (no:112548/60/070), the financial statements of British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte (No: RC1448388), an entity established in Nigeria, and the financial statements of BBC World Service Trust India have been consolidated with those of BBC Media Action.

Under section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 the company is exempt from the requirement to present its own statement of financial activities or income and expenditure account and statement of cash flows by FRS102.

The Trustees’ Report explains how BBC Media Action is structured and managed and how the major risks are managed. Thus the

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c) Limited by guarantee

BBC Media Action is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. The sole member of the company undertakes to contribute to the assets of the company in the event of it being wound up, while it is a member or within one year after it ceases to be a member, for payment of the debts and liabilities of the company contracted before it ceases to be a member, and of the costs, charges and expenses of winding up, and for the adjustment of the rights of the contributors among themselves, such amount as may be required not exceeding £10. BBC Media Action had one member (the BBC) at the end of the period. Each Trustee is a subscriber to the Memorandum of Association and accordingly BBC Media Action had 11 subscribers at the end of the year.

d) Fund accounting

BBC Media Action has various funds for which separate disclosure is required as follows:

Restricted income funds

Grants which are earmarked by the funder for specific purposes. Such purposes are within the overall aims of the charity.

Unrestricted funds

Funds which are expendable at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the objects of the charity.

General funds are those unrestricted funds that have not been set aside by Trustees for a particular purpose. Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the Trustees for particular purposes.

e) Income

Income is included in the statement of financial activities when BBC Media Action is entitled to the income, when receipt of funds is probable, and when the amount can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Income from charitable activities includes income earned both from the supply of goods or services under contractual arrangements and from performance-related grants which have conditions that specify the provision of particular goods or services to be provided by the charity. These contracts or performancerelated grants have been included as ‘Income from charitable activities’ where these grants specifically outline the goods and services to be provided to beneficiaries which are within the charitable purposes of the charity.

Income from such contracts and grants is recognised to the extent that resources have been committed to the specific programme, as this is deemed to be a reliable estimate of the right to receive payment for the work performed. In this case, cash received in excess of expenditure is included as a creditor (as deferred income) and expenditure in excess of cash included as a debtor (as accrued income).

Other trading activities are the activities where BBC Media Action provides goods, services or entry to events in order to generate income and undertake charitable activities. Where income is received in advance, recognition is deferred and included in creditors and where entitlement arises before income is received, the income is accrued.

Donations are recognised when receivable. Gifts in kind are valued at a reasonable estimate of the value to BBC Media Action, which is normally equal to the market value.

Where funding allows for a general allowance to cover indirect costs that allowance is recognised as unrestricted income within the SOFA in proportion to the amounts recognised as income to cover direct programme expenses.

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f) Expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category as listed below. Support costs, which include the central or regional office functions such as general programme support, payroll administration, budgeting and accounting, information technology, human resources, and financing, are allocated across the categories of charitable expenditure and governance costs. The basis of the cost allocation is explained in the notes to the accounts. The allocation for the purposes of the Statement of Recommended Practice may not always reflect the definition per various donor contracts.

Equipment purchased as part of the production of media as part of a project is expensed in the statement of financial activities in the year of purchase and returned to the funder or donated to local charities on cessation.

g) Foreign currency

Transactions denominated in foreign currencies are recorded in sterling at the rates ruling at the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated at the exchange rates ruling at the balance sheet date and any exchange differences arising are taken to the statement of financial activities.

h) Pension costs

Some UK employees are members of the BBC’s pension schemes. The BBC group operates both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes for the benefit of the employees.

Defined benefit scheme

The defined benefit schemes provide benefits based on final pensionable pay. The assets of the BBC Pension Scheme, to which the majority of BBC employees belong, are held separately from those of the BBC group. BBC Media Action, following the provisions within section 28 of FRS 102, accounts for the scheme as if it were a defined contribution

scheme. This is because it is not possible to identify its share of underlying assets and liabilities of the scheme on a consistent and reasonable basis. The expenditure charged in the SOFA therefore represents the contributions payable to the scheme in the year.

