Tostan Inc.

“The form 990 was prepared by the outside accountants. A draft of the return was reviewed by senior management and audit committee. The final form 990 was provided to the board of directors before filing with the irs.”

“All employees and board members are asked to annually submit any conflicts of interest in writing. New hires will be asked if there is a conflict and notice will be given to the senior management immediately and board yearly. If a conflict arises, the board of directors determine whether the conflict exists and, if so, the board votes to authorize or reject the transaction or take any other action deemed necessary to address the conflict and protect tostan's best interests. Board members have a duty to disclose any possible conflict of interest. The board of directors determines whether a conflict of interest exists and, if so the board votes to authorize or reject the transaction or take any other action deemed necessary to address the conflict and protect tostan's best interests. Votes will be by a majority vote, without counting the vote of any interested director, even if the disinterested directors are less than a quorum provided that at least one consenting director is disinterested. An interested board member, officer, or staff member will not participate in any discussion or debate of the board of directors, or of any committee or subcommittee in which the subject of discussion is a contract, transaction, or situation in which there may be a perceived or actual conflict of interest. However, they may be present to provide clarifying information in such a discussion or debate unless objected to by any present board or committee member. Anyone in a position to make decisions about spending tostan's resources (i.e., transactions such as purchases contracts) - who also stands to benefit from that decision - has a duty to disclose that conflict as soon as it arises (or becomes apparent); s/he will not participate in any final decisions.”

“The board committee reviews comparable salaries before making any recommendations for senior staff salaries. The process is documented. A review was last conducted in june 2013. The board committee also reviews comparable salaries before making any recommendations for the key employees salaries. The process is documented. Tostan's compensation policy is to pay at the 25th percentile of the market for senior management and towards the 75th percentile for around 900 african staff members in the field.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“In 2016, tostan operated in 6 countries and had the following reach across all major programs: guinea: tostan worked with 60 communities, with a total of 2,024 participants. Guinea-bissau: tostan worked with 60 communities, with a total of 3,759 participants. Mali: tostan worked with 40 communities, with a total of 2,501 participants. Mauritania: tostan worked with 30 communities, with a total of 1,941 participants. Senegal: tostan worked with 397 communities, with a total of 5,729 participants. The gambia: tostan worked with 40 communities, with a total of 3,505 participants. Total number of tostan program participants in 2016 in the 6 countries: 19,459 total number of african communities in tostan's major programs in 2016: 627 community empowerment program (cep): our unique three-year program empowers community members in six west african countries with the skills and knowledge they need to lead their own development. The cep is a non-formal education program, based on human rights, and is implemented in more than a dozen local languages. It combines modern education techniques with traditional african oral teaching methods and is underpinned by a respectful approach to local beliefs and culture. Impact areas: our work uses a holistic approach for community-led development, and our impacts are found across five key areas: governance, education, health, environment, and economic growth. Each impact area is elaborated upon below: governance: cep participants learn about democracy, human rights and responsibilities, leadership, decision-making and problem-solving. Each community democratically selects 17 members to form a community management committee (cmc) and receives training in the skills necessary to implement projects in their communities. These committees constitute a strong leadership presence in tostan communities, contributing to the growth of good governance and democracy. They work to increase democratic participation by encouraging residents to register their children at birth, to vote and run for office as well as participate in national elections. The participation and leadership of women in cmcs is highly encouraged, and in 2016, 100% of cmcs in guinea, guinea-bissau, mali, mauritania and senegal had a majority of female members. These women emerge as community leaders, activists, and role models, showing young girls and boys alike that women can succeed in leadership roles and work alongside men as equals. Education: cmcs organized during the cep lead initiatives that ensure girls and boys are enrolled in school. When a family is considering removing their child from school, cmc members meet with them to discuss other possible solutions. Child/forced marriage is one practice that is a key factor in determining whether a girl will stay in school. Following their participation in our holistic program, hundreds of communities across the countries in which we work pledged to abandon child/forced marriage in 2016, bringing the total number to over 8,000 as a result, thousands of girls are likely to have the opportunity to stay in school for longer, rather than be married at a young age. In the final module of the cep, the aawde, participants learn to read and write in their local languages, as well as basic math skills. Learning how to send and receive sms text messages through the mobile phones for literacy and development (mpld) module, described below, encourages participants to practice and share their newly acquired literacy skills. 2016 also saw the december launch of a new partnership with unicef that will in 2017-2018 continue the growth of our reinforcement of parental practices (rpp) module, originally funded by the william and flora hewlett foundation. This module builds on knowledge gained during the cep to enable parents and communities to create an environment which supports children's early development and learning in order to better prepare them for success in school and life. Health: during the cep”

