Financial Statements for the Year Ending 31 December 2021
Summary of Our 2021 Strategic Report
The Tony Blair Institute has submitted its financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2021 to Companies House and is publishing them today, 29 September, on this website. The full strategic report can be read in our financial statements.
A Year of Expansion and Impact
Our work is guided by a central belief in the power of progressive policies to deliver for people, especially when they embrace the transformative potential of technology.We are proud of what we and our partners have achieved and, with our 2021 year-end global headcount growing to 440 and hubs launched in Accra, San Francisco and Singapore in addition to our London footing, we approached 2022 with a fortified belief in our mission to equip leaders to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies in an increasingly interconnected world.
Covid-19: Recovery, Resilience and Preparing for the Future
As the world learned to live alongside Covid-19, we saw a number of our recommendations adopted in the UK, including Tony Blair’s recommendation that the UK use all available vaccine supply to administer first doses to as many people as possible as quickly as possible (rather than hold back stocks for second doses – the objective being to provide immunity more widely across the population and to do so more rapidly).We produced a comprehensive blueprint for vaccine rollout, which raised the ambition for the number of vaccines that could be administered per day – an approach reflected in the government’s vaccination framework. We also developed the TBI Total Covid Cost model, linking the spread of the virus to the performance of the economy; this model formed the basis of a paper on vaccine rollout and the return to normality, illustrating the benefits the UK population would see from an accelerated vaccine rollout plan. The model was the basis of two sessions with the UK Treasury select committee and influenced their enquiry’s recommendations to the Treasury; we proposed that the government should publish a modelling assessment to guide its steps in lifting restrictions, which it subsequently did.We advocated mass testing, particularly drawing on rapid-testing capability; reflecting this, the UK government introduced free twice-weekly rapid testing across the population in April 2021. Additionally, in July we showed how mandatory use of the NHS COVID Pass at large events could slow the spread of the virus (a recommendation that was implemented by the government in December), and recommended that the government allow full vaccination of children aged 12 to 15 two months before this was enacted as policy. We also continued to raise awareness of Long Covid, working together with Professor Tim Spector and the team at King’s College London to set out a long-term plan to confront the impact of this “hidden pandemic”.All our work on Covid policy was informed by our understanding of government combined with the most robust and up-to-date evidence, and benefitted from our formal and informal partnerships with life sciences and bioscience experts and institutions.
Promoting Vaccine Equity and Pandemic Preparedness Worldwide
2021 also saw the Institute launch the Global Health Security Consortium (GHSC) in partnership with the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine (EITM) and a team of scientists at the University of Oxford, led by Tony Blair, Dr David Agus and Sir John Bell. The consortium provides insight, analysis and support for leaders around the world to help them deal with Covid-19 today and prepare for the health-security challenges of tomorrow. In 2021 the GHSC published reports key to present and future pandemic responses, such as global genomic sequencing and surveillance and an equitable plan for vaccinating the world. This innovative partnership brings together expertise and leadership in science, medicine and geopolitics, and in 2022 will turn to the opportunity to build and implement a global adult-vaccination programme out of the Covid-19 vaccine infrastructure to target the 10 million annual deaths caused by preventable diseases.TBI and EITM also worked in coordination with Oxford University and Oracle to support the development of the Global Pathogen Analysis Service (GPAS) – uniting a world-class pathogen genomics team with cloud-computing, bringing scale and security. The GPAS platform provides rapid, standardised genomic analysis for a range of pathogens, starting with SARS-CoV-2, and was made accessible for free at the point of service for academic and research laboratories in low- and middle-income countries, with the ultimate aim of improving global health.Prior to the pandemic, less than 1 per cent of all vaccines used in Africa were locally produced, demonstrating a stark vulnerability and reliance on foreign assistance and supplies. Our Africa advisory teams commenced new work supporting African countries to develop their local vaccine manufacturing base to build resilience and preparedness for potential future pandemics. Currently, the Institute is supporting Senegal and Rwanda in this agenda and scoping potential support for Kenya. TBI also had representation on key continental initiatives, such as Africa Union’s Partnerships for African Vaccines Manufacturing (PAVM), coordinated by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC); Institute representatives both supported PAVM leadership and contributed to the stakeholder forum.In September 2021, we responded to demand from countries across Africa and launched the Institute’s Africa Vaccines Programme in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2021, the programme worked with governments representing more than 220 million citizens, as well as the Africa CDC, to build capacity to support Covid-19 vaccine rollouts across the continent, with additional countries added to the programme in 2022. This programme seeks to address the “absorption-capacity challenge” – the capacity that countries have to vaccinate their citizens and which comprises everything from cold-chain storage capacity to trained staff available to administer vaccinations. Aside from the moral imperative to distribute life-saving vaccines equitably across the globe, the importance of this work was highlighted by the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 in late 2021 and its impacts on health-system capacity globally.
