Rights to end poverty ActionAid International strategy 2005–2010

Page number Contents

Foreword 2

Section one: Introduction 3 What’s new? 5 Poverty eradication goals 5 Strategic priorities 2005-2010 5

Section two: Power, poverty and injustice 6

Section three: Our distinctive organisation 10 Our identity 10 Distinctive approach: past, present and future 11 Core interventions 12

Section four: Our strategic priorities Women’s rights 14 The right to education 14 The right to food 15 The right to human security in conflict and 15 emergencies The right to life and dignity in the face of 16 HIV and AIDS The right to just and democratic governance 16 17 Geographical focus 18

Section five: Organisational implications 19 Organisational objectives: • strengthen our governance and deepen accountability 19 • strengthen staff capacity 20 • strengthen our structures and systems 20 • strengthen our communications and campaigns 21 • increase our supporters and mobilise supporters and partners behind our mission 21 • increase and diversify income 22

Section six: Making it happen 24

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Foreword

This new strategy, Rights to end poverty, is our We set ambitions for making a significant impact renewed commitment to fight poverty and at the international level because we believe that injustice. progress at the local and national level cannot be achieved or sustained without changing the world It is our call for collective action to take sides with order that is dictated by powerful nations and poor and excluded people and communities and international institutions. to support their ideas, aspirations and actions. This agenda, and the priorities in this strategy, It is an offer of partnership, an offer to join hands reflect the ambition of all of us in ActionAid with our supporters and others in eradicating International. Many of us contributed to the poverty and fighting for justice. development of this strategy. Let us now translate the strategy into actions and results. We are continually informed and inspired by the resilience, ingenuity and struggles of the poor and excluded people and communities we work with. Our resolve is constantly strengthened by the progress – be it big or small – that people and communities make in claiming and expanding Noerine Kaleeba Ramesh Singh their spaces, voices, choices and rights towards a Chair, Chief executive dignified life. International board

of trustees We will walk alongside poor and excluded people and support every step and action they take in claiming their rights. There are plenty of gains and achievements in our fight against poverty and injustice to be happy with, but not enough to be satisfied with.

The world around us is changing fast and the context of our work is getting ever more complex. This strategy recognises and responds to the changing context of our work. This strategy is about staying on course with our agenda, responding to new challenges and bringing focus to our work.

This ambitious strategy relates directly to the enormity of our mission. We set high priority for women’s rights because we believe that eradication of poverty and injustice will simply not Note: ActionAid International is often referred to as ActionAid be possible without securing equality and rights throughout this document. for women.

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Section one

Introduction

More than 30 years after ActionAid was founded, institutions think and act, is helping to propel our vision of a world without poverty remains a action against poverty and injustice. distant prospect. But far from a hopeless dream. We have not done this alone. Donations and While one billion people still live in extreme campaign actions by hundreds of thousands of poverty – on less than $1 a day – the picture is ActionAid sponsors and supporters have played a not universally bleak. Illiteracy and child mortality significant role in improving poor people's is declining in many poor countries. While almost circumstances and in strengthening action and 40 million people still live with HIV and AIDS, protest against poverty and injustice. Our some African and Asian countries have brought partnerships with civil society organisations and infection rates under control. Buoyant civil society engagement with the media have propelled a host movements, aided by instant global of critical issues – including aid, trade, debt and communications, are creating mass citizen HIV and AIDS – into public discourse. The support for action against world poverty and remarkable and humbling creativity and resilience injustice. Developing nations are forming their of the poor communities with which we work own power blocs and fighting back against grossly underpin all our field programmes. unjust global trade policies that favour the rich. Nevertheless, in 2005 we are faced with the We live in a world where many are suffering great unacceptable truth that poverty and injustice hardship, but where opportunities also exist to remain deeply entrenched in many neglected or challenge and change, at every level, the inequity conflict-ridden corners of the globe. As the world and injustices that underpin the existing order. becomes wealthier, the gap between rich and poor communities and nations is not closing, but Tackling poverty and injustice is a global yawns ever wider. Systematic discrimination challenge, increasingly so in our interdependent perpetuates inequality between men and women world. and between different castes, classes, religions and races. Every single day we witness the ActionAid is just one of many organisations terrible consequences, with 30,000 children dying contributing to the global anti-poverty effort. of preventable, treatable diseases and 800 million Nevertheless, the success of our work in assisting people going hungry. This is a moral outrage. some of the world's poorest and most excluded people to climb free of poverty and reclaim a The implications for our organisation are clear. place in society is encouraging and instructive. We must strive even harder to reach our goal of eradicating poverty from our world. Together with over 2,000 partner organisations worldwide, we have helped millions of individuals One of ActionAid's strengths is our ability to adapt and families and thousands of communities to to changing realities. We do not shrink from address their immediate needs and to have a change, we embrace it. Reviews of our work say in overcoming poverty and injustice. By around the world indicate that our programmes providing access to information, education, and policies are having a lasting impact. But they training, funds and materials we have enabled also highlight the need to improve if we are to poor and excluded people to claim the rights contribute to the anti-poverty movement with owed them; rights that citizens of wealthier maximum impact. This is especially true in our nations take for granted. work on women's rights, where we have achieved far less than we had hoped to under our previous From small beginnings in India and Kenya, we international strategy Fighting poverty together. now work in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Our advocacy and campaigning, by influencing the way individuals, governments and international