Defined contribution scheme

The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of BBC Media Action in an independently administered fund. The amounts charged as expenditure for the defined contribution scheme represent contributions payable by BBC Media Action in respect of the financial year. Where these contributions are reclaimable directly from donors they are charged to restricted funds, where they are not they are charged to unrestricted funds.

i) Termination costs

Termination benefits are measured at the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the obligation at the reporting date. If the expected settlement date of the termination payments is 12 months or more after making the provision and the effect would be material, the present value of the obligation is calculated using an appropriate discount rate.

j) Debtors

Debtors are recognised at their settlement amount, less any provision for nonrecoverability. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid. They have been discounted to the present value of the future cash receipt where such discounting is material.

k) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand represents such accounts and instruments that are available on demand or have a maturity of less than three months from the date of acquisition. Deposits for more than three months but less than one year have been disclosed as short term deposits.

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l) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised when there is an obligation at the balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are recognised at the amount the charity anticipates it will pay to settle the debt. They have been discounted to the present value of the future cash payment where such discounting is material.

p) Financial instruments

The financial assets and financial liabilities of the charity and their measurement basis are as follows:

m) Leases

Rentals payable under operating leases are charged to the statement of financial activities on a straight line basis over the lease term. Lease incentives are recognised over the lease term on a straight line basis.

n) Tax

BBC Media Action is considered to pass the tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 Finance Act 2010 and therefore it meets the definition of a charitable company for UK corporation tax purposes. Accordingly, the charity is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains received within categories covered by Chapter 3 Part 11 Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes.

o) Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported for assets and liabilities as at the balance sheet date and the amounts reported for revenues and expenses during the year. However, the nature of estimation means that actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. The items in the financial statements where judgements and estimates have been made include:

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2. Donations

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Gif-in-Kind
BBC Global News Limited 148 1,812 1,960 73 1,590 1,663
Airtime/media space from
various providers		 - 1,974 1,974 - 3,925 3,925
Individuals/other 405 - 405 779 - 779
General Donations
BBC Group 1,629 - 1,629 250 - 250
Individuals/other 653 - 653 - - -
Total 2,835 3,786 6,621 1,102 5,515 6,617

3. Other trading activities

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fundraising dinner and
corporate partners		 212 - 212 137 - 137
Total 212 - 212 137 - 137

4. Investment income

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Bank interest receivable 57 - 57 96 - 96
Total 57 - 57 96 - 96

5. Income and grants from charitable activities

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Grant funding for specifc
charitable activities
Stronger Democracies 1,092 11,645 12,737 1,078 10,766 11,844
Inclusive Societies 708 7,551 8,259 772 7,711 8,483
Safer More Habitable Planet
Total		 431
2,231		 4,596
23,792		 5,027
26,023		 441
2,291		 4,407
22,884		 4,848
25,175

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6. Expenditure

Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted Total
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Raising Funds 378 - 378 265 - 265
Charitable Activities 5,077 27,578 32,655 5,349 28,168 33,517
Total 5,455 27,578 33,033 5,614 28,168 33,782

Donations in the current year were derived from the following sources:

Direct Allocation
project Staf of support
costs costs costs Total Total
2025 2025 2025 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Raising funds
Donations 37 243 9 289 188
Other trading activities 28 54 7 89 77
Total cost of raisingfunds 65 297 16 378 265
Charitable activities
Changing lives through media and
communication
Stronger Democracies 7,641 7,286 1,774 16,701 18,338
Inclusive Societies 4,893 4,666 1,136 10,695 10,660
Safer More Habitable Planet 2,406 2,294 559 5,259 4,519
Total cost of charitable activities 14,940 14,246 3,469 32,655 33,517
Total expenditure 15,005 14,543 3,485 33,033 33,782

The support costs allocated and the basis of apportionment were:

2025 2024
Support activity Basis of apportionment £’000 £’000
Programme support Specifc allocation and pro-rata by
direct project expenditure		 440 227
General management
and fundraising		 Pro-rata by direct project expenditure 2,132 2,337
Financial management Pro-rata by direct project expenditure 443 650
Information technology Pro-rata by direct project expenditure 330 367
Premises and facilities Pro-rata by direct project expenditure 140 478
Total 3,485 4,059

As noted on the statement of financial activities, the thematic areas have been re-classified in 2024/25 to reflect the charity’s renewed strategic review.

