The Rt. Rev. Harry Brown Bainbridge III, Chair (Idaho), The Rev. Dr. William Robert Abstein II (Tennessee), Kurt Barnes (New York), Carol Anne Brown (California), Jacob F. Bryan IV (Florida), The Rev. Gwen L. Buehrens (Massachusetts), The Rev. Sandra Castillo (Chicago), Kurt DelBene (Olympia), Steven W. Duff (New York), The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, Honorary Chair, Dr. Lawrence Howard (Pittsburgh), Robert W. Jenkins (Virginia), The Rev. Karen Brown Montagno (Massachusetts), Patricia Mordecai (New York), C. Jill Oettinger (West Texas), The Rev. Canon David W. Perry (Oregon), The Rt. Rev. William D. Persell (Chicago), Dr. Robert W. Radtke, ERD President (New York), William S. Reese (Washington), William Steve Sandahl (Louisiana)

Dr. Robert W. Radtke, President; Abagail Nelson, Vice President for Program; Esther Cohen, Vice President for Finance and Administration; Ayana Davis, Manager for Communications and Media Relations; Dawn Duncan, Program Associate; J. Coe Economou, Program Associate, Latin America Programs; Xerxes Eclipse, Database Manager; Teresa Franco, Donor Associate; Ken Gilkes, Staff Accountant; Joyce Hogg, Director of Networks; Susan Holmes, Director, South East Operations; Kedron Jarvis, Director of Church Relations; Patrick Jean, Administrative Assistant; Malaika Kamunanwire, Senior Director for Marketing and Communications; Kirsten Laursen, Senior Program Director for Asia and New Initiatives; Theresa Marin, Database Assistant; Janette O'Neill, Director, Africa Programs; Julie Petrie, Program Associate, Asia Programs; Brian Sellers-Petersen, Director, West Coast Operations; Mark Spina, Director

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church. An independent 501(c)(3) organization, ERD saves lives and builds hope in communities around the world. ERD provides emergency assistance in times of crisis and rebuilds after disasters. ERD enables people to climb out of poverty by offering long-term solutions in the areas of food security and health care, including HIV/AIDS and malaria.

After a nearly three-year study and planning period from 2000 to 2003, the Board of Directors and leadership decided to shift from administering small grants for local program support, both domestic and international, to implementing long-term development programs and partnerships. ERD’s board and leadership developed a strategic plan focusing ERD’s work on integrated community development programs that combat poverty and disease. It was important for leadership to evaluate ERD’s work and the impact on beneficiaries and communities and to identify specific themes and priorities that would give the organization a clear framework for accomplishing its mission and mandate. The new focus also gave ERD a stronger ability to monitor the impact of its programs and achieve more significant long-term results for the communities in which ERD works. In 2002, ERD was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization and received 501(c)(3) status with approval from Executive Council.

The board determined that ERD could be most effective and use its resources to achieve qualitative and quantitative results by developing programs which address the root causes of suffering—disease, poverty, and chronic hunger. As a result, ERD’s board and leadership selected two major intervention areas: food security and primary health care. ERD’s food security programs ensure food is affordable, accessible, and available in rural, peri-urban, or urban settings in addition to providing support such as training, micro-credit loans, and livestock. In the area of health care, ERD’s programs provide treatment and access to quality health care services and fight preventable diseases by helping communities address chronic health issues while teaching them how to control and prevent disease through proper nutrition, safe water, and sanitation.

In recognition of the important work of the Episcopal Church’s programs whose mandate is to serve compassionately local needs throughout this country, ERD’s board and staff decided to concentrate on sustainable development programs overseas. ERD continues responding to disasters in the U.S. and overseas by providing emergency funds to local Episcopal and Anglican bodies in the affected areas.

Working with partnerships throughout the Anglican Communion and ecumenical agencies, ERD has put a development strategy into action. In addition to emergency relief and long-term development, ERD’s programs are grounded in capacity building, gender empowerment, and environmental sustainability. ERD also began a monitoring and evaluation program to help measure the effectiveness of each program throughout its duration and measure them against regional standards to evaluate the program’s success.