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Hence this new six-year strategy, Rights to end But it also adapts to a changing world and to the poverty, which seeks to apply our deepening lessons we have learned in the field, by understanding of the causes of poverty and focusing our goals and efforts specifically on injustice to heighten our impact. Following the securing poor and excluded people's rights. founding of ActionAid International, it also Informed by this international strategy, all parts of provides clear direction for organising both the ActionAid will develop and align their own ActionAid family and our relationships with others. strategic plans so that we can deliver consistent collective action. The aim is to ensure that we do The scale of the task ahead is both humbling and all in our power to fulfil our mission. daunting, but we remain optimistic. We believe we have learned from both our successes and We have made every effort to make this strategy mistakes and are heading in the right direction reflect the true voice of our organisation. It has with renewed momentum and in partnerships with been born of lengthy internal and external like-minded people and organisations. consultations and draws closely on the 2004 ActionAid staff conference, attended by volunteers and staff leaders from over 40 This strategy countries. It also absorbs lessons learned from our 2004 external review, Taking stock II and This strategy reaffirms ActionAid's commitment to most importantly, draws on feedback from the fight and ultimately eradicate poverty and poor and excluded people with whom we work injustice. It will guide the actions of our staff and and our partner organisations who live and work partners, setting out clear and ambitious priorities among them. for 2005-2010. It also sets out a clear framework for our work to be accountable, both to the poor The document is presented in six sections. and excluded people with whom we work and to Section two presents our understanding of the our supporters and funders. causes of poverty and injustice and Section three describes the distinctive approach that ActionAid This strategy builds on the strengths of its employs in fighting poverty and injustice. Section predecessor Fighting poverty together. It states four presents our mission-related strategies and ActionAid's dedication to act as part of the global Section five our internal, organisational movement for equality, rights and justice, while strategies for the next six years. We conclude with seeking to deliver significant, lasting a statement of our commitment to do everything improvements in the lives of poor and excluded humanly possible to achieve the ambitious people. It also strengthens our commitment to agenda contained in these pages. fight poverty on every level – local, national, regional and international – working through alliances and partnerships to achieve maximum impact.

Women's rights and gender equality offer the key to poverty reduction and achieving them is a central focus of our new strategy. Over the next six years, we will invest significantly more time and effort in securing equal rights for women and girls around the world. We will bring greater focus and depth while continuing to work on the areas of education, food and HIV and AIDS. To these, we will add new priorities for 2005-2010, developing our policy and programme work on human security in situations of violent conflict and emergencies, and on democracy and governance.

In pursuing these priorities, this strategy will ensure that we continue along the successful path laid out six years ago in Fighting poverty together.

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Summary Poverty eradication goals

What’s new? The following goals will form the rallying point for all our work: This strategy expresses our aspiration to seek alternatives that better serve the interests of the Goal one: poor and excluded people and poor and excluded and advance our mission communities will exercise power to towards a world without poverty and injustice. It secure their rights builds on its successful predecessor Fighting Goal two: women and girls will gain power to poverty together in the following ways: secure their rights Goal three: citizens and civil society across the • deepening our focus on poverty eradication world will fight for rights and justice by addressing unequal power relations and Goal four: states and their institutions will be strengthening our rights-based approach and accountable and democratic and will methods promote, protect and fulfil human rights for all. • intensifying our work on education, food and HIV and AIDS Strategic priorities 2005-2010

• increasing work with social movements of poor and excluded people In striving towards the goals above, our work worldwide will be driven by programmes and policies aimed at achieving the following six • greatly improving our commitment to, and action on, women's rights and gender equality strategic rights-based themes:

Strategic priority one: women’s rights • including new priorities – democracy and governance and human security in violent Strategic priority two: the right to education conflict and emergency – in response to our Strategic priority three: the right to food growing understanding of what drives poverty Strategic priority four: the right to human and injustice security during conflicts and emergencies Strategic priority five: the right to a life of • building on the success of internationalising our organisation by increasing our financial dignity in the face of HIV resources and raising our profile and impact and AIDS at a global level. Strategic priority six: the right to just and democratic governance.

