Concern Universal changes name to UP
International non-governmental organisation Concern Universal (CU) has announced that it has changed its name to United Purpose (UP).
Announcing the development on Tuesday, UP country director Heather Marie Campbell said the rebranding is not going to negatively affect staff and programmes the organisation has been implementing in the country.
She said some programmes will be scaled up to reach a wider needy population.
Meanwhile, the official ceremony to unveil the organisation’s new name is scheduled to take place today in Lilongwe.
Said Campbell: “Our new organisational name represents a new conceptual imagery consistent with our development approach to create strong, resilient and hopeful communities and putting an end to dependency on foreign aid for good. This change is more than just a change in name and brand. This is a change in our impact model, approach to partnerships, our financial resilience and our global public profile.
“We want to increase the scale and impact of our work to reach to more people, about two million, directly by the year 2020 up from 1.2 million currently. But we also want to better leverage others, be it the government, private sector, or our civil society partners, in order to bring about wider, deeper and longer lasting systematic change.”
She also said UP will be working in four thematic areas—livelihoods and food security, gender equality, sustainable energy as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) and healthier lives.
“We believe that these marry our strengths and experiences and that of our partners to address key drivers of Malawian poverty. It is also where we feel that we can make the greatest contribution to significant and sustainable change in the country.”
The organisation has been in the country for about 30 years where it has impacted on lives of 1.5 million individuals with its projects.
