In profile: Florence Bearman, Acting Co-Chief Executive, Transaid

Now celebrating its silver jubilee year, 25 years after breaking away from its parent Save the Children, the charity is currently headed up by two Acting Co-Chief Executives – Sam Clark and Florence Bearman.

CAREER BEGINNINGS

Bearman started her career in the charity sector with Transaid more than a decade ago, when she joined as a Marketing Assistant, mainly focused on events. After spending several years as the charity’s Events Manager, she left Transaid for Farm Africa in 2015, before being lured back again just 18 months later.

“Transaid’s previous Chief Executive Gary Forster rang me up one day and asked if I would be interested in returning to take on the role of Head of Fundraising at Transaid,” Bearman said, “I said yes, passed the interview process and have been in that position since January 2017.”

Six months ago, Bearman was invited to step up to become Acting Co-Chief Executive, along with Sam Clark while Transaid's CEO, Caroline Barber, is on maternity leave.

EVOLUTION OF A CHARITY

Transaid began life as the transport wing of Save the Children. In the 1980s, during a famine in the Horn of Africa, Save the Children’s Patron HRH Princess Anne visited Ethiopia and quickly realised that a lot of the issues around getting aid to the people who needed it was actually a logistics and transport problem, as opposed to a lack of aid.

“There was a significant amount of aid donated by the British public sitting at ports,” Bearman explained, “but it wasn’t getting to the communities who needed it.”

Returning to the UK, Princess Anne, who was then also the Patron of the Chartered Institute of Transport (now CILT) challenged the transport industry to do something about it.

“She recognised that people who are involved in logistics and in transport possess the necessary skills that are needed when supply chains might not be correctly functioning,” Bearman said, “So that’s effectively how Transaid was born.”

When it began to be appreciated that transport and logistics is a big issue in many low- and middle-income countries, Transaid became an independent charity in 1998.

TACKLING TWO ISSUES

Since winning its independence from Save the Children, Transaid has evolved from humanitarian-based programmes towards long-term sustainable development.

The charity now focusses on two core areas. The first is around improving access to healthcare, as many of the communities that Transaid works with can live a long way from the nearest health facility, often as far as 50 kilometres.

“For many people it’s not just the distance, it’s also that there’s no means of getting there,” Bearman explained, “There’s either no motorised transport, or if there is it’s very expensive. So we work with communities to identify ways that they can create their own transport systems so they can access healthcare when they need it.”

The other side of Transaid’s work focuses on improving road safety. Shockingly, road traffic collisions are the third biggest killer across sub-Saharan Africa, just behind HIV/AIDS and malaria.

“But it’s often something that isn’t widely spoken about,” Bearman said, “The charity often works with pre-existing driver training institutions and focuses largely on heavy goods and passenger transport vehicles.”

AFRICAN FOCUS

Transaid currently operates across 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, from Uganda and Tanzania in the east to Ghana in the west.

“We tend to go where the need is greatest,” Bearman explained, “but also where we think that we can make a big difference and our skill set is relevant.”

As well as operating across Africa, the charity undertakes work outside the continent too: “If we think there’s something we can really support with and is of relevance we may broaden our reach,” she said, “So we’re working in Timor-Leste, which is near Indonesia. This isn’t our usual location, but we go where we think we can make a difference.”

To many outsiders, operating in low-income African countries may appear beset with challenges, both economic and political. But, Bearman maintains that Transaid’s specific role as a development rather than a humanitarian organisation, helps it in this regard.

“Most of the countries we work in are fairly stable,” she said, “We’re not working in places where there are long-running civil wars for example, so it’s a different set of circumstances.”

While there are always politics to navigate, the charity’s insistence on working with local partners gives it a unique insight into what is happening on the ground.

“We work with local partners and with people who really know the country that we’re working in. I think that helps us navigate a lot of those issues,” Bearman explained.

Some organisations tend to rely on consultants, flying people in and then out again, without gaining a proper understanding of the issues that are faced by the people that they are trying to help.

“I think that’s one of our strengths – that we work with people who know the country incredibly well,” she said.

FUNDING TRANSPORT PROJECTS

To finance its important work, Transaid has two main funding streams. Support from the UK’s transport and logistics industry accounts for just over half of the charity’s yearly income. This includes funding from the charity’s 31 corporate partners, which include trade bodies such as Logistics UK and CILT, manufacturers like Iveco, DAF and MAN, 3PLs such as GXO and DHL and hauliers like the Malcolm Group.

As well as financial donations, corporate partners support the charity in a number of non-financial ways too.

“This could be through sending training vehicles, for example, or it might be seconding staff to one of our programmes,” Bearman explained, “GXO provides a graduate for six months each year. We had one individual in the final six months of last year who helped deliver our professional driver training work in Uganda, for example. And later this year, Michelin has committed to several tyre inputs at three of our driver training institutions.”

There are also the cycle challenges and general fundraising activities. Discussing the support from the industry, Bearman said: “We really couldn’t do it without them. It’s really quite amazing all the things that people do for us.”

The second largest funding stream comes from what Bearman describes as institutional donors, such as the World Bank or GIZ, the development arm of the German government. However, money from larger donors is usually ringfenced for very specific projects.

