Discovery’s sustainability performance for the past year

Our contribution to economic development in South Africa

Discovery’s contribution to economic development in South Africa focuses externally on enterprise development and corporate social investment to enable more communities to take part in the economy and internally, on employment equity and skills development to provide opportunities for growth, employment and development. These in turn will help encourage development in our country.

3. Corporate social investment

Discovery’s contribution to changing society in South Africa, naturally aligns with our vision as a company of making people healthier and protecting and enhancing their lives. Our involvement with the community focuses on making healthcare resources available to more South Africans who normally don’t have access to even the most basic healthcare services. Through a four-part approach, we help to develop South African communities in the healthcare sector by investing in projects that focus on healthcare delivery and infrastructure.

Key to symbols

» Priority achieved
† Priority ongoing
‡ Priority on track
Ø Priority not yet achieved

Priorities for 2009	What we’ve done	Progress
Develop and host further specialised training for community partners	We evaluated the first training programmes held for community partners, and hosted a refresher training workshop in June this year.	»
Identify ways to use Discovery’s volunteer programme to benefit projects supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation	The Laureus Foundation hosts an annual leadership conference. The Role Model Retreat forms part of this conference. In November, we hosted coaches from the various Laureus projects as part of the annual three-day Laureus Role Models Retreat. The idea behind the retreat is to create a platform for projects to network and share best-practice models. It acknowledges the efforts of the coaches who tirelessly strive to advance the cause of social change in their respective communities. In partnership with Laureus and Discovery’s social and sports clubs, we hosted children from Little Champs as part of the Care for a Child programme during National Child Protection Week. Representatives from the Laureus Foundation also attended a children’s rights’ workshop hosted by Discovery as part of the Care for a Child programme.	‡ †
Raise awareness and increase the number of applications for the Discovery Foundation Awards	We hosted road shows and presentations at universities to increase awareness. After consultation with various stakeholders and experts in the field of rural healthcare and specialist training, we changed the structure of two categories of awards to increase the number of applications received.	†

Discovery’s four-part approach to making healthcare available to more South Africans

The Discovery Fund	The Discovery Foundation	Discovery Employee Volunteer Programme	The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation
Established in 1999 as part of the FirstRand Foundation Clear focus to develop healthcare resources in South Africa Discovery contributes 0.69% of headline earnings to the Discovery Fund To date, the Fund has committed R30 million to healthcare initiatives across South Africa Discovery stablished its fund independently from the FirstRand Fund in 2005 Key focus areas: primary healthcare and education	Established in 2006 as one part of Discovery’s BEE transaction An outcome of Discovery’s business strategy to achieve a sustainable business and healthcare system for all South Africans Discovery contributes 0.61% of headline earnings to the Discovery Foundation Aim is to invest more than R100 million by 2016 to train another 300 specialists for South Africa Foundation Award recipients to work in public sector for a period of two years Since 2006, a commitment of R37 million to 63 recipients, including six organisations working in public healthcare More information about the beneficiaries of the Discovery Foundation can be viewed at www.discovery.co.za. Go to ‘About Discovery’ and ‘Our Community.’	We align volunteer projects with the Discovery Fund’s objectives of investing in healthcare infrastructure Exposes employees to developmental needs in South Africa, gain their commitment to Discovery’s CSI vision and to contribute to development in SA A focus on capacity-building rather than just giving A two-part methodology to expand capacity-building in communities through national volunteer initiatives and Discovery’s ‘Adopt A Project’ programme Currently, 2% of the Discovery Fund’s annual grant-making is made towards the Discovery Employee Volunteer Programme. Discovery’s marketing department provides an additional R600 000 for the volunteer programme	A five-year partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Discovery contributes 0.15% of headline earnings to the Laureus Foundation A focus on addressing social challenges through sport and wellness

The Discovery Fund’s financial contribution to date.

Funding year	Contribution	Total number of grants	Average grant amount
1999	R880 000	7	R125 714
2000	R610 000	8	R76 250
2001	R2 042 500	16	R127 656
2002	R1 448 000	9	R160 890
2003	R2 558 600	16	R159 913
2004	R3 486 000	19	R183 474
2005	R4 438 862	21	R211 374
2006	R4 788 780	21	R228 037
2007	R5 735 690	27	R212 433
2008	R6 261 960	21	R298 189

Our focus areas during the past year

Ensuring that the Discovery Foundation Awards are meaningful and impactful

In June, the Discovery Foundation announced the third round of successful recipients of the Foundation Awards. The Foundation Awards continue to grow with awareness about the awards increasing at the various medical schools around South Africa. However, although we have received sufficient applications for three of the four categories, we did not receive any applications for the Rural Fellowship Awards.