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7. Net expenditure for the year

Net expenditure for the year
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
This is stated afer charging:
Auditor's remuneration (including VAT)
Group
current year 45 44
Auditor's remuneration (including VAT)
subsidiaries 9 8
Exchange rate loss 209 223
Hire of assets - operating leases 470 1,084

8. Trustees and employees

Members of the Board of Trustees (who are all directors within the meaning of the Companies Act 2006) receive no remuneration for their services (2024: Nil). No trustee expenses were reimbursed during the year (2024: £1,239)

Donations made by Trustees in the year totalled £NIL (2024: £NIL). Trustees are provided with indemnity insurance as part of the BBC Group’s Directors’ and Officers’ policy.

All UK staff employed on a continuing basis by BBC Media Action have employment contracts with the BBC. Staff costs referred to in note 9 are either incurred in the form of payments to the BBC for these staff members or internationally through project based payrolls, in addition to the costs of temporary staff employed directly and through agencies.

9. Staff costs

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Costs of staf split by:
Wages and salaries 10,364 11,023
National insurance 497 490
Pension costs 1,316 1,299
Other staf costs 1,462 1,418
Redundancies 904 -
Total 14,543 14,230

Above figures are for Group only, with charity balances standing at £14,148k (2025) and £13,699k (2024).

Employees with emoluments of £60,000 and over fell into the following bands: 2025 2024
£60,001–£70,000* 13 17
£70,001–£80,000** 9 7
£80,001–£90,000 1 2
£90,001–£100,000* 5 5
£100,001–£110,000** 3 -
£110,001-£120,000 - 1
£120,001-£130,000* 1 -
£140,001-£150,000 1 -
£170,001-£180,000* 1 -
£210,001-£220,000** 2 -

** Includes 2 member of staff made redundant during the year

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9. Staff costs (continued)

The number of employees whose emoluments were greater than £60,000 to whom retirement benefits are accruing under defined benefits schemes is 8 (2024: 5). The senior management team who have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the Group are considered to be key management personnel. Total cost of employment in respect of these individuals, including the Chief Executive Officer’s total cost of employment of £177,810 (2024: £189,033) and including People and Culture Lead's salary which is covered by a monthly re-charge to BBC HR, is £778,239 (2024: £559,696). During 2024 our senior management team was expanded to include our regional directors and we invested in a new director of fundraising. As of March 2025 our senior management team comprised 8 people (2024: 5).

The average number of employees on a headcount basis, analysed by function was:

2025 2024
As of 31 March 2025 we had, in full-time equivalents:
Africa 192 203
Asia 177 203
Rest of World 100 100
Total 469 506

The costs charged in year include redundancy payments of £904k (2024: NIL) of which £324k (2023: NIL) was due to be paid out at 31 March 2025.

10. Fixed asset investment

Fixed asset investment
Charity Charity
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Investment in BBC Media Action (India) Limited
Cost 55 55
Less: Cumulative impairment (34) (34)
Investment in BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited
Cost 1 1
Investment in British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte
(Nigeria)
Cost 1 1
Total 23 23

BBC Media Action has three 100% owned subsidiary undertakings: BBC Media Action (India) Limited, BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited, and British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte, an entity registered in Nigeria.

The costs charged in the year include redundancy payments of £904k (2024: NIL) of which £324k (2024: NIL) was due to be paid out at 31 March 2025.

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10. Fixed asset investment (continued)

The investment in BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited, (Company Registration Number: 112548/60/070) an entity established under the laws of Nepal, is held directly.

British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte (Company Registration Number RC1448388) is an entity under the laws of Nigeria. It is a 100% owned subsidiary of BBC Media Action. Although local staff contracts are in the name of British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte, funding to meet the charitable objectives of the organisation is received and disbursed by BBC Media Action in Nigeria.

