## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** The trustees, who are also the directors for the purposes of company law, present their report and the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2023. ## **Reference and administrative details** **Registered charity name** Centre for Global Education **Charity registration number** 104991 **Company registration number** NI025290 **Principal office and registered** 9 University Street, Belfast, BT7 1FY **office** ## **The trustees** L Sullivan S Corrigan (Resigned 13 September 2022) C O'Connell (Appointed 13 September 2022) C McLoughlin (Appointed 24 May 2022) D Mclaughlin (Appointed 13 September 2022) D Belluigi N McAdams (Treasurer) M Robinson V Coert (Resigned 27 June 2023) **Company secretary** Cara Mcloughlin **Auditor** Finegan Gibson Ltd Chartered accountants & statutory auditor Causeway Tower 9 James Street South Belfast BT2 8DN **Bankers** Danske Bank PO Box 183 Donegall Square West Belfast BT1 6JS **1** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Structure, governance and management** ## _**Governing Document**_ Centre for Global Education is a company limited by guarantee governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association which were revised and updated in 2023 and adopted by Special resolution on 03 July 2023. Centre for Global Education is a registered charity with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. ## _**Appointment of trustees**_ The Chairman and the Trustees appoint new Trustees as needed. New Trustees are recruited on the relevance of their professional skills, and their potential to be able to make a helpful contribution to the governance of the charity. As part of the recruitment process they are made aware of a Trustees' legal obligations under charity and company law, the content of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the committee and decision making processes, the business plan and recent financial performance of the charity. Once the potential new Trustee has agreed to be considered for appointment to the role, the Trustees meet to review and to vote on the candidates' suitability for appointment. If there is unanimous agreement, they can be co-opted at an ordinary Management Board meeting. ## _**Trustee induction and training includes**_ Induction into the Code of Corporate Governance; Induction into the Dochas Guide to Ethical Communications and the IDEA Code of Good Practice for Development Education; Sharing of key documents including governance documents, the roles and responsibilities of office bearers and strategic objectives for the organisation. ## _**Arrangements for setting pay and remuneration of key management personnel**_ The directors consider the board of directors, who are the charity's trustees, and the senior management team comprise the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing and controlling, running and operating the charity on a day to day basis. All directors give of their time freely and no director received remuneration in the year. The pay of the senior staff is reviewed annually and normally increased in accordance with average earnings. In view of the nature of the charity, the directors benchmark against pay levels in other similar size charities run on a voluntary basis. **2** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Structure, governance and management** _**(continued)**_ ## _**Organisation structure and how charity makes decisions**_ The board of trustees, which can have up to 11 members, administers the charity. The board normally meets quarterly. A Director is appointed by the trustees to manage the day-to-day operations of the charity. To facilitate effective operations, the Director has delegated authority, within terms of delegation approved by the trustees, for operational matters including finance and direct charitable activities. ## _**Relationships with related parties**_ None of our trustees receive remuneration or other benefit from their work with the charity. ## _**Risk management**_ The trustees have a risk management strategy which comprises: an annual review of the principal risks and uncertainties that the charity faces; the establishment of policies, systems and procedures to mitigate those risks identified in the annual review; and the implementation of procedures designed to minimise or manage any potential impact on the charity should those risks materialise. **----- Start of picture text -----**
Risks Mitigation
Lack of freestanding reserves Have steadily increased reserves total to £38,813
at 31 March 2023 which surpasses our 2022
s
Reserves Policy will continue to be updated
Dependence on small number of donors Have secured small first-time grants from the
Community Foundation and Irish National
Teachers Organisation but more work needs to
be done
The Centre remains over-dependent on the CGE have successfully secured funds from Irish
Director for the delivery of key areas of work Aid to appoint an Assistant Editor to work with the
Director on the publication of Policy and Practice
and related activities
Reduced staffing capacity The centre is exploring opportunities for recruiting
new staff through programme applications to new
and existing donors