Helping Governments to Scale Tech-Enabled Solutions
Tomorrow will belong to the countries and communities that work together to harness the power of technology for the good of all people. This is why we are working with political leaders and governments to find tech and digital solutions to tackle their biggest challenges. By brokering strategic partnerships between governments and leading tech organisations and innovators, our ambition is to scale tech-enabled solutions so that millions of people can prove their identity, access better health care, improve government services and access affordable and nutritious food.Through our ambitious Tech for Development programme – now rebranded as The Tomorrow Partnership – we built on our philanthropic partnership with the Larry Ellison Foundation and used 12 months of action and deep learning to deliver and shape our vision for supporting countries to build comprehensive digital infrastructure. We also built out a global team, which continues to grow in 2022. The programme began with rollout of the Oracle Health Management System (OHMS) – which supported national vaccination programmes in three African countries on a pro-bono basis in 2020 to 2021. Bringing a value-added solution to legacy systems or feeding into the broader digitalisation of health care, the OHMS enabled Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal to create electronic health records for their vaccination programmes for yellow fever, HPV and Covid-19.
Technology and Public Policy
Our global Technology and Public Policy (TPP) team continued to develop a bold new progressive agenda on the impacts of the tech revolution working on four core areas – Internet Policy, Digital Government, Science and Innovation, and Tech for Development. They put forward proposals to help communities and their leaders alleviate deep-rooted inequalities, scale up services, facilitate connectedness, and shape how people live and work. For example, we set out how to provide universal internet access worldwide, expand healthy life expectancy, build a minimum viable education system for all, preserve the open global internet, manage disasters in climate-vulnerable countries and introduce pioneering alternative-food systems to sustain the global population.The Science and Innovation Unit consolidated its relationship with Stanford University, building on a number of joint projects with the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL), including a joint body of work on Progress in Personal Health; members of the Digital Government Unit were invited to join the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s Digital ID expert stakeholder group, and to contribute to the Cabinet Office review of Digital Covid Certificates.
Building a Progressive Policy Agenda
We continued to develop cutting-edge policy insights on some of the biggest challenges facing the country and on generating progressive policy responses to help renew the centre ground. The influence of our reports on climate action, industrial strategy and the UK’s economic model is evidenced by significant cross-party endorsements. In addition, the policy work we published on the UK’s exit from the European Union provided assessments and analysis of all aspects of the situation as it developed. Our responses include a package of recommended proposals to address tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which would put the agreement on a more stable footing, and a consideration of the UK’s regulatory policy post-Brexit.
Insights on Global Challenges and Counterextremism
Our Extremism Policy Unit (EPU) provides expert analyses on instability and evolving terrorist threats around the world and works to equip leaders to develop effective, timely and proportionate policy responses. As well as contributing in-depth analysis on Iran and Boko Haram, we published a “9/11 – 20 Years On” series of companion papers and resources on learnings and insights from the Middle East, Africa and the wider Muslim world. Our work for the 9/11 anniversary brought together a team of experts and researchers to reassess counterextremism policies while putting forward proposals to support a more positive, peaceful and enterprising future for the Middle East.
Time to Zero In: The Climate Crisis and Energy Transition
As all eyes turned to COP26, contributors to our Time to Zero In campaign were assessing pledges and setting out how technology, innovation and behavioural change could be harnessed to close the gaps. Crucially, our approach recognises the unique needs of low- and middle-income countries alongside developed economies, while also pushing countries like the UK to be climate leaders and innovators. Globally, our work championed a just transition for climate-vulnerable countries in Africa. We highlighted the inequity of the fact that Africa has contributed least to climate change but faces the greatest consequences, and urged developed nations to make good on their climate-finance commitments. The team also published a paper exploring the industries that contribute the most to the climate crisis and pollution, plus the viable solutions and policies that African countries could adopt to help make such industries greener while continuing on the industrialisation path.
