World Bicycle Relief Announces Strategic Initiative to Distribute 300,000 Bicycles, Boosting Healthcare, Education and Economic Opportunities Worldwide

2023 Impact Report Demonstrates the Power of Bicycles to Improve Lives and Communities

CHICAGO, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- World Bicycle Relief today released its 2023 Impact Report, demonstrating significant achievements in empowering marginalized rural populations to access education, healthcare, and economic opportunities through life-changing bicycles. The organization also revealed its global strategy for 2024-2026, which targets the distribution of 300,000 additional bicycles to improve the lives of 1,500,000 people. 

This evolved strategy builds on lessons learned from 19 years of experience and over 790,000 bicycles distributed in 23 countries. The focus revolves around cultivating a holistic bicycle ecosystem that uplifts the communities served with priority to women and girls, youth, and marginalized communities. This includes bicycle design, managing the supply chain and assembly, co-creating and measuring community-driven programs, and establishing retail outlets. Trained mechanics and access to spare parts help ensure that the benefits of bicycle mobility are long-lasting and far-reaching, driving sustainable change in communities around the globe.

2023 Impact Report Highlights: Transforming Lives Through Mobility
World Bicycle Relief's 2023 Impact Report demonstrates compelling evidence of how its sustainable bicycle ecosystem model, centered around its purpose-built Buffalo Bicycles, has catalyzed positive change for rural populations in developing countries.  Key achievements include*:

• Dramatic Improvements in Educational Attendance: In Kenya, students with Buffalo Bicycles saw a staggering 81% decrease in tardiness, while in Zambia, school absences dropped by nearly 90%. This notable enhancement in school attendance is vital to achieving gender equality and empowering young learners.
  
  
• Significant Reduction in Travel Time to School: The introduction of Buffalo Bicycles has cut down travel time to and from school by up to 44%, reducing the impact of time poverty by enabling students to focus more on their studies and less on the journey.
  
  
• Empowering Healthcare Workers:  In Kenya and Zambia, over 85% of health workers who received Buffalo Bicycles reported an increase in the number of clients they can see. This improvement has been further supported by a reduction in travel time by as much as 50%, making healthcare services more accessible and efficient.
  
  
• Enhancing Livelihoods and Reducing Expenses:  In Malawi and Zimbabwe, over 95% of Buffalo Bicycle recipients reported a boost in household income levels, attributed to accessing more lucrative markets, services, and customers. Moreover, participants in Zimbabwe and Kenya experienced a significant 50% reduction in transportation costs, underscoring the economic impact of bicycle mobility.

A New Strategic Vision for 2024-2026: Amplifying Impact Through a Social Enterprise Model
Building on these successes, World Bicycle Relief is advancing its mission with a refreshed strategy emphasizing three pathways to scaling its impact: growth, partnership, and influence. 

• The growth pathway focuses on enhancing the Buffalo Bicycle ecosystem and World Bicycle Relief's Mobilized Communities model to increase bicycle distribution in three sectors: education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. This includes expanding product development, program monitoring, and evaluation resources, improving local assembly processes, and expanding its reliable supply chain of durable spare parts. Additionally, World Bicycle Relief plans to extend its network of retail shops and increase the number of trained community mechanics, making durable, high-quality bicycles and spare parts more accessible to those in remote areas.
  
  
• The partnership pathway aims to forge broader and deeper collaborations with governments, the private sector, NGOs, multilateral donors, and funding institutions. These partnerships include our ongoing work with UNICEF, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, USAID, and the national and local governments of Colombia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. By integrating sustainable bicycle mobility solutions, broader development goals in health, education, and economic prosperity are accelerated and amplified, ultimately driving systemic change and breaking cycles of poverty.
  
  
• The influence pathway will elevate the conversation around transportation in rural development. By advocating for the inclusion of mobility in development agendas and demonstrating the tangible benefits of bicycle access through evidence-based outcomes, World Bicycle Relief intends to inspire action and investment in sustainable transportation solutions worldwide.

A Unique Social Enterprise Model
This new strategic approach is rooted in a holistic bicycle ecosystem, enabling access to high-quality bicycles and ensuring after-sales service and access to spare parts through a network of shops and trained mechanics. With the refreshed strategy, World Bicycle Relief aims to illustrate how its philanthropic efforts and social enterprise sales complement and strengthen each other to create a sustainable bicycle ecosystem that uniquely positions the organization to address the challenge of rural mobility on a global scale.

This symbiotic relationship allows for a scalable and sustainable approach to overcoming transportation barriers in rural areas. This approach solves the challenge of lack of transport or mobility within sustainable development programs and opens new partnership opportunities, particularly with governments and donors seeking partners engaged in private sector activities.

CEO Dave Neiswander reflects on the journey ahead:

"With the release of our 2023 Impact Report, we're reminded of the transformative power of bicycles. As we embark on our new strategic path for 2024-2026, our vision to help people conquer the challenge of distance, achieve independence, and thrive becomes even clearer. This model allows us to scale our impact and positions us as a key player in sustainable global development," states Dave Neiswander, CEO of World Bicycle Relief. "World Bicycle Relief is uniquely positioned to provide critical last-mile mobility solutions to help disrupt chronic, generational poverty in rural areas in a scalable and sustainable manner."

"Through our partnership with World Bicycle Relief, we've witnessed first-hand the transformative power that mobility can have on rural communities," said Pascale de la Fregonniere, Strategic Advisor at Cartier Philanthropy. "The new strategy lays out an ambitious plan to elevate the lives of millions, building on bicycle mobility solutions as a key component of sustainable development programs."

To read the full 2023 Impact Report, please visit: https://worldbicyclerelief.org/your-2023-impact-report/

*Research References
World Bicycle Relief. (2023). Kenya Mobilized Communities Outcome Report. Chicago, IL, USA: World Bicycle Relief.
World Bicycle Relief. (2023). Zambia Mobilized Communities Outcome Report. Chicago, IL, USA: World Bicycle Relief.
World Bicycle Relief. (2023). Malawi Mobilized Communities Outcome Report. Chicago, IL, USA: World Bicycle Relief.
World Bicycle Relief. (2023). Zimbabwe Mobilized Communities Outcome Report. Chicago, IL, USA: World Bicycle Relief.

About World Bicycle Relief:
Founded in 2005, World Bicycle Relief mobilizes people through the Power of Bicycles. As a pioneering non-profit social enterprise, World Bicycle Relief works tirelessly to provide durable, quality bicycles to those in need, ensuring greater access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Discover more about our impact and vision at WorldBicycleRelief.org.

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SOURCE World Bicycle Relief