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International Policy

  • Dec 18, 2008 Nigeria: Govt Advised Against Borrowing
    ActionAid advises Nigeria against taking loans from developed countries due to the negative implications of both domestic and external debt on the economy of any country.
  • Dec 3, 2008 'Slumdog' highlights India's forgotten poor
    New movie "Slumdog" shines a stark light on poverty in India - an aspect of Indian society that has increasingly been pushed into the background by a decade and more of upbeat headlines about the country's dramatic economic growth.
  • Nov 27, 2008 Reform global finances to help the poor, world leaders urged
    As world leaders and finance ministers meet this weekend to discuss funding for poorer countries, two leading development agencies are calling for major reforms of the global financial system to give the war on poverty new momentum. ActionAid and Christian Aid are concerned that the present financial crisis will be used by rich countries as an excuse to renege on aid commitments to the developing world.
  • Nov 16, 2008 African leaders urges G20 powers not to forget them
    As the world's major economic powers sought ways to reverse a looming global recession, African leaders urged them not to forget their impoverished continent as it battles the crisis.
  • Nov 3, 2008 South Africa: Unrest Threatens Limpopo Platinum Mines
    Conflict between mines and communities will come under the spotlight this week when the results of two investigations into alleged human rights abuses in Limpopo are released.

Food Rights

  • Nov 3, 2008 Dilemma of the Ghanaian rice farmer
    A documentary which seeks to portray the economic suffering and occupational hardships that Ghanaian rice farmers go through in cultivation, harvesting and marketing of their produce, has been developed and launched by the General Agricultural Workers Union, Action Aid and other civil society organizations.
  • Oct 29, 2008 Uganda: No Land for Women; the Attitude Behind Hunger
    Women feed the nation, but due to cultural and conservative laws, they are denied land ownership, which is at the heart of food production.
  • Sep 19, 2008 EU aid study finds goals to halve global poverty have to be changed
    A food crisis and economic turmoil are threatening to scuttle U.N. goals to halve extreme poverty around the world by 2015, according to an EU report released Friday.
  • Jul 17, 2008 Mandela's 'Elders' call for solutions to food crisis
    Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and other members of Nelson Mandela's global crisis task force with ActionAid turned their attention to world hunger on Wednesday, focusing on soaring food prices.
  • Jul 8, 2008 G8 Promises Help for African Agriculture
    Leaders from the world's largest industrial nations are promising more food aid and agricultural assistance for Africa to help ease the impact of rising food costs.

Women's Rights

  • Nov 17, 2008 Women key to lasting peace solutions
    If more women were involved in peace negotiations, the chances of arriving at lasting solutions would be greater, former president Mary Robinson told delegates at a major conference on women and conflict in Dublin this morning.
  • Nov 14, 2008 Congolese women rally for peace and protection
    Hundreds of women dressed in black will gather in the Congo tomorrow to demand peace and protection in the war-torn region. The three hour event, organised by ActionAid partner SAUTI, will be held in a sports stadium in Goma town, where thousands of people have fled the fighting between the Congolese army and renegade general Laurent Nkunda.
  • Oct 29, 2008 Malawi Women Push for Parliamentary Positions With Help of 50:50 Program
    As Malawi prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for next year, women have embarked on a campaign for equal access to parliamentary seats.
  • Oct 29, 2008 Uganda: No Land for Women; the Attitude Behind Hunger
    Women feed the nation, but due to cultural and conservative laws, they are denied land ownership, which is at the heart of food production.
  • Oct 15, 2008 Rural women across globe ask for land to end hunger
    Rural women across the globe joined today to demand agricultural land as the most tangible means to addressing poverty and hunger to mark the World Rural Women's Day today, ahead of the World Food Day as a part of ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign.

IMF Project

  • Oct 29, 2008 NGOs Call for Radical Reforms as IMF Offers New Loans
    Two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush hosts an economic summit to address the six-week-old financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the world's capital and stock markets, a coalition of nearly 600 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 88 countries is calling for a "fundamental and far-reaching transformation on the international financial and economic system."
  • Oct 11, 2008 Why does IMF want to ratchet up pressure on poor?
    ActionAid Senior Policy Analyst Rick Rowden letter published in The Financial Times regarding unnecessarily restrictive IMF policy on low-income countries
  • Jun 23, 2008 Africa: Civil Society Blames World Bank, IMF and WTO
    The food crisis being experienced in Africa is due to the failure of three decades of market deregulation by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation's agricultural sector development model, a group of international NGOs have stated.
  • May 24, 2008 As Global Wealth Spreads, the IMF Recedes
    The economy in Ghana turned as hot as the local pepper soup earlier in the decade, with soaring global demand for the nation's riches -- gold, cocoa and bauxite -- sparking a rush to modernize Ghana's decaying roads, rails and power grid. But when the government hatched a plan last year to rebuild the national infrastructure by selling $750 million worth of bonds, its minders at the International Monetary Fund balked. As in so many other developing countries, the IMF had for years served as banker, bean counter and financial consultant to Ghana, its authority stemming in part from the $1.3 billion over 20 years it lent this once financially troubled country. In dire need of that cash, officials here had cooperated with the fund's requests, agreeing to slash gasoline subsidies, trim spending and open markets to cheaper foreign imports. But this time, there was a big difference.
  • May 9, 2008 Africa: More Policy Freedom Or Belt-Tightening?
    Rather than "graduating" from the much-criticized economic reform programmes promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a number of African countries are opting to sign on to an extended version.