Promoting Effective Governance and Delivery Through Our Government Advisory Division
Our Government Advisory division continued to support leaders to implement and accelerate their transformation visions and priority agendas. We provide both leader-to-leader and shoulder-to-shoulder support through teams of advisors embedded within governments around the world. We tailor our approach to meet the needs of each government, with a focus on seven key areas: strengthening of the centre of government; technology and digitalisation; industrialisation and job creation; agriculture and food-systems transformation; energy, infrastructure and climate; private investment; and human-capital development.
Our Work in Africa
Power Africa
In 2021 we continued our work with Power Africa, a flagship US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative, to support governments and regional institutions in building a sustainable and efficient energy sector. In Senegal, for example, the Institute helped the government secure $420 million of pledged funding from development-finance institutions. In Nigeria, our energy advisor worked on the design and implementation of a mass solar-connection programme called Solar Power Naija that aims to provide electricity access to 25 million Nigerians while creating 250,000 jobs in the near term; this programme was launched officially by the Nigerian vice president in April.
The Sahel
The Sahel has been a priority for the Institute because it is the region with the fastest-growing population in the world, significant food insecurity and chronic poverty that is compounded by climate change – and because of its geopolitical importance in west Africa and northern Africa. The region has been burdened with increasing instability and conflict, which threaten to impede its developmental goals. In partnership with others, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, we supported the government of Burkina Faso to improve the country’s agriculture and agri-business outcomes, helping to increase the country’s fertiliser-blending capacity and helping the government with securing an investor to set up an in-country farm-equipment assembly plant expected to create 6,000 jobs. In addition, TBI’s assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene resulted in the implementation of a web and mobile application for tracking Covid-19 testing and results, delivering a Covid-19 vaccination card and ensuring payment for testing was recuperated by the government. TBI supported development of a national electricity-generation model as the government sought to increase access to electricity from 19 per cent to 50 per cent by 2025. (The work in Burkina Faso detailed in this section took place in 2021, prior to the coup d’état in January 2022.)
Regional and Continental Public-Health Agencies
2021 saw the Institute kick off an innovative programme to protect the long-term health security of the African continent: the Health Institutional Capacity Strengthening Programme. This programme was established to support the Africa CDC and the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the continent’s key public-health agencies. These organisations ensure that governments have the policies and structures in place to make effective public-health interventions and are together responsible for the health of more than 1 billion people in Africa. Our objective has been to address the significant structural weaknesses that have proven to be barriers in ensuring the delivery of this support to African member statesWe concluded the first phase of our partnership with the Nigeria Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support this national public-health agency on a process of organisational transformation. During this multi-year project, we provided embedded support on institutional strengthening and capacity building. As a result of this journey and in collaboration with other partners, the NCDC was able to significantly strengthen its systems and support its workforce into a higher-performing cadre prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant the agency was much better equipped to handle the crisis than it otherwise might have been.
Africa Delivery Exchange 2021
We delivered the third annual Africa Delivery Exchange (ADX) event in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 15 and 16 December 2021. ADX events aim to build the delivery capacity of African governments, and to serve as a platform for leaders to connect, learn and exchange experiences and ideas to enhance government effectiveness in service delivery. The third annual ADX explored the role of technology to accelerate public-service delivery, resource mobilisation approaches for Delivery Units, and deep dives into delivery for two sectors – agriculture in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and energy in partnership with USAID-Power Africa.
Our Work in the Middle East
Our team engages with leaders and stakeholders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as across the region, to inform and guide thinking and decision-making, ensuring that the two-state solution remains viable. The team develops and promotes practical recommendations and initiatives for the peace process, and to improve the economic, political and humanitarian realities on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Our Israel team examined the political and security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, reviewed the Arab media’s reporting trends on Israel, and looked at the practical steps that can be taken in the West Bank and Gaza in light of the political and security realities in the region. These reports have been shared with leaders in the Gulf, as well as US, European and Egyptian diplomats, and multilateral organisations working on the Middle East peace process. Similarly, we continue to provide the UK, European and Egyptian missions to Israel with regular briefings for our work on mapping, the Palestinian economic and fiscal situation, Palestinian politics in crisis, and mechanisms to activate and upgrade Israeli-Palestinian economic relations.