A fourth entity, BBC World Service Trust India, is regarded as a subsidiary undertaking and in accordance with paragraph 24.14 of SORP FRS 102 has been consolidated in the consolidated financial statements as BBC Media Action has the right to appoint the majority of Trustees. This entity did not trade in the current or prior year.

BBC Media Action (India) Limited –

Cowrks Ground and First Floor, Worldmark 1, Aerocity, New Delhi - 110037, India

The statement of financial activities of BBC Media Action (India) Limited may be summarised as follows:

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Total income 834 970
Total expenditure (834) (970)
Net income - -

The balance sheet of BBC Media Action (India) Limited may be summarised as follows:

The balance sheet of BBC Media Action (India) Limited may be summarised as follows:
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Fixed and current assets 678 714
Liabilities (657) (693)
Net amount 21 21

BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited –

Lalitpur District, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Ward No 3, Sanepa, Nepal

The statement of financial activities of BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited may be summarised as follows:

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Total income - -
Total expenditure - -
Net income - -
Total funds brought forward 1 1
Total funds carried forward 1 1

The balance sheet of BBC Media Action Nepal Private Limited may be summarised as follows:

2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Fixed and current assets 1 1
Liabilities - -
Net amount 1 1

British Broadcasting Corporation Media Action Ltd/Gte –

Plot 800, Off Ebitu Ukiwe Street, Jabi, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

This entity was dormant during the year.

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11. Debtors

Debtors
Group Group Charity Charity
2025 2024 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade debtors 140 293 140 288
Amounts due from subsidiary
and related undertakings		 261 - 700 638
Other debtors 584 527 35 27
Prepayments 929 284 921 261
Accrued income (see Note 15) 4,023 4,432 4,023 5,373
Total 5,937 5,536 5,819 6,587

All debtors fall due within one year.

12. Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand
Group Group Charity Charity
2025 2024 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cash held at bank in UK 3,792 881 3,755 822
Cash held at bank and in hand overseas 1,900 1,442 1,809 1,315
Total 5,692 2,323 5,564 2,137

13. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Group Group Charity Charity
2025 2024 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade creditors 199 81 168 81
Amounts due to related
undertakings (see Note 21)		 - 147 - 146
Other creditors 963 647 890 2,058
Accruals 1,144 1,357 1,135 1,306
Deferred income (see Note 15) 7,374 3,777 7,374 3,306
Total 9,680 6,009 9,567 6,897

14. Provisions for liabilities

Provisions for liabilities
Employment Project
Costs Costs Total
Group £’000 £’000 £’000
At 1 April 2024 - 300 300
New provisions in 2024/25 324 194 518
Provisions utilised in 2024/25 - (300) (300)
At 31 March 2025 324 194 518

Above figures are for Group only, with charity balances standing at £110k(2025) and nil(2024).

It is expected that the majority of these obligations will be paid during the year ending 31 March 2025.

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Accounts

15. Accrued and deferred income

Where income is received in advance, recognition is deferred and included in creditors and where entitlement arises before income is received the income is accrued. The most significant projects for which income was deferred and accrued are detailed below. In the year to 31 March 2025 the Group had 110 (2024: 107) active projects.