“Rather than blaming or criticizing, we encourage dialogue around these and other practices that communities feel hinder their vision for their community's development. Participants and community management committee (cmc) members speak with friends and family as well as travel to other communities to raise awareness about what they have learned. Through this process, many communities decide to end fgc together, some without having directly participated in our classes. Child protection: through our cep module on child protection, cmcs are trained to address the deep social norms and practices that negatively affect children. The child protection module training is for cmc members in communities that have implemented the cep. The module helps build consensus around human rights and children's rights while building awareness of the various moral, social, and legal norms that affect children. Instead of focusing on immediate relief, the module helps communities address the deep social norms and practices that are at the source of these issues affecting children. It emphasizes the importance of education and introduces ideas for how communities can work together to protect their children. The child protection module strengthens the capacity of communities to provide protection for children and prevent violations of children's rights by reinforcing the capacities of communities and their surrounding villages to identify at-risk children, reinforcing the capacities of communities to prevent the trafficking or migration of children to urban centers, reinforcing the capacities of communities to help children in difficult situations such as sexual abuse, incest, forced marriage and fgc, and fostering the creation of dynamic and functional commissions for child protection in all communities. All communities who participate in the cep, specifically the cmcs, are trained in the child protection module. After the training, cmcs establish commissions for child protection (ccps), which lead the community in advocating for children's rights and transforming existing social norms that sustain harmful practices. Thousands of children have been registered at birth by cmcs, improving their access to school and legal recognition. In addition to leading these community-wide projects, cmcs also intervene directly in cases of child abuse. Tostan is also in partnership with the ingo la rencontre africaine pour la defense des droits de l'homme (raddho) for the child protection project, reinforcing higher-level advocacy for koranic school reform with grassroots social mobilization work. Through the project 73 koranic schools with 3,060 children total have ended child begging in 2016. 274 koranic schools with an additional 4,012 children have substantially reduced begging. 87 communities have been visited by marabouts from project areas encouraging their counterparts to end child begging, and tostan staff has intervened in 21 cases of child beggar abuse. Early childhood development: in order to address this issue, we developed the reinforcement of parental practices (rpp) module. The rpp module conducted a successful pilot program in 2012 ahead of its launch in march 2013 and in 2014 was introduced in 110 communities in senegal. The module aims to reinforce knowledge gained in the cep that encourages parents and other community members to create an environment for children's development. As a result, the module will help improve children's early development and learning, allowing them to perform better and stay in school. Research has shown that certain social norms and traditional practices in senegal can hinder the brain development of infants. For example, the belief that infants must be protected from dangerous spirits: to protect them certain parents avoid looking newborn babies in the eye and speaking regularly and directly to them. However, recent discoveries about brain development in young children have shown importance of stimulating interaction”

“Community grants: community development grants are small grants, usually between $300 and $1,000, provided to cmcs to help fund community development projects as well as to establish cmc-run microcredit funds. The rotating microcredit funds set up by the cmcs help villagers, particularly women, obtain the investment they need to start small businesses, invest in agriculture, or take on other income-generating activities. The cmcs operate the microcredit fund based on a group-lending, revolving-funds system. The cmc works together to set the interest rate and the length of the loans they will grant. Strong community ties help encourage a high repayment rate. The interest from these funds is then used to expand the number of loans available, undertake community projects, or establish a solidarity fund for children's educational expenses and emergency medical needs. Community development grants give cmcs and individual community members the opportunity to put the literacy, numeracy, and project management knowledge they gained during the cep into practice. The grants provide a way for community members to participate in income-generating activities, allowing them to provide for their families and sustainably invest in their communities. Empowered communities network (ecn): the ecn has been set up to support communities to partner with other organizations on development initiatives. Through the ecn, we connect trained cmcs with nonprofit partners, microfinance institutions, businesses, government authorities, and other service providers so they can access resources and funding to continue their community-led development projects. The ecn also assists cmcs to form federations and work together on development projects, ensuring the sustainability of the cep. In 2016 tostan had ecn partnerships with 80 communities. Mobile phone for literacy and development (mpld) module: the module focuses on using mobile phone technology, specifically sms text messaging, as a tool to reinforce literacy and numeracy skills, and is now an integrated part of the cep. Mobile phones and their networks are becoming increasingly more prevalent in the communities with which we partner. We found that using mobile phone technology is a relevant and innovative way to reinforce literacy and numeracy skills learned in the cep. Tostan facilitators teach participants the practical uses of standard mobile phone functions and how sms texting can be used as a tool to practice their literacy skills. The mobile phones are used to reinforce literacy, organization, and management skills, as well as to build consensus around local development initiatives. Sms texting becomes a sustainable and relevant option for reinforcing literacy and numeracy as access to mobile phone technology increases. Mobile phones and sms text messaging can be used as a tool to accelerate positive social transformation. They connect women with each other and with their communities; amplify the voice and influence of youth and marginalized groups in a community's decision-making process; organizing advocacy work; and accelerate large-scale social movements. The peace and security project: the peace and security project works to strengthen and support the grassroots strategy of community-led development found in the cep to improve peace and security in the west african region. It focuses on building ways to overcome barriers that limit an individual's ability to develop through collaboration at the local, regional, and national level. The peace and security project first strengthens peace-building at the community level by reinforcing the prevention of violence skills learned in the cep. These skills include improved communication and problem-solving skills as well as the peaceful resolution of community and familial conflicts. The project also works to develop strategies for fostering peace and security across social networks through research and collaboration. The peace and security project resea”