Our People
Our financial statements show an average total of 337 staff in 2021. Our staff members are based in locations throughout the world, including in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, the United States, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. They bring a wide range of expertise and experience, and we collectively benefit from a diverse workforce that comprises over 55 different nationalities.
Gender balance is incredibly important to us and we are proud that our commitment is reflected in our workforce. Throughout 2021, 50 per cent of our employees were women, including our Chief Executive Officer.
Tony Blair receives no remuneration for his work on behalf of TBI, to which he devotes the majority of his time.
Financial Review
In the year to 31 December 2021, the Institute consolidated its financial position. It built up reserves to protect the Institute from future shocks and equip itself for long-term success. This has been achieved alongside continued growth and an expanding project portfolio, which has seen the Institute expand its operations globally. The Institute continued to manage and support projects across the world, including helping leaders to tackle the ongoing impacts of Covid-19, and to work with governments on their wider strategic aims and policy delivery. We entered into an exciting partnership with the Larry Ellison Foundation, which has supported our Tech for Development programme (renamed the Tomorrow Partnership in 2022). Our partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation continued to support work predominantly in health, and this track record enabled us to pivot to Covid support so swiftly. The group turnover has grown by $35.7 million, largely reflecting the increased demand for our Government Advisory work and the advisory teams’ growth to meet that demand for strategy, policy and delivery – with technology as an enabler. Overall staff numbers have grown, increasing to an average of 337 in 2021. The increase in staffing has been the largest driver of increased costs in the year. Our total staff is forecast to be around 700 by the end of 2022. As of 31 December 2021, the Group’s reserves stood at $22.8 million and the Group is fortunate to report healthy cash balances of $49.1 million. TBI is confident in its ability to deliver on the commitments into which it has entered, and to secure sufficient funding in the future to take on new commitments as its programme evolves to meet the ever-changing needs of political leaders and governments.
Summary of Our 2021 Strategic Report
The Tony Blair Institute has submitted its financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2021 to Companies House and is publishing them today, 29 September, on this website. The full strategic report can be read in our financial statements.
A Year of Expansion and Impact
Our work is guided by a central belief in the power of progressive policies to deliver for people, especially when they embrace the transformative potential of technology.We are proud of what we and our partners have achieved and, with our 2021 year-end global headcount growing to 440 and hubs launched in Accra, San Francisco and Singapore in addition to our London footing, we approached 2022 with a fortified belief in our mission to equip leaders to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies in an increasingly interconnected world.
Covid-19: Recovery, Resilience and Preparing for the Future
As the world learned to live alongside Covid-19, we saw a number of our recommendations adopted in the UK, including Tony Blair’s recommendation that the UK use all available vaccine supply to administer first doses to as many people as possible as quickly as possible (rather than hold back stocks for second doses – the objective being to provide immunity more widely across the population and to do so more rapidly).We produced a comprehensive blueprint for vaccine rollout, which raised the ambition for the number of vaccines that could be administered per day – an approach reflected in the government’s vaccination framework. We also developed the TBI Total Covid Cost model, linking the spread of the virus to the performance of the economy; this model formed the basis of a paper on vaccine rollout and the return to normality, illustrating the benefits the UK population would see from an accelerated vaccine rollout plan. The model was the basis of two sessions with the UK Treasury select committee and influenced their enquiry’s recommendations to the Treasury; we proposed that the government should publish a modelling assessment to guide its steps in lifting restrictions, which it subsequently did.We advocated mass testing, particularly drawing on rapid-testing capability; reflecting this, the UK government introduced free twice-weekly rapid testing across the population in April 2021. Additionally, in July we showed how mandatory use of the NHS COVID Pass at large events could slow the spread of the virus (a recommendation that was implemented by the government in December), and recommended that the government allow full vaccination of children aged 12 to 15 two months before this was enacted as policy. We also continued to raise awareness of Long Covid, working together with Professor Tim Spector and the team at King’s College London to set out a long-term plan to confront the impact of this “hidden pandemic”.All our work on Covid policy was informed by our understanding of government combined with the most robust and up-to-date evidence, and benefitted from our formal and informal partnerships with life sciences and bioscience experts and institutions.
