The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
Principal activities:
DI International Limited ("DII") exists to provide data-drive evidence and analysis, technical support to strengthen data ecosystems, and advisory programmes to support partners to:
Better respond to people’s needs through improved quality and use of data and evidence in policymaking
Improve the quantity, quality and coherence of public finance and private investment
Challenge systemic and structural barriers to equity and support the reform of existing systems.
Our purpose is to apply the power of data and evidence to build sustainable solutions that create an equitable and resilient world.
Our mission is to work closely with partners to ensure data-driven evidence and analysis are used effectively in policy and practice to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience.
We work at global, national and local levels, through a global hub connected to a growing network of regional hubs and partners.
2021 Achievements:
The world continued to struggle with the significant health, social and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout 2021. We saw inequality rising and countries pushed further off track from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Global poverty and unemployment rose, and the unequal roll-out of vaccines across the world meant an imminent recovery remained out of reach for most countries. It was against this backdrop that the world also came together in Glasgow for The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) to set new ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Our world today is ever more interconnected and faces challenges that only a truly global response can overcome. Global cooperation and strong international public finance are essential to foster an inclusive and sustainable recovery from Covid-19 and mobilise resources to achieve the SDGs and build back better. As the pandemic has underscored, national efforts alone will not suffice. Stronger and more ambitious international cooperation will remain critical to contain the pandemic, and accelerate a robust and inclusive global recovery.
2021 was also the year Development Initiatives (DI) launched its new strategy, setting out the mission we want to achieve over the next 10 years and a road map for how we will get there. We began our transition towards an organisation that is situated closer to the partners it seeks to serve and inform, to ensure data-driven evidence and analysis are used effectively in policy and practice to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience.
The organisation has always been committed to localisation and has had regional offices employing exclusively local staff. In 2021, through the new strategy, we began the conscious process of expanding our network of hubs across the world. This will allow DII to truly support sustainable, inclusive progress that equips and empowers partners to maximise impact in their communities, countries and regions. At the end of 2021, we appointed a new East Africa Director based in Nairobi, Kenya to lead the creation of a fully established hub in the Africa region in 2022 – the first of more to come. An international hub will remain to contribute to global efforts towards delivering our mission.
With the continuing challenges of working under varying and ever changing Covid-19 rules across our locations, our priority in 2021 was staff wellbeing. We have a team of mental health first aiders who continued to provide an important touchpoint for staff to ensure they were aware of support available and able to access it. We conducted workshops for ‘Strategies for Personal Resilience’ and closed our offices for 3 days in August in addition to annual leave so that all staff were given a much-needed moment for rest and recuperation. Where possible, we enabled social events to help staff reconnect and rebuild interpersonal relationships that had been more challenging whilst working remotely fulltime. Our Bristol office also moved premises in early 2021 to enable more creative and collaborative workspaces alongside a comfortable and inviting environment that supports staff well-being at work, including on-site exercise facilities.
Working globally, strong IT infrastructure is particularly key to helping our staff work effectively and enable relationships to thrive even when remote. In 2021 our main physical location in the UK had a full data and telecoms refresh, and we made significant improvements in our East Africa Hub, commissioning a local IT company to provide tailored and ongoing support. We also achieved Cyber Essentials accreditation through our investment in increasing our cyber security and continue to ensure staff are trained and protected against cyber-crime.
Our new 10-year strategy brought new values conceived by our staff to reflect the organisation we are and the ways of working that matter most to us; person-centred, purpose-driven and transparent. We also set out 6 foundational principles underpinning our work centred on people, simplicity, partnerships, perseverance, transformation and high performance which underpin our culture and how we work.
In line with our new values and principles, we built on our efforts towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) to establish strong foundations that will underpin a positive staff culture and supportive work environment. We commissioned an EDI audit and survey, using its results and recommendations to celebrate progress and create a plan that will ensure we excel as an inclusive employer. We continue to monitor and voluntarily publish our gender pay gap. While this has increased since 2020 when our gap was -5.53%, we remain below the UK’s national average pay gap and we are committed to closing it. DI’s mean gender pay gap in 2021 stood at 3.18% in comparison to the UK’s national average pay gap of 7.9%.
