A matter of trust
An accredited and registered charity
CARE Australia is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission (ACNC) and is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR), meaning that people making a donation to our organisation may be able to claim an income tax deduction. We are fully accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to participate in the Australian aid program, and are in the process of renewing that accreditation for the next 5 years. We are a member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia and are entitled to fundraise in all states of Australia and overseas.
CARE Australia is a signatory to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct, which sets out standards of management, communications, and spending. CARE Australia is committed to full adherence to the Code of Conduct. CARE Australia is also a signatory to several international codes of conduct (care.org.au/codes-of-conduct).
Privacy and cybersecurity
As cyber threats become increasingly complex and frequent, we're steadfast in protecting the privacy and security of our participants, donors, and all stakeholders. We experienced zero cybersecurity breaches in the past year — a testament to our robust and continuously evolving security systems. As part of our ongoing commitment to data protection, our new Microfinance platform, Lendwithcare, has been designed with privacy and cybersecurity integrated from the ground up. Your trust is invaluable to us, and we're committed to maintaining it through vigilance and constant improvement.
CARE Australia is fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), ensuring all online transactions are secure and protected against identity theft.
Safeguarding
CARE Australia is committed to preventing all forms of harm, abuse and exploitation of children and adults, including our personnel.
Across all the countries in which we work, we take proactive steps to foster a safe organisational culture, raise awareness of expected standards of conduct, and offer safe and accessible mechanisms to allow concerns to be raised by all people involved in, or impacted by, CARE Australia’s work.
In 2022/2023, CARE Australia received 16 reports relating to Child Safeguarding and the Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, Abuse (PSHEA). This increase in reports is testament to the work being done to raise awareness, create safety, establish new and accessible pathways to report, and to strengthen CARE Australia’s overarching safeguarding policy, system and practices.
Our response to every report was considered, appropriate, and proportionate. Our investigations found 13 reports to be substantiated, leading to:
• three partnership agreements/service contracts being terminated.
• six employment contracts being terminated.
• and three formal warning letters being issued.
In each instance, psychosocial support was made available to the victim/survivor and other parties, including through external referrals, with additional awareness-raising and training delivered to staff, partners and communities around the importance of taking action and immediately reporting concerns.
Several additional reports were determined to be outside the scope of CARE Australia’s safeguarding work and are therefore not recorded in this report, including reports relating to family and domestic violence. In these instances, CARE Australia has worked closely with our Country Office teams to offer guidance, support policy strengthening and response, including identifying appropriate, safe referral pathways. These measures reflect CARE Australia’s mission to support women and girls, and our commitment to safeguarding and gender equality.
We are working closely with our Country Office, programming partners and communities to come alongside, listen and understand what CARE Australia can do better to prevent harm to children and adults, and how we can tailor our responses and disciplinary measures to be meaningful and appropriate in the different contexts in which we work.
CARE Australia’s Preventing Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, Abuse, and Child Abuse reports from 2022/23 — presented as part of our commitment to transparency:
Six employment contracts terminated (incident involving a staff member/contractor).
Two partnership contracts terminated (incident involving a partner organisation).
One ongoing monitoring through project. Case was found not to involve a child.
One report related to sexual harassment of a staff member by another staff member. The investigation found the report to be unsubstantiated.
One report related to sexual harassment of a staff member by another staff member. The investigation found the report to be unsubstantiated.
Our people
While gender equality remains a key focus for CARE Australia, we also recognise the need to provide an environment where people of all diversities feel safe, valued and enabled to participate meaningfully in our organisation and programs. These commitments are articulated in our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy.
We welcomed the Respect@Work legislative reforms to strengthen safer employment practices, which are central to our overall safeguarding approach. We not only embed those practices through our employment lifecycle (employees and volunteers, in Australia and in Country Offices), we also work with our partners to support them to prevent and respond to the risk of harm, abuse and exploitation.
After two years of remote work due to the pandemic, we recognised the need to reinforce our internal bonds, and organised in-person gatherings at key conferences — the CARE Conference in November 2022 and the Pacific Conference in February 2023 — to facilitate deeper connections between our staff in Australia and our Country Offices.
A cohort of Pacific Islander trainers from a range of our partner organisations delivered a series of ‘Learning Together’ sessions to each other on critical topics like inclusivity for the LGBTQI+ community, Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI), and safeguarding. The Learning Series attracted 130 participants from individuals, civil society and government organisations across the Pacific region, and proved an excellent opportunity for individuals and organisations to connect, learn, unlearn, share their experiences, and develop new skills that will strengthen their support in their communities.
Over the last year CARE Australia co-sponsored the development of CARE International’s Global Radicals Fundraising Leadership Program, an initiative designed to provide training for CARE staff — particularly in the Asia and Pacific regions — in high-value fundraising. The program has received an innovation award from Reimagining Fundraising and will train 150 CARE staff over the next 18 months. This program highlights CARE Australia's commitment to the Pledge for Change, a process that is shedding light on the colonial nature of international aid by building joint strategies for increasing locally led fundraising capacity in the global south.
Mekong transition
CARE Australia decided in 2021 to transition the lead membership of the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam Country Offices to CARE USA. This transition was designed to best position each Country Office to achieve long-term success and sustainability. The transition was completed on 1 January for Cambodia and Vietnam, with Laos transferring on 1 July 2023 and Myanmar to follow in February 2024.
CARE Australia will continue to work with each of the Country Offices as a CARE Member Partner, continuing to support the implementation of individual projects as is done with other Country Offices internationally. CARE Australia will also continue to hold its role as Lead Member of CARE in Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Vanuatu, as well as through our Pacific Partnership Unit that operates in the region outside of the traditional country office platform.
This decision and process reaffirms CARE’s commitment and intention to be a relevant presence in the South-East Asia region, driven by impact and the humanitarian imperative, and will enable CARE’s presence in the region to evolve into a strong, locally-led platform that contributes to positive change in the region.
No tolerance for fraud and corruption
All suspected fraud cases are thoroughly investigated and — where substantiated — disciplinary action and recovery of loss are pursued.
Reporting of suspected fraud and corruption is encouraged, with a number of avenues available, including the option to remain anonymous. Our training, policies and processes focus heavily on the prevention and early identification of suspected fraud and corruption, and staff and suppliers are screened for links to terrorist organisations.
In 2022/23, there were 10 suspected incidents of fraud across the countries in which we work. In accordance with CARE Australia’s zero tolerance policy, all suspected incidents have been appropriately investigated. Nine of the suspected cases were substantiated. The total financial loss to fraud in 2022/23 was $22,000 — roughly 0.03% of our total expenditure. Given the complex and vulnerable environments in which we work, we consider this to be a testament to the integrity and professionalism of the overwhelming majority of the 1.44 million project participants, staff, and partner organisations involved in CARE Australia’s work.
Number of suspected fraud cases FY23
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Details on CARE Australia’s approach to preventing and responding to fraud and corruption are available on the CARE Australia website at care.org.au/fraud-and-corruption-policy.