Sightsavers director Dominic Haslam awarded an OBE

Sightsavers’ Dominic Haslam has been awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours, in recognition of his services to people with disabilities.

Dominic has worked at Sightsavers for 13 years and is currently director of policy and programme strategy. He also chairs the International Disability and Development Consortium.

Dominic’s role focuses on ensuring Sightsavers’ programmes are cost-effective and based on the best available evidence, and that Sightsavers delivers on what it promises. He is also the driving force behind the organisation’s progress on the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Commenting on his OBE, Dominic said: “I am hugely excited to receive this honour on behalf of the work Sightsavers does. Great progress has been made in the past five years to ensure global development programmes increasingly include people with disabilities. But there is a long way to go, and it’s critical we don’t lose momentum if we want to achieve the Global Goals for everyone.

“My hope is that this award is small but clear evidence that, because of our combined efforts, the rights of people with disabilities across the globe are being taken more seriously than ever.”

Sightsavers CEO Caroline Harper said: “We are so proud of Dom – he has shown phenomenal leadership and determination in pushing for the rights of people with disabilities.  This honour recognises the importance of prioritising this issue, and demonstrates the success that can be achieved by the collegiate approach Dom has always taken.”

Also in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, Sightsavers trustee and chair-designate Clive Jones was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his leadership as chair of trustees of the Disasters Emergency Committee. Clive recently stood down from that role and will be taking over as Sightsavers’ chair of trustees  in July.