Mission Impact Report 2024
Letter from Our CEO
As we approach Abt’s 60th anniversary, we celebrate many achievements that demonstrate our perseverance to bring the best solutions to complex challenges. Through massive geopolitical and social shifts, we remain committed to our mission and our values, always focused on improving the lives of those most in need.
This year, we officially became Abt Global. While our name has changed, our commitment to addressing the world’s most pressing problems with equity and agility remains the same. Changing our name underscores the scope of our mission to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of people worldwide. It honors both the impact of our founder Clark Abt’s dream and the relationships we’ve built and nurtured around the globe.
And, more recently, we joined forces with TSPi, an award-winning digital solutions firm that is now a Division of Abt Global. This deepens our ability to deliver transformative data-driven insights and end-to-end capabilities our clients are asking for to accelerate their impact. With TSPi’s forward-leaning expertise, we will advance citizen-centric, real-time solutions that put data into the hands of people and policymakers around the world for equitable change.
Our Mission Impact Reports allow us to share insights into how we make this happen every day. We adapt to change and help communities and those most affected by crises recover. In Ukraine, for example, female entrepreneurs are paving the way for a sustainable recovery. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, our government and community partners are adopting innovative pathways to invest in health.
As an organization, we learn from what has worked—and what hasn’t—to challenge the status quo and adapt. From supporting a just energy transition in Mongolia, to strengthening the evidence base for community child welfare in the U.S., to ensuring clean water is available to communities in Bangladesh, to collecting data in the U.S. that will inform epidemic responses for years to come. Our global teams focus on tailored solutions that strengthen livelihoods and resilience.
We continue to transform how we connect Abt’s expertise—in health, housing, economic growth, environment, governance, and more—to the digital, data, research, equity, and program design and implementation solutions needed for today’s connected challenges. Welcoming Chief Solutions Officer Debra Cammer Hines to the helm of Solutions at Abt, and Chief Growth Officer, Baris Yener, our teams are primed to innovate together to deliver the next generation tools, systems, and support our clients and partners need globally.
We remain steadfast stewards of the environment and run Abt with a laser focus on implementing responsible business practices and transparent and equity-focused climate actions every day. As recipients of the 2024 Climate Leadership Award for Organizational Leadership, we hasten our efforts to address the climate crisis in our work and operations.
I am proud of our progress, and I know there is work yet to be done. As a global community, we recently surpassed the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and targets. The United Nations shows a bleak picture of uncertain progress across many SDGs and called upon all of us to act with urgency. We are ready.
At Abt, we believe in the possibilities of a just tomorrow. Creating impact for people, communities, systems, and the planet is our driving force.
Our Mission Impact Measurement Approach
We are a mission-driven organization focused on improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people worldwide. Key to advancing this mission is the ability to systematically measure the broad impacts we generate across our diverse portfolio.
We define Abt Mission Impact as changes for people, organizations, systems, and the planet that promote equitable progress towards our Mission.
Our definition includes several dimensions that prioritize impacts that are purposive, meaningful, equitable, and sustainable. These dimensions leverage and expand upon impact management norms and best practices generated through extensive global stakeholder consultations, such as those led by Impact Management Project’s Community of Practice. These dimensions drive us to answer the most important questions.
We recognize that impact is complex. The pathways leading to Mission Impact are interconnected, dynamic, and embedded within local and global contexts. At Abt Global, we adopt a systems perspective to capture these dynamics and to better understand when, how, and under what circumstances we generate mission impact. We also acknowledge that the degree to which impact is meaningful can vary and we aim to create impact that is important for those who experience it. This involves a commitment to cultural humility in how we engage in our communities and conduct our work.
We advance our mission and create impact through:
- Our Work—the services and solutions we offer our clients
- Our People and Operations—how we operate our company
- Our Communities—the way we engage with communities in which we operate.
Across each pathway, we operationalize our mission through five mission impact goals to measurably distill our impact around the world:
- Good Health
- Economic Security
- Effective Governance
- Equity and Inclusion
- Thriving Environment
In addition to reporting on our own mission impact goals, we adhere to international frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and are deeply committed to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our 2024 Mission Impact Report spans multiple time frames depending on the topic in focus. This includes the 2023 calendar year, Abt’s 2024 fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024), and our clients’ respective fiscal year designations. For certain project highlights in Our Work, we include cumulative results that are inclusive of several years of data, when appropriate. All relevant timeframes are noted throughout the report.
MISSION IMPACT REPORT 2024: Explore
OUR WORK: Overview | Good Health | Economic Security | Effective Governance | Equity & Inclusion | Thriving Environment
OUR PEOPLE AND OPERATIONS: Overview | Employee Wellness | Financial Health | Ethics & Governance | Equity as Our Cornerstone | Environmental Responsibility
OUR COMMUNITIES: Overview