**----- End of picture text -----**
**3** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Objectives and activities** The purposes of the charity are: - To use education to challenge the root causes of global inequality and injustice. - To enable public action on global justice issues at all levels and in all sectors of society. In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit. The strategies employed to achieve the charity's aims and objectives are: - To influence and strengthen development education practice; - To increase and deepen public engagement with development education; - To create positive change for development education at policy level; - To maintain and develop the Centre for Global Education's capacity and sustainability. The Centre for Global Education has benefited greatly from the services of volunteers in 2022-23 including student interns and a part-time German volunteer placed in the Centre by Eirene. We highly value their input and accord them all possible opportunities for capacity-building and self-development. ## **Achievements and performance** In 2022-23, the Centre for Global Education has: Published two issues of our peer reviewed, online, open access journal titled Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review which in 2022 had a global audience of 236,704 visitors and 173,567 unique visits. The journal is a unique learning tool which has been funded by Irish Aid since 2005 and in 2022 celebrated its 17th anniversary. The journal continues to be made available on a stand-alone web platform at www.developmenteducationreview.com. Funding has been received from Irish Aid for the journal to May 2025. Organised two webinars based on the content of Issues 33 and 34 of Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review. A webinar on "Development Education and Social Justice" was held on 1 March 2022 and a webinar on "Development Education and Health" was held on 30 June 2022. **4** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Achievements and performance (continued)** . Commissioned an independent external evaluation of Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review carried out by Blue Moss Consulting and published in January 2022. Delivered a one-year project providing psycho-social support and education services to 400 children aged 6-13 years in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Funding for this project was provided by four trade unions (Unison, Unite, CWU and USDAW). The Centre has successfully applied for a grant from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation for the funding of this project in 2023. In 2022, NIPSA funded year one of a two-year CGE programme which delivers education services and psycho-social support to 100 Palestinian and Syrian refugee children in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj Barajneh in Beirut, Lebanon. The programme continues to 2023. Successfully completed a research project titled "Challenging the Dominant Economic Paradigm in Development Education" which was funded by the Community Foundation All-island Fund. The project was completed in September 2022 and resulted in this report. Compiled a research report in February 2022 on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Palestinian refugees in Jordan. The report is available here. Worked in partnership with development education networks in the north and south of Ireland, Britain, Europe and the global South including: the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA); Dóchas, the Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organisations; the Coalition of Aid and Development Agencies (CADA); Development Education Research Centre (DERC); Global Education Network Europe (GENE); and Academic Network on Global Education and Learning (ANGEL). ## **Financial review** The Centre has received a three year grant (1 June 2022 - the publication of our bione of the Irish Aid-funded programme covering the period 1 June 2022 to 31 May 2023. The Centre received £11,500 as the first instalment of a two year grant (£23,000 in total) from NIPSA for an education and psychosocial support project in the in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj Barajneh in Beirut, Lebanon to August 2022. The Centre has received a grant £10,000 from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation for a one-year project in Gaza Strip, Palestine that will provide education services to 400 children aged 6-13. The Centre successfully delivered a research project titled "Challenging the Dominant Economic Paradigm in Development Education" which was funded by the Community Foundation All-island Fund in 2022 and managed in partnership with Financial Justice Ireland. **5** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** ## **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ ## **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Financial review** _**(continued)**_ ## _**Reserves policy and going concern**_ The Centre for Global Education revised its Reserves Policy in March 2023 and agreed a target of £35,648.39. The policy is based on a scenario where the Director may be facing redundancy and the Centre seeks to secure his employment over three months as well as provide redundancy costs. This policy allows the Centre to keep the Director on the payroll during a possible transitionary period to another programme or as the Centre seeks to secure funds from an alternative source. An analysis of the Reserves total is below. Director's salary (full capacity three months) 14,775.93 Overheads (three months) 4,742.00 Redundancy Costs 16,131.00 Total: £35,648.93 ## _**Current position**_ At 31/03/2023 the Centre for Global Education's unrestricted reserves sat at £38,813, from our audited accounts. ## **Plans for future periods** The Centre for Global Education continues to seek funding from non-traditional sources of funding to resource our new Strategic Plan to December 2026 and beyond. We are actively seeking funds for a new formal sector programme to build on our work with schools since 2014. ## **Trustees' responsibilities statement** 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 United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. ## **Auditor** Each of the persons who is a trustee at the date of approval of this report confirms that: - so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity's auditor is unaware; and - they have taken all steps that they ought to have taken as a trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity's auditor is aware of that information. **6** ## **Centre for Global Education** ## **Company Limited by Guarantee** **Trustees' Annual Report (Incorporating the Director's Report)** _**(continued)**_ **Year ended 31 March 2023** ## **Small company provisions** This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption. The trustees' annual report was approved on 14 November 2023 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by: N McAdams (Treasurer) Trustee **7**