Restructure looks to save £7m a year

Scores of Christian Aid staff are facing redundancy as the charity bids to save £7m a year in costs.

Up to 200 staff face losing their jobs as it goes through a cost-cutting restructuring process.

The international aid charity says it wants to cut unrestricted spending from £47m to £40m a year over the next 12 months.

A statement said: "This will, unfortunately, require that up to 200 staff are at risk of redundancy, in a process that will begin with a formal consultation by early October.”

Around half of the jobs at risk of redundancy are UK based, giving rise to about £3m in savings, with the remaining £4m being saved outside the UK.

The charity would start the process of exiting its programmes in Angola, Egypt, Zambia, Mali, South Africa, Ghana, the Philippines, Nepal, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Latest accounts show that Christian Aid’s income was £117.9m and expenditure of £111.1m in the year to the end of March 2018.

It employs 1,100 staff across the world.

Amanda Mukwashi, chief executive of Christian Aid, said: "After careful consideration of every piece of work Christian Aid does, the senior leadership and trustees have made the difficult decision to exit from some countries and instead, in some cases, work regionally to have greater impact.

"The decisions have been tested against the new strategy and global poverty, vulnerabilities and inequality indices."

Latin American operations will be managed as a regional programme from Brazil and its work in the Middle East will be run as a regional programme from London.

Mukwashi added: "A process of consultation with staff will be started to establish the best way of managing each transition and staff in each of the countries where our presence will be changing.”