Total Total Amount Total Total
Deferred Accrued Received Deferred Accrued
Income Income and Other Released Income Income
2024 2024 Movements Via SOFA 2025 2025
AICS : SS: AMREF - Mental
Health Integrated Dev		 - 24 - 132 - 156
BMB MOTT MACDONALD :
South Sudan: GESS II - MOTT		 - 121 (580) 425 (34) -
COUNTERPART : Afghanistan:
ASP USAID - Counterpart		 - 151 (752) 817 - 216
COUNTERPART : Afghanistan:
Counterpart - TV Support		 - - (153) 283 - 130
CSSF : EECA: ENCD - FCDO - 479 (3,449) 3,262 - 292
DIAKONIA : Zambia: Democratic
Governance		 - 203 (357) 299 - 145
DUTCH EMBASSY : ALG: Public
Interest Mobile Journalism		 (94) - (158) 198 (54) -
EQUAL ACCES INTERNAT : Somalia:
EAI Behaviour change		 - 19 (199) 137 (43) -
EUROPEAN COMMISSION : Ethiopia:
Increasing Confict Sensitivity		 (29) - - 237 - 208
EUROPEAN COMMISSION : FFPA - - (3,365) 365 (3,000) -
EUROPEAN COMMISSION :
Kenya: Down2Earth WP4		 - 28 - 117 - 145
EUROPEAN COMMISSION :
Zambia: EU Citizens Voice		 (77) - (182) 294 - 35
EUROPEAN UNION : EU Media Somalia - 4 (184) 240 - 60
FCDO : Indonesia: The Integrity
Initiativ-Phs 1		 - 145 (281) 143 - 7
FCDO : MOL: Supporting
Teleradio Moldova's (TRM)		 (1) - (689) 619 (71) -
FCDO : PIMHIE - - (484) 457 (27) -
FCDO : Regional Pacifc
Media Development		 - 7 (733) 735 - 9
FCDO : SO: Building Women's Resilience (50) - (531) 589 - 8
FCDO : Solomon Islands: Media
Strengthening Ph2		 (140) - - 140 - -
GAC : Tanzania: Niambie 2: GAC (92) - (656) 646 (102) -
GATES FOUNDATION : Family
Planning Grant		 - - (638) 253 (385) -
GIZ : Local Governance and
promotion of peace		 (82) - (76) 269 - 111
H & M FOUNDATION : India:
PRIDE Phase - 2		 (563) - (642) 580 (625) -
HUMANITY AND INCLUSI :
EECA HI Demining		 (38) - (251) 370 - 81
IFES : Lib: Elections and Leg Strength IFES - 105 (274) 168 (1) -
INT MEDIA SUPPORT : Somalia:
IMS Media Resilience		 - - (230) 244 - 14
IRISH AID : NATIONAL
CONVERSATION 5 - PHASE 2		 (177) - 40 137 - -
IRISH AID : TANZANIA-IRISH
AID NC 5- YEAR 3		 - - (455) 287 (168) -
NORAD : BRIDGES Project - - (1,806) 1,430 (376) -

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Accounts

15. Accrued and deferred income (continued)

Total Total Amount Total Total
Deferred Accrued Received Deferred Accrued
Income Income and Other Released Income Income
2024 2024 Movements Via SOFA 2025 2025
NORAD : Indonesia: For the
People - NORAD		 (78) - (330) 245 (163) -
NORWEGIAN MINISTRY : Life
in Lulu Series IX & X		 (393) - (811) 1,415 - 211
NRC : NG: Emergencey to Reliance - 56 (185) 137 - 8
SDC : Tanzania: Niambie 2 - SDC - 87 (1,026) 726 (213) -
SDC : Tanzania: Niambie 2
Rural Radio SDC		 (166) - 11 443 - 288
SIDA & SDC : Cambodia: Klahan9
SPACE - Sida & SDC		 (298) - (651) 950 - 1
SIDA : Zambia: Kudziwa SIDA (361) - (365) 752 - 26
SIDA : Zambia: SIDA Funsani Inception - - (350) 282 (68) -
SIGHTSAVERS : Nigeria:
Sightsavers DID Scale-Up		 - 76 (188) 193 - 81
THE ASIA FOUNDATION : Nep:
Understanding Mis- and Disinformation		 - - (165) 161 (4) -
UNDP : Promotion of Human
Security in Ukraine		 - 121 (390) 270 - 1
UNDP : Ukraine: UNDP Eore Ukraine - - (389) 306 (83) -
UNDRR : RiCA (462) 75 33 354 - -
UNICEF : Gaza Lifeline Project- UNRWA - 11 (172) 161 - -
UNICEF : Indonesia: UNICEF OKY BID - - (110) 130 - 20
UNICEF : KE: Unicef ESARO
Digital Engagement		 (23) - (117) 138 (2) -
UNOPS : Ethiopia: Explosive
Ordnance Risk Educati		 - - (178) 209 - 31
UNOPS : Myanmar: Ma Shet Ne - UNOPS - 60 (167) 130 - 23
US STATE DEPARTMENT : NG: US
State TIP anti-trafcking Edo St		 - 80 (302) 276 - 54
USAID : Bangladesh: USAID
- YouthRISE Activity		 - 18 (817) 888 - 89
USAID : BHA Global APS - 197 (318) 121 - -
USAID : Lib: MIRSAL - - (300) 452 - 152
USAID : Myanmar BIG - Believing in Girls - 401 (634) 349 - 116
USAID : South Sudan: Sout
Bitanina - Our Voices		 (32) - (157) 190 - 1
WFP : Ethiopia: Community
Engagement and Socia		 - - - 131 - 131
WORLD VISION : Afghanistan:
WVI - Dawam Project		 - 174 (1,251) 1,067 (10) -
WWF UK : Kenya: WWF REDAA - - (40) 109 - 69
EUROPEAN UNION : EU Culture
-Somalia Building a Peaceful		 (135) - - 107 (28) -
WPF : Tanzania: Niambie 2: WFP (100) - (1) 101 - -
USAID : Kenya USAID Global
Labour Program		 - 99 (198) 99 (1) -
Other projects (386) 1,691 (3,375) 1,261 (1,916) 1,104
Total (3,777) 4,432 (30,028) 26,026 (7,374) 4,023

