How has AAN fared in COVID-19?
Reaching almost every corner of the world, the COVID-19 virus has left national economies and businesses counting the costs. The rapid and deadly spread of the virus necessitated national lockdowns, which have had a devastating effects on countries’ economies. Since its outbreak in early 2020, the global pandemic has left millions jobless, claimed 6,124,396 lives with 48,017,072 confirmed positive cases while 1,092,055,390 vaccine doses have been administered in over 200 countries worldwide, according to the latest WHO data. The IMF estimates that the global economy shrunk by 4.4% in 2020 and it will take years before levels of employment return to those seen before the pandemic.
Like any other sector, the pandemic badly affected development sector across the globe. Continued lockdowns, travel restrictions and stringent SOPs have forced organizations and governments to opt for alternative options such as remote work and work from home. AAN Associates also bore the brunt of the COVID-19 as its operations were either delayed or hampered like any other service organization. However, AAN did not compromise its quality of work or over the health, safety and security of its staff. As a highly responsible organization, AAN has ensured strict following of the SOPs for preventing spread of COVID-19 and facilitated employees to work from home as well as introducing a 50 percent staff presence on an alternate week basis. In addition, AAN has opted for a ‘Hybrid Model’ in its assignments, giving greater emphasis to the utilization of national resources with management and operations being managed from its head office in Pakistan. This has not only reduced the risk to regular employees but also given an impetus to their quality work.
Though these measures have resulted in delaying some assignments and putting on hold a few others, yet AAN has utilized its human resource quite judiciously and accomplished 17 projects in the last two years amidst COVID19 while religiously observing the SOPs laid down by the government. AAN has achieved this remarkable success due to a committed team, which showed a staunch resilience to deliver in testing times. As a top-notch organization with global presence in 24 countries, AAN strives to deliver the same excellence throughout all its future engagements, for its clients, without compromising well-being of its staff and consultants.