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Our analysis that power lies at the heart of Section two poverty and injustice is central to this strategy and to the rights-based agenda for action that it sets Power, poverty and out. injustice Women lose most

In spite of progress on attaining women's rights, Power imbalance deep-rooted patriarchy still thrives in the early 21st century. In developing nations, the Power refers to the degree of control over consequences are harshest. Poor women, material, human, intellectual and financial already battling the deprivation imposed by lack of resources exercised by different individuals, food, clean water, shelter or employment, are groups and institutions. It also means the power subject to cruel daily discriminations on the basis to make decisions and choices. of their sex. These commonly include not being allowed to own property, keep the money they In order to combat poverty and injustice we must earn or access the education that could offer a understand its nature. In a world of so much better future. This lack of power can be life natural and material plenty and unparalleled threatening. For example, women tend to be more human ingenuity, why do a fifth of humanity live in vulnerable to HIV infection because they are not desperate want? able to insist on protected sex, even when they know their partner is infected. Our frontline experience working with poor and disadvantaged communities the world over has On the international stage, advances towards led us to conclude that it is unequal and unjust gender equality have also been achieved. power relations that lie at the root of poverty. Governments have committed themselves to Poverty and injustice are not inevitable – they protecting women's rights at every UN conference result from structures and processes of human- of the last two decades, including the World made social, economic and political systems, and Conference on Human Rights in 1993, the thus from the choices made by some individuals, International Conference on Population and communities, institutions and nations to Development in 1994, and the Fourth World discriminate against, exclude or exploit others. Conference on Women in 1995. However, the brutal truth is that the absence of political will and Unequal power relationships are systematically resources needed not only makes it difficult for imposed in both rich and poor countries on the women and girls to realise those policy gains but basis of gender, age, caste, class, ethnicity, HIV also makes it harder to protect them. There is now status, race and disability. Physical violence is ample evidence that the realisation of women's routinely used to perpetuate male dominance over and girls’ rights offer the most effective route to women. Military force is often used to dominate poverty eradication. communities and nations and control natural resources, often in defiance of internationally ActionAid will seek to empower women and girls recognised human rights. Poor and excluded in everything we do. people are disempowered and made invisible. When they do seek redress, the scales of justice Rights are violated every day are almost always tipped against them. everywhere All too often, powerful vested interests – states, institutions, corporations, nations and Lack of power is inextricably tied to the denial of communities – choose to exercise the power they basic human rights. Our work revolves around have to accumulate even more power. They supporting poor people to claim such rights so abdicate their obligation to society at large by they can improve their lives and make their voices denying rights, resources and opportunities to the heard. less fortunate. Women and girls, systematically sidelined, are often the biggest losers, making up On a daily basis, in our work in Africa, Asia and the poorest of the poor. Latin America we see rights routinely and callously denied to millions of poor people.