“If it goes to a driver training programme, we agree to certain things that we will deliver and what that money will be spent on,” Bearman explained, “but that means that if we think there’s a gap that hasn’t been filled or something that we want to try out that we think is important, we don’t have that flexibility with the money from those donors.

“I think for me that’s one of the reasons why funding from the transport and logistics industry is so important, because it effectively gives us that seed funding to prove and then further expand an idea.”

INDUSTRY EVENTS – A RICH SEAM OF FUNDRAISING

For the last six years, Transaid has hosted a raffle at Logistics UK’s Logistics Awards gala dinner. How does this help support the charity’s work?

“We attend around 25 events that are similar to Logistics UK's every year and run raffles and auctions. This makes up a really significant part of our income.”

The other reason Bearman thinks these events are important is because they help raise the charity’s profile with professionals working in the logistics and transport industry.

“It means people who haven’t necessarily heard of Transaid before are exposed to what we do. They may choose from that one interaction with us to then get involved and to do something more, either at a corporate level or at an individual level, like join one of our cycle challenges for example.”

TRAINING THE TRAINER PROGRAMMES

It’s a little-known fact that road crashes are a huge killer across sub-Saharan Africa and are the largest killer of young men aged between 15 and 29. As a result, one of Transaid’s key objectives is to organise driving training in the countries in which it operates.

“We have what we call a ‘train the trainer’ model and that really is important when you look at things from a sustainability perspective. We don’t just train some drivers, we ensure that it is a longer-term contribution.”

Transaid works with pre-existing driver training institutions, which in some cases have government support. The charity works with the driver trainers to build up their skills and capacity, often with the support of partners in the UK. These include Michelin, whose staff train the driver trainers specifically on tyres, National Express, which has lent a huge amount of support on PSV training, and Hoyer, which has undertaken dangerous and hazardous goods training on the charity’s behalf. These types of two- and three-week inputs each quarter from various companies means that driver trainers in Africa are building up significant levels of understanding and knowledge, which they in turn share with thousands of drivers.

“Over the last eight or nine years we’ve trained more than 50,000 drivers using this model,” Bearman said, “ensuring that those roads where we are working, whether that’s in Zambia, Tanzania or Uganda, are much safer.”

SILVER JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

2023 marks Transaid’s 25^th anniversary, and the charity has a jam-packed calendar of events and fundraising challenges to celebrate passing this significant milestone.

“Our 25^th anniversary is very important to us and we’re using it as a way of thanking the industry for everything they’ve helped us to achieve during that time,” Bearman said, “We really wouldn’t be here without them.”

One of the biggest fundraising challenges Transaid has planned is its popular London to Paris Cycle Challenge in September.

“Currently we’ve got 20 people already signed up and we expect this to increase to between 35 and 40. It’s a great challenge and it’s where our European rides started. We completed a similar route in 2012, so it’s coming full circle which is really nice.”

Transaid is also encouraging people to take part in its 2.5 challenge, which involves raising money around the numbers two and five, whether that’s by baking 25 cakes or walking 2.5 miles or anything else in between.

“This is supposed to be a really inclusive way to encourage people to do a bit of fundraising for us while also raising awareness and thanking the industry for 25 years at the same time.”

The charity is also launching its first ever football tournament in July at Ilkeston Town Football Club, with support from Microlise and Libra Consulting.

“That will see companies like GXO, Goodyear and others, challenging each other to see who the best footballing company in the industry can be,” Bearman said.

THE NEXT 25 YEARS

Having successfully completed its first quarter century, what does Bearman hope and expect the next 25 years to look like for Transaid?

Significant improvement on the issues that the charity thinks are important, she said.

“Take road safety for example, I would say 10-15 years ago it wasn’t really considered as an important global issue, there isn’t a standalone sustainable development goal on it for example, but we are now in the second decade of road safety, which is a United Nations initiative.”

She hopes that these issues will gain more traction over time, making the charity’s work easier to deliver and better funded. She also believes that governments and larger institutions will increasingly come to recognise the importance of road safety, allowing Transaid to help support with things like new curriculums and enforcing guidelines in the coming years.

Bearman predicts that roads in developing countries will become greener and more sustainable too. Electric motorbikes are already becoming a big talking point in many African countries, and motorbikes in general are starting to be the main vehicles that you see on many of the continent's roads.

“We are doing more on those in recognition that they are a big contributor to road crashes, but also a really important mode of transport to many” Bearman said, “If we want to work towards safer roads we need to consider motorcycles as a really important issue.”

A greater diversity in the people who work in transport is another trend Bearman would like to see more of, particularly by attracting more women into the industry.

“We’ve really championed gender and bringing more women into road safety work,” she said, “There needs to be a lot of work not just in training women but ensuring the industry is more receptive to having female HGV drivers, for example, which is a problem that we face in some African countries. Over the next 25 years I think that will be an issue that we will continue to work on.”

Finally, Bearman expresses the hope that more people over the next 25 years will be able to access healthcare as and when they need it.

“I think the last few years, particularly with COVID, have shown us how important strong health systems are and transport is a really key part of that,” she said, “If you can’t get to a health facility then you can’t be treated. And everyone has the right to get treatment when they need it. So, over the next 25 years we will continue to champion much stronger and more reliable health systems.”

*www.transaid.org

Published On: 16/03/2023 16:00:51

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