ERD’s board and staff are also committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a plan to cut global poverty in half by 2015, as part of the agency’s programmatic goals and objectives. ERD uses the eight MDGs to measure each program’s success. General Convention Resolution 2003-D006 called on dioceses and congregations to promote education about the MDGs and charged ERD with creating MDG educational materials. ERD worked with the Episcopal Public Policy Network and Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation to produce and distribute MDG educational materials.

ERD implemented emergency relief and rehabilitation, food security and primary health care programs for vulnerable people around the world. In the past three years, ERD has empowered people and communities in the following ways:

Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation

The board created policies related to ERD’s Overseas Emergency and Rehabilitation Program and Domestic Emergencies in 2003 and 2004. Both policies were revised in 2005 to define how ERD focuses its work on meeting basic human needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and clean water, immediately following natural or human-made disasters.

From 2003 to 2005, ERD provided emergency relief to over 40 countries throughout the world, responding to numerous crises, both domestically and internationally, and has built long-term rehabilitation programs in response to natural disasters such as the hurricanes in the United States and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

After the Indian Ocean tsunami, ERD developed a comprehensive, multi-year recovery program in northern and southern India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. ERD’s programs are restoring livelihoods, providing trauma counseling and psychosocial care, improving health, and protecting children and orphans.

The board approved two, long-term rehabilitation programs in the United States following a series of destructive hurricanes which hit Alabama and Florida in 2004 and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005. Following Hurricane Katrina, ERD partnered with the Dioceses of Louisiana and Mississippi on a four-phase, three-to-five year recovery program. The program is focused on the following areas: psychosocial care; livelihood, health, and housing recovery; case management, and other interventions.

Long-term Development Programs: food security and health care

ERD established long-term food security and primary health care programs in 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

ERD’s food security programs were directed towards empowering partners to conduct community-based activities. Partnerships with Episcopal and Anglican churches in countries such as the Philippines, Tanzania, South Africa, Honduras, and Afghanistan supported programs, such as income generation, animal husbandry, small business investment, and agricultural training for people living in poverty.

ERD’s food security programs continue to identify strategies to improve agriculture and diversify a family’s income sources to make them less vulnerable to periodic drought and other natural disasters. Micro-enterprise became part of ERD’s work in urban and peri-urban settings. In 2005, ERD began a series of programs throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America to encourage small business production, particularly on the part of women.

In the area of primary health, ERD’s programs strengthened the long-term health of communities by incorporating three principles: equitable distribution of resources, community involvement, and prevention. Through partnerships with Anglican and grassroots organizations, ERD’s health care programs trained local health promoters, increased access to medication, built water tanks, and water distribution systems, dug wells, improved infrastructure including latrines, smokeless stoves, and other health services in communities in countries including Brazil, Kenya, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

With board approval, ERD leadership expanded ERD’s malaria program which provided education and training, insecticide-treated bed-nets, and drug therapy to communities affected by malaria in places such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, and Zambia. In communities most impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa such as South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland, ERD provided home-based care, prevention education, and support for children orphaned by the disease and their extended families. ERD also began HIV/AIDS programs in Latin America, including Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil.

In the three years ahead, ERD will expand and build on its long-term partnerships. In order to become established and recognized in the Episcopal Church and globally as a leader among faith-based agencies, ERD will:

Move to the next level of professionalism and efficiency as an international development agency.
Develop a domestic disaster program which coordinates a plan for dioceses to respond after emergencies.
Continue to address the Millennium Development Goals and use the MDGs as a benchmark in developing, monitoring, and evaluating programs, with a special focus on issues such as malaria.
Build a church relations strategy that utilizes ERD as a resource for outreach to people suffering around the world.
Maintain and continue to cultivate partnerships with donors and other key Episcopal constituencies.