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Accounts

16. Funds analysis

Balance at Balance at
1-Apr-24 Income Expenditure 31-Mar-25
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
General Funds 1,516 4,746 (4,865) 1,397
Total Unrestricted funds 1,516 4,746 (4,865) 1,397
Total Restricted Funds 34 28,168 (28,168) 34
Total Funds 1,550 32,914 (33,033) 1,431
Balance at Balance at
1-Apr-23 Income Expenditure 31-Mar-24
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Unrestricted funds:
Designated funds:
Technology-led Change Fund 369 - (369) -
Total Designated funds 369 - (369) -
General Funds 2,904 3,626 (5,014) 1,516
Total Unrestricted funds 3,273 3,626 (5,014) 1,516
Total Restricted Funds 34 28,399 (28,399) 34
Total 3,307 32,025 (33,782) 1,550

The Trustees’ Report explains why the group and the charity hold unrestricted funds and the adequacy of these funds at the year end. The reserves policy is reviewed on an annual basis.

All of BBC Media Action’s primary activities are included within restricted funds. These activities are restricted to overseas project work and associated income and expenditure in line with the key themes and charitable objectives described in the Trustees report. Analysis of the projects are included in note 15.

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Accounts

17. Analysis of group and charity net assets between funds

Net current Provision for Total
assets liabilities funds
£'000 £'000 £'000
Restricted funds 34 - 34
Unrestricted general funds 1,915 (518) 1,397
Total Funds at 31 March 2025 1,949 (518) 1,431
Net current Provision for Total
assets liabilities funds
£'000 £'000 £'000
Restricted funds 34 - 34
Unrestricted general funds 1,816 (300) 1,516
Total Funds at 31 March 2024 1,850 (300) 1,550

18. Reconciliation of movement in funds to net cash inflow / (outflow) from operating activities

Reconciliation of movement in funds to net cash infow
operating activities		 / (outfow) from
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Net expenditure for the year (120) (1,757)
Investment income (57) (96)
(Increase) in debtors (401) (109)
Increase / (Decrease) in creditors 3,671 (112)
Increase in provisions 219 46
Cash infow/ (outfow)from operatingactivities 3,312 (2,028)

19. Commitments and contingent liabilities

Operating Leases

There were total amounts payable in the future on non-cancellable leases:

Group Group Charity Charity
2025 2024 2025 2024
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Land and buildings
Operating leases which expire:
Within one year 396 451 378 412
In the second to ffh years inclusive 61 109 61 109
Afer the ffh year 1 - 1 -
Total 458 560 440 521

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20. Pension costs

Many of the Company’s employees are members of the BBC’s pension schemes, the BBC Pension Scheme (a defined benefit scheme) and defined contribution schemes (LifePlan and the Group Personal Pension Scheme).

BBC Pension Scheme

The BBC Pension Scheme provides pension benefits on a defined benefit basis from assets held in separate, trustee-administered, funds.