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We see how lack of access to land, seeds, money and controls, the largest of which are larger and markets frustrates the efforts of poor rural (measured by value added) than the economies families to feed, clothe and educate their children. of developing countries. Growing inequality We witness the shameful denial of land rights to between the wealthiest and poorest is also women in numerous countries. We challenge the apparent in many developing countries such as policies of countries where disabled people are Brazil, South Africa and India. Our future work in not even considered in the allocation of these countries must address the wealth and resources. power gap – as well as poverty – if poor and excluded people are to claim their right to a life In many poor countries, we see how lack of of dignity. access to quality treatment and care for HIV and AIDS is reversing hard-won social and economic People caught up in conflicts suffer immediate gains. Every minute, six people die of AIDS- and acute powerlessness as homes and related illnesses. Over a million teachers have livelihoods are threatened and normal rules of been lost in Africa and millions of children peaceful civilian life are suspended. With armed orphaned. While some African countries have conflicts around the world rising, people in many successfully reduced infection rates, the epidemic countries face an insecure, fearful future – is spreading in Asia. Much good work is being women, children and poor communities done with individual communities affected by the particularly so. In Africa and Asia, hundreds of epidemic, with the courageous leadership of thousands of families are being displaced from people living with HIV and AIDS. Yet we see little their homes to join the millions already scattered sense of urgency from those with the power and in refugee camps, without adequate food or resources to stem this tragedy on the international shelter, vulnerable to violence and mostly scale required. excluded through the denials of their existence as international displaced persons. Global injustice undermines poor people's rights At the same time, terrorism, fundamentalism and the 'war on terror' launched after the attacks of Rights are denied not just at local and national September 11 2001, have together fuelled a level, but also at international level, as power global climate of fear in which the erosion of civil imbalances between rich and poor countries play liberties and the violation of human rights has out in policies that hurt poor and excluded people. become commonplace in many countries. Documenting and challenging such institutionalised, power-based injustices is an Futhermore, poor and excluded people are increasing part of our work. increasingly vulnerable to environmental threats, including those of climate change and land The shift to privatisation of public services, degradation. Communities we work with have advocated by the World Bank and International seen dramatic changes – rivers running dry, rare Monetary Fund, has led developing country droughts becoming commonplace. The massive governments increasingly to sell water, education floods and increasing number of natural disasters and health services to private, profit-making likely to result from global warming will make poor enterprises. Corporations also frequently gain people more vulnerable in already impoverished ownership and control of local knowledge and low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, Haiti and natural resources at the expense of indigenous Mozambique. Yet, the high level political will communities. This has made essential services needed to slow climate change and environmental such as water, medicines, primary schooling and degradation is in scant evidence. healthcare inaccessible and unaffordable to many. All these trends have negative consequences for the world as a whole, but the main burden, in The globalisation of markets has increasingly every case, falls disproportionately on the concentrated control of wealth and power in the shoulders of the least powerful – poor and hands of a small number of corporations, excluded people. institutions and people. An increasing proportion of global economic production and trade is under the control of huge multinational corporations, operating across continents with few constraints

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Failing governance conditions have been attached. Cynical and self- interested politics have also served to undercut The challenge of changing societies to address the aid that does reach developing nations, as the these deep-seated and far-reaching problems is European Union and United States maintain enormous. The obvious candidate for the job is protectionist barriers to support their domestic government. ActionAid strongly believes that producers while forcing poor countries in the democratic governments can and must act on opposite direction. The World Trade behalf of their citizens, upholding social and Organisation's regulatory framework, as it stands, economic rights and the principle of justice for is tilted towards the interests of richer nations. poor and excluded women, children and men. More nations than ever before are committed to As decision-making power shifts from local to the principles of representative democracy. national arenas and from national to international, Encouragingly, in recent decades political and it becomes harder for poor people to influence economic reforms in a number of countries – policies or hold distant decision-makers to China, India, Vietnam, Uganda and others – have account. The imposition of international trade and helped large numbers of people climb out of aid policies and the economic power of poverty. multinational corporations are eroding national sovereignty and undermining the livelihoods of Unfortunately, we rarely see national millions of poor people. The political landscape is governments take the action required to littered with broken promises from rich country fundamentally shift the balance of power in their governments to the poor. A world of double societies – by redistributing wealth and resources. standards and gross power imbalances is evident. Instead those in power tend to act in their own interests, while women and other excluded groups Changing power relations: gain little foothold in the political processes. a call to action

Politically driven violence and corruption is The picture painted above is a bleak one. But the endemic in many countries where we work. Even world can and must change. ActionAid believes in the more successful developing nations, the that if the powerful choose to exercise their absence of social safety nets has left the poorest resources to dominate and control others, the less citizens struggling to keep up with their basic powerful can – indeed must – use their collective needs. voice and action to resist. Enlightened men and women have the power to change societies and Failures of governance are equally striking at the the unjust political, social and economic structures international level. The inflexible, market-led that underpin them. development formula championed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank has Encouragingly, the impetus for a new world order hurt the poor and hindered the development is strong and growing. Many people of all process in many poorer countries. Poorer nations, backgrounds in both rich and poor nations are whatever their circumstances, have been now expressing outrage at the shocking gap relentlessly pressured to liberalise their between the lives and lifestyles of today's rich and economies. The refusal to cancel most debts, and poor. Consensus is growing, even among some the economic conditions attached when they are governments, that radical changes are needed to cancelled, compels many poor governments to tackle poverty and end the denial of rights to so reduce much needed spending on vital services many. such as education, healthcare and clean water for their people. This is indefensible and counter- The emerging constellations of poor and middle- productive. income countries, such as the G20, G33 and G90 and the group of Least Developed Countries, hold The recognition of international responsibility to the potential to shift the balance of power in global support development in poor countries is the mark governance. Already, negotiators from poorer of a civilised world. The international community countries have begun to stand firm against arm- recognised this in its adoption of the Universal twisting from powerful nations, refusing, for Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Yet this example, to accept unfair trade terms. commitment has been called into serious question as aid levels have fallen and unfavourable