Promoting Vaccine Equity and Pandemic Preparedness Worldwide
2021 also saw the Institute launch the Global Health Security Consortium (GHSC) in partnership with the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine (EITM) and a team of scientists at the University of Oxford, led by Tony Blair, Dr David Agus and Sir John Bell. The consortium provides insight, analysis and support for leaders around the world to help them deal with Covid-19 today and prepare for the health-security challenges of tomorrow. In 2021 the GHSC published reports key to present and future pandemic responses, such as global genomic sequencing and surveillance and an equitable plan for vaccinating the world. This innovative partnership brings together expertise and leadership in science, medicine and geopolitics, and in 2022 will turn to the opportunity to build and implement a global adult-vaccination programme out of the Covid-19 vaccine infrastructure to target the 10 million annual deaths caused by preventable diseases.TBI and EITM also worked in coordination with Oxford University and Oracle to support the development of the Global Pathogen Analysis Service (GPAS) – uniting a world-class pathogen genomics team with cloud-computing, bringing scale and security. The GPAS platform provides rapid, standardised genomic analysis for a range of pathogens, starting with SARS-CoV-2, and was made accessible for free at the point of service for academic and research laboratories in low- and middle-income countries, with the ultimate aim of improving global health.Prior to the pandemic, less than 1 per cent of all vaccines used in Africa were locally produced, demonstrating a stark vulnerability and reliance on foreign assistance and supplies. Our Africa advisory teams commenced new work supporting African countries to develop their local vaccine manufacturing base to build resilience and preparedness for potential future pandemics. Currently, the Institute is supporting Senegal and Rwanda in this agenda and scoping potential support for Kenya. TBI also had representation on key continental initiatives, such as Africa Union’s Partnerships for African Vaccines Manufacturing (PAVM), coordinated by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC); Institute representatives both supported PAVM leadership and contributed to the stakeholder forum.In September 2021, we responded to demand from countries across Africa and launched the Institute’s Africa Vaccines Programme in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2021, the programme worked with governments representing more than 220 million citizens, as well as the Africa CDC, to build capacity to support Covid-19 vaccine rollouts across the continent, with additional countries added to the programme in 2022. This programme seeks to address the “absorption-capacity challenge” – the capacity that countries have to vaccinate their citizens and which comprises everything from cold-chain storage capacity to trained staff available to administer vaccinations. Aside from the moral imperative to distribute life-saving vaccines equitably across the globe, the importance of this work was highlighted by the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 in late 2021 and its impacts on health-system capacity globally.
Helping Governments to Scale Tech-Enabled Solutions
Tomorrow will belong to the countries and communities that work together to harness the power of technology for the good of all people. This is why we are working with political leaders and governments to find tech and digital solutions to tackle their biggest challenges. By brokering strategic partnerships between governments and leading tech organisations and innovators, our ambition is to scale tech-enabled solutions so that millions of people can prove their identity, access better health care, improve government services and access affordable and nutritious food.Through our ambitious Tech for Development programme – now rebranded as The Tomorrow Partnership – we built on our philanthropic partnership with the Larry Ellison Foundation and used 12 months of action and deep learning to deliver and shape our vision for supporting countries to build comprehensive digital infrastructure. We also built out a global team, which continues to grow in 2022. The programme began with rollout of the Oracle Health Management System (OHMS) – which supported national vaccination programmes in three African countries on a pro-bono basis in 2020 to 2021. Bringing a value-added solution to legacy systems or feeding into the broader digitalisation of health care, the OHMS enabled Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal to create electronic health records for their vaccination programmes for yellow fever, HPV and Covid-19.