The broad reasons for the lack of applications for this award category could be attributed to the fact that the awards were aimed at individual applicants and not universities where these applicants could be reached easier. To address this challenge, we engaged with experts in the field of rural healthcare, such as Prof Ian Couper from the University of Witwatersrand’s Centre For Rural Health, to change the structure of this category to attract more applications. Based on our engagement with various stakeholders, we have changed this category to encourage more skills and experience sharing in rural areas, and to include universities. We will report on the progress of this award category in our next report.

We continued to raise awareness around the Discovery Foundation Awards

We continued to raise awareness of the Discovery Foundation Awards with department heads and deans at medical schools, at research and academic days at medical schools and at conferences such as the Rural Doctors’ Association annual conference.

Past recipients attended the first Discovery Foundation Alumni conference

On 12 June, the Discovery Foundation hosted the first alumni conference aimed at giving recipients an opportunity to network with peers and to present the findings for their research and share their work and experiences.

We encouraged our employees to volunteer their time and skills to community projects

In the past, Discovery’s volunteer programme consisted of onceoff fundraising initiatives and volunteers taking part in national campaigns such as Cansa Shavathon and Casual Day. While our volunteers still volunteer their time in this way, Discovery’s volunteer programme has evolved to focus more on helping projects with capacity building. The ‘Adopt a project’ programme is a long-term plan for departments and teams to adopt a project for one or more years. This will enable employees to offer their expertise and share their skills with projects, and not only give financial help.

Involvement of our employees in the ‘Adopt a project’ initiative from 2006 to mid 2009.

Employee team	Project supported
Cape Town office	• Child Line • Bathandwa Children’s Home
Durban office	• Dream Centre • Child Line • Edith Benson Children’s Home Maria Kloppers • Usindiso (Women’s Shelter)
Centurion office	New Jerusalem
DCS (Discovery Consulting Services) Tirisano	Alexandra Clinic
DCS Port Elizabeth	St Francis Hospice
DCS East London	St Bernard’s Hospice
DCS Cape Town	Red Cross Children’s Hospital
DCS La Lucia	Highway Hospice
DCS Malmesbury	Swartland Hospital
Peer educators and Discovery Institute resource centre	Refilwe Clinic
DiscoveryCare HIV and AIDS department	ECHO
Corporate Health Systems	Salvation Army – Ethembeni Children’s Home
Discovery Institute	ECHO (employee training)
Discovery Life	Coffee Bay Comprehensive
Destiny – Finance Operations	Bigshoes
Marketing Training, Development and Recognition	Othandweni Children’s Home
Discovery Health Operations	Zaziwe Hospice
Vitality	Noah’s Ark (Kliptown Ark)
Individuals from various departments	Sakhisizwe Aids Care Initiative
Destiny Health	Acres of Love
Johannesburg Service Team	Impilo (Girl’s Shelter)
PruHealth	Bethany Children’s Home
DiscoveryCare Oncology	Lukholweni Cancer Centre
Discovery Prayer Group	Rosca Children’s Home
Marketing Services	Impilo
DiscoveryCare Management	Look Good…Feel Better cancer programme

Through the Discovery Fund, we contributed to the paediatric unit at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

Discovery has committed R2.5 million towards refurbishing the paediatric surgery ward of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (formerly Johannesburg General Hospital), as part of the 20th birthday celebration of M-Net’s Carte Blanche: the CB20 Make a Difference Campaign.

We will support the upgrade of the paediatric theatre, paediatric high care wards and the appointments of extra nursing staff. It’s a continuing project where we are partnering with the hospital.

Our priorities for 2010

• Continue to gain more support and involvement in Discovery’s ‘Adopt A Project’ programme
• Assess our CSI strategy, work and impact
• Monitor and evaluate the impact of the Discovery Fund’s work in the community
• Focus on helping to develop rural healthcare through the Discovery Foundation