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This trend can become a strong line of resistance Another world is possible against undemocratic globalisation and the control and unjust use of resources by transnational We believe this global wave of citizen action holds corporations. We have seen, for example, how far-reaching potential. It is into this growing protests led by local women and farmers in Kerala movement for justice and dignity, for equality and have resulted in successful court action against inclusion, that ActionAid will put its energies. Coca-Cola to limit ground water extraction by its production plant, a decision that reverberated Its impact is epitomised by the success of the around the corporate world. World Social Forum, and its slogan 'another world is possible'. The World Social Forum has brought The global conscience mobilised through the UN together organisations of poor and excluded Millennium Declaration is faltering among people with supportive civil society groups from governments, with the first minimal target – North and South to counter the forces that achieving gender equality in primary and perpetuate poverty and injustice and to promote secondary education by 2005 – eluding the world alternatives. leadership. Nevertheless, the Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals have galvanised The way forward will not be an easy one. It social movements, including faith-based, peace requires a regeneration of national and global and anti-poverty networks, on several continents. economies. It requires a redistribution of wealth, resources, knowledge and information. Above all, Poor people's organisations, social movements it requires a re-balancing of power relations within and pro-justice groups around the world are and between communities and nations. coming together, physically and virtually, to organise for change. Breakthroughs include the access to treatment campaign in South Africa, led by people living with HIV and AIDS, and the global campaign for free access to quality education for girls and boys.

Determined advocacy by women's movements has won significant commitments locally, nationally and internationally to promote and protect women's rights. In Nepal, for example, property laws have been reformed and women can inherit property. The Vienna Declaration on Human Rights and the Beijing Platform for Action are among a wide range of international agreements that bear testimony to the power of people's movements to promote positive change.

Youth, a fast growing demographic, are becoming politically engaged. In the Niger Delta, for example, young people are organising to oppose pollution by oil companies and to gain access to land and the chance to earn a living. Around the world, creative young people are building their own networks for dissent. Their activities are increasingly global, with the International Student Stop AIDS campaign one inspiring example.

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• courage of conviction, requiring us to be Section three creative and radical, bold and innovative Our distinctive organisation – without fear of failure – in pursuit of making the greatest possible impact on

the causes of poverty

Our vision independence from any religious or a world without poverty and injustice in • • party-political affiliation which every person enjoys their right to a

life with dignity. humility in our presentation and • behaviour, recognising that we are part of Our mission a wider alliance against poverty. to work with poor and excluded people to • eradicate poverty and injustice. Our identity

One united international organisation. Our goals • We are an international organisation poor and excluded people and • owned by national ActionAid affiliates communities will exercise power to secure working with people, communities, their rights associates and partners in 43 countries in

Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. women and girls will gain power to secure • Our work and our thinking are governed their rights by the perspectives and aspirations of

poor and excluded people. Most of our citizens and civil society across the world • staff and our work is located in developing will fight for rights and justice countries close to the communities we

exist to serve. Wherever they work in the states and their institutions will be • world, however, our hugely diverse staff accountable and democratic and will and partners are closely bound by our promote, protect and fulfil human rights shared vision, mission, values, priorities, for all. standards and, above all, passionate

commitment to a better and just world. Our values

ActionAid lives by the following values: Long-term supporters and volunteer • base. Our commitment is shared by our mutual respect, requiring us to recognise • 350,000 long-term supporters and the innate worth of all people and the volunteers, a majority of whom are based value of diversity in Europe. Many of them not only sustain

our work through funding, but also help us equity and justice, requiring us to work • to put pressure on governments and to ensure equal opportunity to everyone, corporations to change their policies and irrespective of race, age, gender, sexual practices to the benefit of poor and orientation, HIV status, colour, class, excluded people. ethnicity, disability, location and religion

Direct and long-term relationships with • honesty and transparency, being • poor and excluded people. The majority accountable at all levels for the of our time and resources are spent on effectiveness of our actions and open in the poverty frontline and our staff and our judgements and communications with local partners have built long-term others relationships of mutual trust and respect

with many poor and excluded people and • solidarity with the poor, powerless and communities, and with developing country excluded will be the only bias in our governments. This close interaction commitment to the fight against poverty provides ActionAid's bedrock from which

we derive the legitimacy and authority to

fulfil our advocacy work at national and

international levels.

