ActionAid: Our Vision is a World Without Poverty

Our mission is to work with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice.

Our Values

  • mutual respect
  • equity and justice
  • honesty and transparency
  • solidarity
  • independence
  • courage of conviction
  • humility
  • effectiveness

ActionAid: Who We Are

We’re ActionAid. We’re people who are dedicated to ending the extreme poverty that kills 28 children every minute of every day. We’re a non-profit and much more. We’re a partnership between people in poor countries and people in rich countries – all working together to end poverty for good.

What is Action Aid?

Find out how ActionAid makes a difference around the world.

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Poverty is Our Problem

Poverty matters. It matters to poor people, fighting to feed and care for their families in the face of injustice. It matters to ActionAid’s supporters who want a better world for all of humankind. Together with our supporters and with poor people whose voices direct our work, we are making real change.

We listen to and learn from poor people to identify and help them fulfill their own needs, encouraging them to lobby decision-makers in their own countries, and campaigning and calling for change from those who hold power on the international stage.

Our community-driven approach works. ActionAid’s founding and leadership in the Global Campaign for Education helped 40 million more children into schools in the last eight years. Our work in Ghana nearly doubled women’s participation in the electoral process. In Kenya, we helped in a campaign that resulted in a 35 percent increase in the number of HIV and AIDS patients with access to treatment.

ActionAid works on the ground and in the halls of power to end poverty. In communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, our work includes on-the-ground provision of health care, education, food, assistance in the face of natural disasters and conflict, and developing capacity of civil society to effect change in the countries where we work.

Our work concentrates on women’s rights, education, right to food, conflicts and emergencies, HIV & AIDS, and the right to fair and just governance. We recognize that women’s rights must be addressed if we are serious about putting an end to poverty and the injustices that cause it. We are leading an international campaign to end violence against women and we fight daily – nationally, internationally and at the community-level – to fight for women’s rights to land, inheritance and a living wage.

In our emergencies work we responded to major disasters throughout Africa and Asia, as well as continuing our recover work in Tsunami-affected areas and the area of Pakistan devastated by an earth quake two years ago. We also work on-the-ground to help communities prepare for disasters and to develop their resiliency to flood, droughts, and other natural disasters.

Poverty is our problem. But we are hopeful. Our optimism comes from the people we work with every day. They are making change in spite of the odds they face. They are an inspiration. Together, we will end poverty once and for all.

Our Work

Kenya

In Kenya, ActionAid helped defeat efforts by drug companies to introduce legislation that would have increased the cost of the medications to treat malaria, HIV & AIDS by at least 500 percent. The cost of drugs used to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV would have risen from $2.50 to $28. The defeat of the law means that 40 percent of the population can now afford these drugs, up from five percent just six years ago.

Uganda

ActionAid started a local poultry project to help feed orphans living with HIV. The children’s caretakers keep the chickens and give the children the eggs. Some of the eggs are sold and the money is used to buy food, school supplies, and uniforms for the children.

Bangladesh

ActionAid helped 600 families in ten villages get access to clean, safe water. Rather than just building a well, ActionAid funded the construction of wells and also trained communities to build water systems and latrines. Valuable time spent collecting water has diminished from six hours a day to only a few minutes. This has increased the productive time of the entire community, especially the women. Girls who previously spent their days carrying water are now able to attend school.

India

ActionAid began working to protect the rights of the disabled in India since 1998. Our work in Delhi resulted in the construction of 190 bus shelters accessible to disabled people. Several low-floor buses have been introduced in Delhi and the state transportation department has committed to replace all existing buses with the accessible, low-floor models by 2010.

Ghana

In the run up to the district assembly elections in September 2006, ActionAid worked through local partners to encourage women to vote and women to stand for election. Historically, women have been excluded from public decision-making. ActionAid provided training programs in public speaking, affirmation of their right to run, and the electoral process. Nationwide, women now hold 12 percent of elected positions, up from fiver percent in the previous cycle

Haiti

ActionAid launched a campaign against the violence that is plaguing Haiti. The public awareness and community organizing around the campaign pushed the Haitian government into affirming a treaty that will curtail the arms trade that has fueled the violence, exacerbated the poverty and contributed to the serious human rights violations that plague Haiti.

Burundi

The Batwa, comprising only one percent of Burundi’s population, are discriminated against. They used to rely on hunting and pottery for their survival but the near-extinction of wild animals and the introduction of plastics destroyed their means of survival. ActionAid is working with the Batwa to build houses to replace their grass huts, cultivate crops – a new thing for them – and send their children to school. Most importantly, ActionAid is facilitating community discussions to identify needs and solutions and to articulate their plight internationally.

Somalia

ActionAid trained 70 women from rural villages on the social, political, and economic rights of women. The training built the women’s confidence to assert their rights. Now, for the first time in Somalia’s history, a woman has been elected a village head.

Malawi

ActionAid formed an AIDS support network in Nsanje, the region with the highest rate of infection in Malawi. The network provides education, counseling, and testing at two centers serving thousands of people.

Democratic Republic of Congo

ActionAid worked with community partners to put an end to “bleusaille,” the practice of parading new students – usually girls - through town naked except of a piece of plastic sheeting, rolling them in the mud and then forcing them to run several miles, sometimes ending the hazing with a whipping. Many girls were hospitalized due to violence associated with this hazing and many more dropped out of school as a result of compromise to their reputations.

Thailand

Poor people in Tsunami-affected communities were losing their land because they did not have deeds to the property, in spite of having lived there for many generations. Outsiders, developers and government agencies were claiming the land and attempting to force them from their land. ActionAid established a legal assistance center to make people aware that of their rights to the land. To date, 500 court cased in six provinces have been resolved in favor of poor, Tsunami-affected families.

Brazil

ActionAid launched a campaign to promote oversight of local governments’ expenditure of tax dollars. A gathering of 300 community members organized by the campaign uncovered a profligate expenditure of nearly $150,000 – money that will now go to much needed public services.

Our Campaigns

Governments in rich countries have a huge amount of power to help people in poor countries. ActionAid’s campaigning targets decision-makers with well-researched, valid information to help them make decisions that will put an end to poverty and the injustices that cause it.

Make Trade Fair

ActionAid’s work pressing for fair treatment for poor people in trade policies led new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to give the British agency for international development (DFID) the joint lead in making UK trade policy, meaning that the needs of developing countries serve as a counter balance to big business’ say.

In Good Company

ActionAid’s campaign to stop corporate abuse garnered the support necessary to pass a bill requiring some international companies to report on the environmental and social impacts of their business. For the first time, these businesses must consider not only profit but the impact of their business on people and the environment.

First Aid

Our Real Aid II report delivered a comprehensive critique of how much international aid money is given to large consulting firms to provide “technical assistance.” Our research found that a quarter to a half of all aid is going to consultants, not the people, communities and governments delivering the actual services. Our report sparked a review of these contracts by the British international development agency and has garnered broad acclaim among the international development community.

Learn how to take action with ActionAid.