The following is a statement from Graham Strong, Acting CEO, World Vision Australia:
“After a review of the organisation and how we operate, World Vision Australia has made the difficult decision to reduce employee numbers.
“In the process of that review, it became clear that World Vision faced the prospect of having to curtail or cut some of our essential program work if we did not immediately address the issue of our operating costs, in response to the changing charities market.
“It was also clear that if we did not address the immediate challenge of growing our funding, we could no longer guarantee our commitment to derive the maximum possible impact from the donations to our vital work in the field.
“And any reduction in our programs would come at a time when the world needs the work of World Vision more than ever – a time when we risk seeing so much of our progress in development eroded by the COVID-19 pandemic and when the world is seeing the unprecedented upheaval of people due to conflict.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is not the direct catalyst for our decision to consolidate our workforce, but has accelerated our need to act. We are acting now, because we believe the changes we make will be the foundation for our future, as the longer-term effects of the pandemic become more evident.
“As an organisation with such a strong humanitarian purpose, and as a long-standing market-leader in the development sector with employees who are deeply committed to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children, we take these decisions with a very heavy heart.
“These are decisions that are difficult enough for an organisation to make in the best of times. But having to make them amid the current challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, is particularly tough.
“We know that working for World Vision is more than just a job, and we are all connected to the values and purpose that we deliver each day. As such, World Vision is committed to discussing these changes with our employees as quickly as possible, and to assisting them as much as we can through the transition.”