“The prison project (pp) currently works in six senegalese prisons. In 2016: - 635 detainees participated in 481 cep sessions on democracy, human rights and responsibilities, problem solving, health and hygiene, and practical skills in literacy, numeracy, project management and income generating activities. - 278 detainees trained on issues related to violence and 473 female detainees on reproductive health issues - tostan supervisors held an additional 89 awareness-raising sessions to reinforce class content and deal with specific issues relevant to each prison, such as infectious disease transmission - 360 initiatives to improve living conditions were led by detainees including cell cleaning days; sports competitions; cooking; and classes teaching wolof, french and english and the interpretation of religious texts. - tostan staff facilitated a total of 535 in-person mediations and 6093 telephone mediations. - project staff made 24 visits to children of detainees who have been placed in alternative care to monitor their wellbeing. 466 detainees were supported during parole hearings. - 568 detainees were trained in income-generating activities such as poultry farming, fabric dyeing, shoe and bag making, market gardening, and fruit and cereal processing. The tostan training center (ttc): the ttc welcomes international development practitioners from all over the world to senegal to learn about tostan's model. With roles as diverse as ngo leaders, human rights activists and academics, they come together to learn and exchange on tostan's program content, human rights approach, participatory methodology and organized diffusion strategy. Participants explore the theories and practices of holistic community-led development, visit villages that have ended fgc and child marriage after participating in the community empowerment program, and discuss educational strategies for changing deeply entrenched social norms with staff working in the field. They also participate in human rights sessions drawn from the tostan program and cover important lessons learned from over 26 years of implementation. In 2016, 83 people from 28 countries attended tostan trainings, including 20 young religious leaders. Recognition: tostan continued to receive high-level recognition for its work in 2016. The organization and its leadership and programs were featured in many news articles in leading news and academic publications and participated in a wide range of conferences at local and global level. 2016 and beyond: future perspectives. Launched in 2010, tostan's strategic plan 2010-2015 guided the organization's work for six years. Building upon the mid-term assessment completed in december 2012 (available in our 2012 annual report), tostan in 2015 assessed its progress. During this review, we confirmed that we had successfully launched a new collaborative funding model in our generational change in three years campaign, we saw major improvements in our logistics capacities, we redesigned our branding and launched a brand new website. Crucially, we also developed exciting new programs and integrated others into the full community empowerment program. The review revealed that while most of our internal operational goals were met, some opportunities remained, still others had fallen out of date. Finally, the organization saw an opportunity to better design its next strategic planning process, to adapt and adjust in real time as realities change. These critical areas for improvement will be major factors in shaping our next strategic period. In 2016 tostan validated this new approach in the form of its strategic engagement plan 2016-2022. Launched officially in september 2016, it has a central strategic focus of demonstrating the full potential of empowering education and community led development. It articulates three programming platforms, the cep, the post-cep, and training, as well as a set of internal strategic goals and objectives and a process for definin”

“The organization also has additional staff of 805 located in africa.”

“Refund of restricted funds to donors -160,531. Exchange rate loss -363,840.”