The scheme is subject to independent valuation by a professionally qualified actuary at least every three years, on the basis of which the actuary certifies the rate of employer’s contributions. These, together with the specified contributions payable by employees and proceeds from the scheme’s assets, are expected to be sufficient to fund the benefits payable under the scheme.

The actuarial valuation of the Scheme as at 1 April 2024 reported a surplus (liabilities, calculated on the technical provisions basis, minus value of assets) of £296m. The value of the Scheme’s assets and liabilities at that date were £13,775m and £13,479m respectively (both excluding AVCs). The method used to calculate the technical provisions is the projected unit method.

Since the actuarial valuation of Scheme as at 1 April 2024 showed that the Scheme was in surplus, the Recovery Plan dated 4 June 2024 ceased to apply.

The contributions to the scheme by members are paid via a salary sacrifice arrangement. These have been treated as employer contributions.

Contribution rates Projections (%)
2025
2024
2023
Employer
Employee (Old and New Benefts)
Employee (Career Average Benefts 2006)
Employee (Career Average Benefts 2011)		 18.3
30.0
42.3
7.5
7.5
7.5
4.0
4.0
4.0
6.0
6.0
6.0

21. Related party transactions

The following related party transactions occurred during the year:

Related party transactions
The following related party transactions occurred during the year:
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Related parties
Services procured from related parties 154 181
Amounts owed from related parties 60 -
Amounts owed to related parties (Note 13) - 727

During the year, BBC Media Action procured HR, IT and other support services of £154,479 (2024: £180,896) from the BBC.

Donations received from the BBC World Service, BBC Group and BBC Global News Limited are detailed in note 2.

At 31 March 2025, an amount of £60,581 (2024: £nil) was owed from the BBC Group (including BBC and BBC World Service). This amount is non-interest bearing and payable on demand. An amount of £nil (2024: £727,857) was owed to the BBC Group (including BBC and BBC World Service).

There were no other related party transactions to 31 March 2025 (2024: none).

22. Post balance sheet events

There are no events after the balance sheet date that require adjustment or disclosure in the financial statements.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Image credits

Front cover photomontage (as appears from top left)

  1. Sophie Ralulu, a journalist from Fiji, applies a lot of her learning gained from our training in her daily role. / Image courtesy of Fiji Times

  2. Angelina Karianina, Head of News, Suspilne, Ukraine. / Image courtesy of Suspilne

  3. Sopna Debnath, a journalist with a vision, the first female journalist at Gramer Kagoj (Village Paper), Bangladesh. / BBC Media Action Bangladesh

  4. After attending our Moto (‘Fire’ in Nyanja) Initiative in Zambia, journalist Womba Kasela has a better eye for a good story and if it’s of public interest. / Image courtesy of BBC Media Action Zambia

  5. Jeremiah interviews a fish farmer in Homa Bay about adapting to the changing weather. / Diana Njeru, BBC Media Action Kenya

  6. Miriam from Tanzania helped us to create a special season of Niambie! (Tell Me!) for Inclusive Futures, a disability-inclusive development initiative working to ensure all children and adults with a disability have the same opportunities as everyone else to access education, health and work opportunities. / BBC Media Action Tanzania

  7. Photo from IDP camp about our impact in Hygiene Behaviour Change Coalition. / Ahmed Fais, BBC Media Action Somalia

  8. BBC Media Action is sharing digital expertise with Unicef’s Oky app partners in the Indo-Pacific region with a specific focus on the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. / Image courtesy of Unicef

  9. Yehor Sydorovych, a journalist with Suspilne, Ukraine. / Image courtesy of Suspilne

Back cover

Life goes on: farmers resume rice plantation and bringing life back to normal after 2015 earthquake in Nepal. / BBC Media Action Nepal

The BBC's international charity

Registered office:

Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA, United Kingdom.

Registered charity no. (England & Wales): Company number:

1076235 3521587 Tel: +44 (0) 208 008 2026 Email: media.action@bbc.co.uk

@bbcmediaaction

bbcmediaaction.org © BBC Media Action 2025