ActionAid is an international non-governmental organization whose stated primary aim is to work against poverty and injustice worldwide. ActionAid is a federation of 45 country offices that works with communities, often via local partner organisations, on a range of development issues. It was founded in 1972 by Cecil Jackson-Cole as a child sponsorship charity (originally called Action in Distress) when 88 UK supporters sponsored 88 children in India and Kenya, the primary focus being is providing children with an education, further the human rights for all, assisting people that are in poverty, assisting those who face discrimination, and also assist people who face injustice. ActionAid works with over 15 million people in 45 countries to assist those people. Today its head office is located in South Africa with hubs in Asia, the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

and Europe. ActionAid was the first big INGO to move its headquarters from the global north to the

global south The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify region ...

. ActionAid's current strategy aims to "build international momentum for social, economic and environmental justice, driven by people living in poverty and exclusion".

Tax and economic justice

ActionAid has been campaigning for tax justice since 2008, conducting research into the effects of various international tax treaties and supporting local people and organizations to hold their governments to account. It argues that losing tax revenue to avoidance harms the world's poorest and most marginalized people, who depend on tax-funded public services. It is also often the case that the tax revenue lost in these treaties can exceed the amount of international aid money send to developing countries. In 2011, ActionAid revealed that 98% of the UK's FTSE 100 companies use tax havens. In 2013 its research into corporate tax avoidance in Zambia showed that

Associated British Foods Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major pr ...

were avoiding paying millions of dollars in corporate tax.

Women's rights

ActionAid integrates women's rights into all of its programming and project work, but also undertakes campaigns that focus specifically on these issues. Notable examples have included raising awareness about unpaid care work and sexual harassment and violence (including

acid attacks An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, tortu ...

) in Bangladesh, offering free cancer tests to women in Nigeria who could not afford them, and tackling

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

in Sweden.

Climate justice

ActionAid's advocacy work on climate change focuses on

climate justice Climate justice is a concept that addresses the just division, fair sharing, and equitable distribution of the burdens of climate change and its mitigation and responsibilities to deal with climate change. "Justice", "fairness", and "equity" ar ...

, guided by the experiences and needs of its country's programmes. Its most prominent engagement comes through the annual

Conference of Parties A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...

, where it supports communities vulnerable to climate change to influence decision-making processes. It calls for rich countries to live up to pledges of providing climate adaptation grants and pushes for agreements to improve the lives of those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. ActionAid was also critical of climate insurance policies, such as those purchased by Malawi in 2015, since those insurance policies fail to deliver when they are desperately needed.

Emergencies and humanitarian aid

ActionAid promotes women's leadership in humanitarian responses, arguing that women are best positioned to identify their needs and those of the communities around them in times of crisis. Strengthening citizens' rights is also a focus, such as campaigning with Haitians for greater transparency and accountability in how aid money was spent after the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

. As it has established relationships with communities and other NGOs in countries that are prone to ecological events, ActionAid is often able to respond quickly to emergencies. Notable crises and responses have included the Boxing Day tsunami in 2010 in the Indian ocean, drought in East Africa and India, and floods in Ghana,

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and Nepal. On 4 October 2018 ActionAid announced that Pakistan government has ordered 18 international aid groups to leave the country.

Child sponsorship

Child sponsorship is one of ActionAid's primary sources of income. Donors sponsor an individual child from a community in a developing country and receive regular updates about the child's progress and development. Sponsorship funds support the child's whole community, "so children have a healthy and safe place to live and grow up." This support takes the form of providing clean water, healthcare, agricultural programmes, education centres in areas where schools are not available, and community income generation schemes. In 2018, ActionAid USA stopped using the child sponsorship method of fundraising, and switched to a monthly giving program.

Alliance-building

As ActionAid has grown in influence, building alliances with like-minded organisations has become a key focus area. Announcing this approach at the World Social Forum in 2015, ActionAid has played a role in convening civil society and community groups to tackle issues of youth political participation in the Middle East and global inequality.

Supporting social causes through the mass media

ActionAid made India's first Bollywood film focusing on AIDS, ''

Ek Alag Mausam ''Ek Alag Mausam'' ( en, A Different Season) (Hindi: एक अलग मौसम) is a 2003 Hindi movie directed by K. P. Sasi with Nandita Das, Anupam Kher and Rajit Kapur in the lead roles. Renuka Shahane, Arundathi Nag, Sreelatha and Sally ...

'', a love story involving HIV positive people, based on a script by playwright Mahesh Dattani. ActionAid also supported

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

's film, '' Samar'', which is based on the book ''Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives'' by Harsh Mander. The film raises issues about Dalits.

Notable Leaders

Esther Agbarakwe Youngest chair person for General Assembly of ActionAid. Javeria Malik is the first Pakistani woman to lead the Global Safety and Security Unit at ActionAid International and was featured on the official website of International Women's Day 2022.
INSSA Insights
has featured Javeria as the first female Chairperson of th
International NGO Safety & Security Association.
Her interview published by th
city security magazine
was nominated for the best article of the year award. She was interviewed b
Global Interagency Security Forum
to speak on the topic of inclusivity and anti racism in the

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and aid sector.

Criticism

Charity Navigator Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization. It provides insights into a nonprofit’s financial s ...

recorded that in 2012 ActionAid USA had a high cost of fund raising (24%), with 53% of income spent on projects. This was also reported in an ''

International Business Times The ''International Business Times'' is an American online news publication that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on busi ...

'' article in October 2014, which noted that the "accounting processes the charity uses resulted in its administrative costs appearing to be "particularly high" in the fiscal year ending 2012, the timeframe Charity Navigator relied on when calculating its current Charity Navigator score." Charity Navigator reports that for 2013 the cost of fundraising for ActionAid USA was much lower (9.4%), with 82.4% of income spent on projects. ActionAid has been criticized for spreading unsupported claims and "grotesque" pictures of adverse effects from consumption of some

genetically engineered crops Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of ''Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...

in Africa, in particular the unsupported claim of genetically engineered crops causing tumors and cancer. The organization apologized for their misleading actions in 2015, after publication in the media.

References

External links

* {{Humanitarian partners of the European Commission Development charities based in South Africa Organizations established in 1972 Organisations based in Johannesburg