Technology and Public Policy
Our global Technology and Public Policy (TPP) team continued to develop a bold new progressive agenda on the impacts of the tech revolution working on four core areas – Internet Policy, Digital Government, Science and Innovation, and Tech for Development. They put forward proposals to help communities and their leaders alleviate deep-rooted inequalities, scale up services, facilitate connectedness, and shape how people live and work. For example, we set out how to provide universal internet access worldwide, expand healthy life expectancy, build a minimum viable education system for all, preserve the open global internet, manage disasters in climate-vulnerable countries and introduce pioneering alternative-food systems to sustain the global population.The Science and Innovation Unit consolidated its relationship with Stanford University, building on a number of joint projects with the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL), including a joint body of work on Progress in Personal Health; members of the Digital Government Unit were invited to join the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s Digital ID expert stakeholder group, and to contribute to the Cabinet Office review of Digital Covid Certificates.
Building a Progressive Policy Agenda
We continued to develop cutting-edge policy insights on some of the biggest challenges facing the country and on generating progressive policy responses to help renew the centre ground. The influence of our reports on climate action, industrial strategy and the UK’s economic model is evidenced by significant cross-party endorsements. In addition, the policy work we published on the UK’s exit from the European Union provided assessments and analysis of all aspects of the situation as it developed. Our responses include a package of recommended proposals to address tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which would put the agreement on a more stable footing, and a consideration of the UK’s regulatory policy post-Brexit.
Insights on Global Challenges and Counterextremism
Our Extremism Policy Unit (EPU) provides expert analyses on instability and evolving terrorist threats around the world and works to equip leaders to develop effective, timely and proportionate policy responses. As well as contributing in-depth analysis on Iran and Boko Haram, we published a “9/11 – 20 Years On” series of companion papers and resources on learnings and insights from the Middle East, Africa and the wider Muslim world. Our work for the 9/11 anniversary brought together a team of experts and researchers to reassess counterextremism policies while putting forward proposals to support a more positive, peaceful and enterprising future for the Middle East.
Time to Zero In: The Climate Crisis and Energy Transition
As all eyes turned to COP26, contributors to our Time to Zero In campaign were assessing pledges and setting out how technology, innovation and behavioural change could be harnessed to close the gaps. Crucially, our approach recognises the unique needs of low- and middle-income countries alongside developed economies, while also pushing countries like the UK to be climate leaders and innovators. Globally, our work championed a just transition for climate-vulnerable countries in Africa. We highlighted the inequity of the fact that Africa has contributed least to climate change but faces the greatest consequences, and urged developed nations to make good on their climate-finance commitments. The team also published a paper exploring the industries that contribute the most to the climate crisis and pollution, plus the viable solutions and policies that African countries could adopt to help make such industries greener while continuing on the industrialisation path.
Promoting Effective Governance and Delivery Through Our Government Advisory Division
Our Government Advisory division continued to support leaders to implement and accelerate their transformation visions and priority agendas. We provide both leader-to-leader and shoulder-to-shoulder support through teams of advisors embedded within governments around the world. We tailor our approach to meet the needs of each government, with a focus on seven key areas: strengthening of the centre of government; technology and digitalisation; industrialisation and job creation; agriculture and food-systems transformation; energy, infrastructure and climate; private investment; and human-capital development.
Our Work in Africa
Power Africa
In 2021 we continued our work with Power Africa, a flagship US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative, to support governments and regional institutions in building a sustainable and efficient energy sector. In Senegal, for example, the Institute helped the government secure $420 million of pledged funding from development-finance institutions. In Nigeria, our energy advisor worked on the design and implementation of a mass solar-connection programme called Solar Power Naija that aims to provide electricity access to 25 million Nigerians while creating 250,000 jobs in the near term; this programme was launched officially by the Nigerian vice president in April.
The Sahel
The Sahel has been a priority for the Institute because it is the region with the fastest-growing population in the world, significant food insecurity and chronic poverty that is compounded by climate change – and because of its geopolitical importance in west Africa and northern Africa. The region has been burdened with increasing instability and conflict, which threaten to impede its developmental goals. In partnership with others, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, we supported the government of Burkina Faso to improve the country’s agriculture and agri-business outcomes, helping to increase the country’s fertiliser-blending capacity and helping the government with securing an investor to set up an in-country farm-equipment assembly plant expected to create 6,000 jobs. In addition, TBI’s assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene resulted in the implementation of a web and mobile application for tracking Covid-19 testing and results, delivering a Covid-19 vaccination card and ensuring payment for testing was recuperated by the government. TBI supported development of a national electricity-generation model as the government sought to increase access to electricity from 19 per cent to 50 per cent by 2025. (The work in Burkina Faso detailed in this section took place in 2021, prior to the coup d’état in January 2022.)