Education

  • Sep 16, 2008 ActionAid Nigeria calls for Government to Invest in Adult Literacy
    The Federal Government and other levels of government in the country, have been called upon to invest in adult literacy, as a boon to skills acquisition and rapid development. The call was made by ActionAid Nigeria, an international non governmental anti-poverty agency, which noted with dismay the total neglect of adult literacy programmes by different levels of government in Nigeria.
  • Sep 15, 2008 ActionAid donates sewing machines to graduates at Breman Asikuma
    ActionAid International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) has presented sewing machine each to seven graduates of Christian Vocational Center, at Breman Asikuma in the Central Region.
  • Jun 3, 2008 Nigeria: ActionAid Egbenn Tackles Girl-Child Education
    ActionAid took its advocacy campaign to the North Western States of Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi in Nigeria. The project's main thrust is to address gender inequality and its attendant negative factors which affect girls' education in the North of Nigeria
  • Apr 23, 2008 The 'World's Biggest Lesson' Held Today
    Children in no fewer than 100 countries are today teaching decision makers, education stakeholders and journalists, a lesson about those who miss out on education. The lesson, tagged, 'The World's Biggest Lesson' is attempt to get officials, decision makers and media back to school and get the largest number of individuals taking the same lesson at the same time.
  • Mar 4, 2008 Chad: Education and Protection from Sexual Violence – Key Priorities for Refugees in Cameroon, says ActionAid
    Giving children access to school and protecting women from sexual violence must be urgent priorities in the response to assist up to 20,000 refugees arriving in Cameroon.

Emergencies

  • Dec 11, 2008 ActionAid works with WHO combating cholera in Zimbabwe
    Transcript from ABC's Australia's interview with WHO officials detailing the efforts to combat cholera with ActionAid's assistance.
  • Dec 8, 2008 Action Aid treating post-traumatic stress in Kashmir
    Type of trauma will drives the tools needed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. ActionAid has been running mental health programs in Kashmir.
  • Nov 27, 2008 Aid agencies ask UN for help in Afghanistan
    Today, as members of the UN Security Council visit Afghanistan, aid agencies working in the country report that their operating environment is becoming increasingly difficult. Access to communities in need of assistance and protection is shrinking day by day.
  • Nov 17, 2008 Women key to lasting peace solutions
    If more women were involved in peace negotiations, the chances of arriving at lasting solutions would be greater, former president Mary Robinson told delegates at a major conference on women and conflict in Dublin this morning.
  • Nov 14, 2008 Congolese women rally for peace and protection
    Hundreds of women dressed in black will gather in the Congo tomorrow to demand peace and protection in the war-torn region. The three hour event, organised by ActionAid partner SAUTI, will be held in a sports stadium in Goma town, where thousands of people have fled the fighting between the Congolese army and renegade general Laurent Nkunda.

HIV/AIDS

  • Aug 4, 2008 Uganda: The Wretched Women of the Aids Struggle
    Ms Ann Asokot, of Gogonyo village in Pallisa District thought that by revealing her HIV status to her husband, she would be supported. Little did she know that this was the beginning of a violent relationship and stigma. ActionAid supports members of the National Community of Women Living with HIV /Aids to empower victims of violence to claim and demand for their rights.
  • Jul 29, 2008 Politics of Prevention: A Global Crisis in AIDS and Education
    Preventing HIV has become so political that young people are being denied their right to life saving education, according to the Politics of Prevention, a controversial new book to be launched at the 17th Global AIDS conference in Mexico, August 4th-8th 2008
  • Jul 28, 2008 New Book says Tens of Millions of Young People Face AIDS Risk Due to Lack of Sex Education
    At the conference, the anti-poverty agency ActionAid is releasing a new book entitled: Politics of Prevention – A Global Crisis in AIDS and Education. It says tens of millions of young people are at risk due to a lack of comprehensive sex education.
  • Jul 11, 2008 Liberia: Government Response to HIV Unacceptable - ActionAid
    The Liberian Government has been challenged to seek more acceptable means of responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country. In a statement issued early this week at the start of a 10-day rights-based training on HIV/AIDS programming at Cuttington University, ActionAid Liberia Country Representative Ernest Gaie, said the HIV situation in the country has a 'woman face' and little is being done to address it.
  • Mar 10, 2008 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Expected To Discuss PEPFAR Reauthorization Draft Bill This Week
    The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday is scheduled to consider a draft bill (S 2731) to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, CQ Today reports. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved its version of the bill late last month, and the bill is expected to reach the full House in April.