With a global network of 44,000 employees representing over 90 nationalities, Standard Chartered wanted to develop a coherent, unifying community involvement programme.  They appointed Forster to deliver strategy and implementation.

An internal audit identified a very strong existing employee education programme on HIV in Africa.  The first phase of our strategy focused on rolling out this programme to employees worldwide under the title of Living with HIV.

In phase two, we shaped and delivered a three-year partnership programme, Seeing is Believing, with Sight Savers International to motivate and involve all employees in corporate giving.  The programme is closely to the wider policy context of Vision 2020, a World Health Organisation initiative which aims to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020.

Project outcomes

• Standard Chartered is now a leading member of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

• In year one, targets for Seeing is Believing were exceeded by 100%, and 1 million people in developing countries were able to avoid blindness or have their sight restored.  The programme has been further expanded, with a new goal to help restore sight or avoid preventable blindness for 10 million people across 20 countries.