Organizational Overview
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in 50 countries across the globe. We hope you will find the information useful, and join us in promoting new development policies to fight poverty in communities across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
In a world where half of the population lives on less than $2 per day, poverty can seem like an intractable problem. But more and more Americans are waking up to the reality that grinding poverty is inextricably linked to the major policy issues of our day, from war to immigration and the dire effects of global warming. We have no choice but to confront and combat poverty.
ActionAid understands that the best way to tackle poverty is to guarantee that all people can exercise their basic human rights to food, shelter, livelihood and safety. We have all heard how to “give a woman a fish and you feed her for a day; teach her to fish and you feed her for lifetime.” But that training is futile if the woman can’t access a river. That’s why ActionAid’s rights-based approach is so important – our programs work to guarantee the rights of poor and excluded people to access the resources they need to fight poverty.
ActionAid’s comprehensive programs range from emergency assistance in the aftermath of disasters, providing necessary resources, training and technical assistance, to providing support for social movements that fight for basic human rights and access to the resources people need to lift themselves from poverty.
ActionAid works directly with communities and organizations that champion the cause of the poor to demand their rights where they live and to shape international policies that respect those rights.
By joining with us, you can be part of a global solution to poverty that extends from the communities of the developing world to the corridors of power in this country, whether by contributing to building a health center for women in Cambodia or through a letter petitioning your congressperson to take action on climate change..
Read more on this site about how ActionAid USA works to:
End hunger and promote sustainable agriculture.
With our partners around the world, ActionAid advocates changes to international trade rules that harm poor people. As the world rushes to produce biofuels ActionAid stands with farmers fighting for fair access to these new markets and for protection of food crops displaced by fuel production. ActionAid calls on governments to provide more and better support for agricultural development. And in the face of devastating climate change ActionAid demands that the rich countries most responsible for global warming pay for the steps poor countries must take to adapt to its impacts.
Push reforms in U.S. aid policies to prevent women from becoming victims of HIV/AIDS and the violence that helps spread the virus.
ActionAid builds support for violence-prevention programs and efforts to fight the spread of HIV&AIDS. We sustain networks of women’s organizations that demand changes in VAW and HIV&AIDS programs to protect women’s rights. And ActionAid raises the link between VAW and HIV&AIDS as an electoral issue to build the case for policy change
Promote economic policies that allow developing country governments to hire the professionals they need to guarantee poor peoples’ rights to healthcare and education.
Through the IMF Project, ActionAid partners with economists, unions, and social movements in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone and the United States to train citizens to understand the economics behind restrictive lending policies, to mobilize them to engage their governments, and to reform international aid and lending policies to guarantee the right to healthcare and education to poor and excluded people across the global south.
Bring the voices and concerns of poor people into global debates on foreign aid effectiveness and the challenge of establishing sustainable sources of finance to fight poverty in the developing world.
ActionAid advocates with governments in the development process to support the rights of poor people. We challenge international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the G8 summits, and the United Nations to factor rights into their policies.
ActionAid’s human rights-based approach to development, at the community level as well as where policies are made, creates tangible opportunities for fighting poverty together. Learn how you can take action with ActionAid.
