“Shared Values, Excellence, Passion”

Some of the factors that we seek to better understand and assess in allocating resources for Darach programmes include:

• Needs-based factors: Projected humanitarian needs based on vulnerability assessments, risk projections, and needs assessments are key determinants for allocating aid across regions or populations. These include the severity of natural disasters and the consequences of conflict which often degrade infrastructure and displace populations. We are comfortable operating in underserviced and “forgotten” locations when we assess we can make a difference.

• Operational factors: Darach has trusted working relationships with in-country partners and advisors. These relationships have spanned decades of working together in some of the most challenging and complex environments in the world.  We seek their guidance in conducting the cost, benefit, and risk (CBR) analysis, which is overlayed with the needs-based analysis. This CBR analysis includes access constraints and security risks that help identify priorities for resource allocation across sectors and limit operations in certain regions.

The main drivers influencing the choice of humanitarian and development programmes over the coming decades are mostly well understood:

• Poverty levels and income inequality across the world continue to drive the need for programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, access to basic services, and economic empowerment for the world’s most marginalised communities.

• Conflicts, political instability, and human rights violations will continue to drive the need for humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and governance programmes, frequently before more structured redevelopment programmes are mapped out.

• Rapid urbanisation, population growth and migration, especially in lower- and middle-income countries, will further necessitate programmes focused on urban development, housing, infrastructure, and education.

• Climate change impacts including sea-level rises, volatile weather patterns and resource scarcity are already posing ongoing challenges to vulnerable agricultural economies and exacerbating existing social tensions.

• Demographic changes like aging populations and youth bulges shape our focus on programmes related to healthcare, education, and employment and gender inequality. Marginalisation of certain groups may require programmes empowering minority groups to play a more productive role.

Darach develops every programme with a focus on the same core principles:

• Senior Management: In business and on the humanitarian side we only have seasoned senior people who’ve been through the mill - people who have seen it all, always work hard and make the right decisions for the long term, even when they’re not the easy ones. Building every team is a long painstaking process but it is only with those who share our values, passion and commitment to excellence that long term success is assured.

• Long Term: We look for long term relationships with like-minded partners and long-term funding models for the humanitarian projects - both deliver great sustainable value. Long term outcomes matter and the compounding effect is powerful, so we plan for them even if we won’t be there to see them.

• Technology: Advancements in technology can enable more effective and innovative programme delivery mechanisms, monitoring, and evaluation.  Darach works closely with Breen Capital to identify emerging technologies coming out of leading research institutions which have great impact potential and which can be distributed sustainably through public and private channels in low- and middle-income countries simultaneously with distribution in developed markets.