Regional and Continental Public-Health Agencies
2021 saw the Institute kick off an innovative programme to protect the long-term health security of the African continent: the Health Institutional Capacity Strengthening Programme. This programme was established to support the Africa CDC and the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the continent’s key public-health agencies. These organisations ensure that governments have the policies and structures in place to make effective public-health interventions and are together responsible for the health of more than 1 billion people in Africa. Our objective has been to address the significant structural weaknesses that have proven to be barriers in ensuring the delivery of this support to African member statesWe concluded the first phase of our partnership with the Nigeria Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support this national public-health agency on a process of organisational transformation. During this multi-year project, we provided embedded support on institutional strengthening and capacity building. As a result of this journey and in collaboration with other partners, the NCDC was able to significantly strengthen its systems and support its workforce into a higher-performing cadre prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant the agency was much better equipped to handle the crisis than it otherwise might have been.
Africa Delivery Exchange 2021
We delivered the third annual Africa Delivery Exchange (ADX) event in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) on 15 and 16 December 2021. ADX events aim to build the delivery capacity of African governments, and to serve as a platform for leaders to connect, learn and exchange experiences and ideas to enhance government effectiveness in service delivery. The third annual ADX explored the role of technology to accelerate public-service delivery, resource mobilisation approaches for Delivery Units, and deep dives into delivery for two sectors – agriculture in partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and energy in partnership with USAID-Power Africa.
Our Work in the Middle East
Our team engages with leaders and stakeholders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as across the region, to inform and guide thinking and decision-making, ensuring that the two-state solution remains viable. The team develops and promotes practical recommendations and initiatives for the peace process, and to improve the economic, political and humanitarian realities on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Our Israel team examined the political and security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories, reviewed the Arab media’s reporting trends on Israel, and looked at the practical steps that can be taken in the West Bank and Gaza in light of the political and security realities in the region. These reports have been shared with leaders in the Gulf, as well as US, European and Egyptian diplomats, and multilateral organisations working on the Middle East peace process. Similarly, we continue to provide the UK, European and Egyptian missions to Israel with regular briefings for our work on mapping, the Palestinian economic and fiscal situation, Palestinian politics in crisis, and mechanisms to activate and upgrade Israeli-Palestinian economic relations.
Our People
Our financial statements show an average total of 337 staff in 2021. Our staff members are based in locations throughout the world, including in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, the United States, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. They bring a wide range of expertise and experience, and we collectively benefit from a diverse workforce that comprises over 55 different nationalities.
Gender balance is incredibly important to us and we are proud that our commitment is reflected in our workforce. Throughout 2021, 50 per cent of our employees were women, including our Chief Executive Officer.
Tony Blair receives no remuneration for his work on behalf of TBI, to which he devotes the majority of his time.
Financial Review
In the year to 31 December 2021, the Institute consolidated its financial position. It built up reserves to protect the Institute from future shocks and equip itself for long-term success. This has been achieved alongside continued growth and an expanding project portfolio, which has seen the Institute expand its operations globally. The Institute continued to manage and support projects across the world, including helping leaders to tackle the ongoing impacts of Covid-19, and to work with governments on their wider strategic aims and policy delivery. We entered into an exciting partnership with the Larry Ellison Foundation, which has supported our Tech for Development programme (renamed the Tomorrow Partnership in 2022). Our partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation continued to support work predominantly in health, and this track record enabled us to pivot to Covid support so swiftly. The group turnover has grown by $35.7 million, largely reflecting the increased demand for our Government Advisory work and the advisory teams’ growth to meet that demand for strategy, policy and delivery – with technology as an enabler. Overall staff numbers have grown, increasing to an average of 337 in 2021. The increase in staffing has been the largest driver of increased costs in the year. Our total staff is forecast to be around 700 by the end of 2022. As of 31 December 2021, the Group’s reserves stood at $22.8 million and the Group is fortunate to report healthy cash balances of $49.1 million. TBI is confident in its ability to deliver on the commitments into which it has entered, and to secure sufficient funding in the future to take on new commitments as its programme evolves to meet the ever-changing needs of political leaders and governments.
Previous years' financial statements