News

Since SWIDN were first established around a Westcountry kitchen table in 2005, we have known that there are hundreds of organisations working across the UK’s South West to tackle poverty and inequality in countries around the world. Over the years, we have worked to engage many of these organisations as members, to better support their work through professional training, peer learning and mentorship, and to bring people and ideas together to increase the impact we are having on tackling global challenges. We’ve expanded our membership beyond registered charities and now work with universities, researchers, registered companies, civil service departments and individuals who all share a common goal: tackling global challenges outside the UK from across the South West.

In early 2024, SWIDN decided there was a gap in data relating to the South West, and that this data generally existed in relation to registered charities, but had yet to be analysed for the South West specifically. Over the early winter months, a few members of our team worked together to build a database of registered charities in the Westcountry working internationally. Based on publicly available data from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, we are now able to present key findings on geographical location and focus, impact, funding and areas for change, to provide an overview of international development charities in the South West.

We are delighted to be sharing our findings with you all now. We hope our short report will support our members and wider organisations across the South West to collaborate and partner for greater impact. We hope our findings will support the UK Government and other donors, not just to improve the design and delivery of future funding, but also for better policy and practice that maximises the vast resource of global solidarity in the UK.

Mostly, we hope this report is a reminder that there are lots of us, working hard together, in community, to achieve a better world for all. We’d love to hear your feedback if you have any. You can tell us what you think of our work, as well as more about your own, here.