It was also vital that we took efforts to ensure our pay and benefits reflect the fairness with which we want to treat every member of staff and the value they bring to the organisation. We carried out a comprehensive pay and benefits benchmarking exercise, developed a framework for our reward and remuneration strategy and agreed remuneration principles with the board. We developed a new set of pay ranges based on new career levels and positioned all our staff correctly within our new pay structure. The next phase in 2022 will see us establish criteria to support personal and professional development and a shift to agile performance management.
A range of key appointments were made in 2021 including a new role to lead our work on poverty and inequality, as well as a Chief Operating Officer and a new Director for our East Africa offices. The recruitment market remains competitive and so our reward and remuneration approach enables us to have competitive salaries and an attractive offer that will stand us in good stead moving forwards.
Our income in 2021 reduced to £630,736 as compared with £1,081,351 in 2020. In 2021, as in previous years, our highest expenditure remained our consultancy costs (£698,694) which was lower than in 2020 (£887,935).
The income pipeline for 2022 is healthy, with staff and programmes in place to continue to strengthen our work as a trusted partner working at the global, regional, national and local levels to ensure data-driven evidence and analysis are used effectively in policy and practice to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience.
Saffery Champness LLP were appointed as auditor to the company and in accordance with section 485 of the Companies Act 2006, a resolution proposing that they be re-appointed will be put at a General Meeting.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' 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 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 directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit :
the information given in the directors' r eport for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements ; and
the directors' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
As explained more fully in the directors' r esponsibilities s tatement, the directors 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 directors 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 directors are responsible for assessing the 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 directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
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 specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are detailed below.
Identifying and assessing risks related to irregularities:
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement and how fraud might occur, including through discussions with the directors, discussions within our audit team planning meeting, updating our record of internal controls and ensuring these controls operated as intended. We evaluated possible incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements. We identified laws and regulations that are of significance in the context of the company by discussions with directors and by updating our understanding of the sector in which the company operates.
Laws and regulations of direct significance in the context of the company include The Companies Act 2006 and UK Tax legislation.
Audit response to risks identified
We considered the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our audit procedures on the related financial statement items including a review of financial statement disclosures. We reviewed the company's records of breaches of laws and regulations, minutes of meetings and correspondence with relevant authorities to identify potential material misstatements arising. We discussed the company's policies and procedures for compliance with laws and regulations with members of management responsible for compliance.
During the planning meeting with the audit team, the engagement partner drew attention to the key areas which might involve non-compliance with laws and regulations or fraud. We enquired of management whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations or knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud. We addressed the risk of fraud through management override of controls by testing the appropriateness of journal entries and identifying any significant transactions that were unusual or outside the normal course of business. We assessed whether judgements made in making accounting estimates gave rise to a possible indication of management bias. At the completion stage of the audit, the engagement partner’s review included ensuring that the team had approached their work with appropriate professional scepticism and thus the capacity to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations and fraud .
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://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 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 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 company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
DI International Limited is a private company limited by shares incorporated in England and Wales . The registered office is 1st Floor Centre, The Quorum, Bond Street South, Bristol, BS1 3AE.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling , which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary a mounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £1.
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is credited or charged to profit or loss .
Basic financial assets, which include debtors, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the company after deducting all of its liabilities.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors , bank loans, loans from fellow group companies and preference shares that are classified as debt, are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future paymen ts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. A m ounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Equity instruments issued by the company are recorded at the proceeds received, net of transaction costs. Dividends payable on equity instruments are recognised as liabilities once they are no longer at the discretion of the company.
The company had no employees in the current or previous year.
All shares rank equally for voting, dividend and capital rights.
The ultimate parent is Development Initiatives Poverty Research Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales.
During the year the company received services from its majority shareholder, Development Initiatives Poverty Research Limited totalling £696,104 (2020: £299,971). The company also made a sub-grant to Development Initiatives Poverty Research Limited of £nil (2020: £582,454) The company also continued to receive a loan from this shareholder which is interest free and repayable on demand. At the year end £314,450 was owed by the company to Development Initiatives Poverty Research Limited (2020: the company was owed £25,397).
Development Initiatives Poverty Research America Inc. (DIPRA) is a separately established US registered charity. There is substantial overlap between the boards of DII and DIPRA. The company continued to receive an interest free loan from DIPRA, which is repayable on demand. As at the year end, the company owed DIPRA £3,859 (2020: £11,024). During the year DIPRA provided services to DII totalling £2,590 (2020: £12,069).