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Distinctive approach: past, present, The way we think and act, our character and future distinctive competencies are particularly shaped by: What makes ActionAid different? The answer lies in the way we work, a people-centred approach • Taking sides with poor and excluded based both on our own cumulative experience people and that of other frontline groups fighting poverty We believe that poor and excluded and injustice. people are the primary agents of change. Poverty and injustice can be eradicated In the 1970s we focused our work almost only when they are able to take charge of exclusively on providing primary education and their lives and act to claim their rights. We sponsoring children in schools. We soon learnt therefore work with the diverse social that, whilst education was a key lever to lifting groups through which they organise and people out of poverty, it was not enough. act. These include – among many others – landless people in Brazil, sex workers in In the 1980s, we developed our work to address India, disabled people in Sierra Leone the multiple deprivations that characterise poverty and smallholder farmers in Malawi. We and to improve poor people's living standards by particularly focus on groups that suffer working with families and communities as a from multiple and acute violation of rights whole. We focused mainly on supplying physical such as children caught up in conflicts. essentials such as seeds, farming equipment and construction materials and pumps, wells and taps • Rights-based approach for drinking water supply. We also provided We embrace and respect the Universal money, raw materials and training for income Declaration of Human Rights and generation activities such as tailoring, weaving subsequent related UN covenants and and beekeeping. We learnt that addressing the declarations. The focus of all our work is visible conditions of poverty did indeed improve to ensure that the rights of poor and the quality of people's lives, but only while those excluded people are respected, materials lasted and we continued to provide them. promoted, protected and fulfilled and they are our primary stakeholder. We also In the 1990s our work shifted significantly to focus direct unrelenting attention on the not only on the symptoms but also the causes of responsibility, both of the state and of poverty. Rather than deciding what poor people other powerful institutions and individuals, needed, we strengthened our capacity to listen to in respecting, promoting, protecting and them and help them take charge of their own lives fulfilling the rights of poor and excluded and projects. Giving people choices and voices people. We will deepen our experience became our core work. While continuing to and skills in implementing the rights- provide materials and training sought by poor based approach during this strategy families and communities to address their period. immediate poverty, we also started to do advocacy work. Our aim was to amplify the • Partnerships and alliances unheard voices of poor people by arguing for We work in partnerships and alliances change in the attitudes, policies and practices of with poor and excluded people, social powerful people and institutions, particularly in movements and other civil society local and national governments. The changes we organisations. From the grassroots to the were able to extract from government officials global level, such collaboration is benefited others beyond the communities we absolutely fundamental to our approach. worked in, thus scaling up the impact of our work. Working in this way enables us to maximise our contribution towards Since the late 1990s and into the new millennium eradicating poverty and injustice while we have radically developed our work and identity complementing the efforts of others. in response to the unique and fast-moving Local partners, for example, implement challenges of our time. many of our field programmes, using their deep knowledge of local conditions, customs and politics that we could not hope to match.

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We will work to improve our relationship • Participatory analysis and awareness with local partners and coalition allies A critical part of our fieldwork involves during this strategy period. using simple participatory techniques to help poor and excluded people to explore • Critical engagement who and what is causing the poverty and In order to effect change, we engage injustice they experience. Articulating their critically with people, governments and own situation in this way is a key step on institutions whose policies and practices the road to empowerment, developing are making or keeping people poor. Our solutions and effecting change. Innovative engagement may range from cooperation and successful participative approaches to confrontation but we will always take a that we have developed by working with non-violent approach. Our tactics include many communities in Africa, Asia and the providing research and evidence, Americas include Reflect, Stepping promoting alternatives and running public stones and STAR. In Tanzania, Nigeria campaigns. To avoid being co-opted by and Bangladesh, for example, Reflect is powerful institutions and individuals we driving community participation in local will endeavour to be transparent and schools’ management and decision- open about all our engagements. As we making. seek wider change in the world, we also commit ourselves to remain guided by the In terms of our internal learning process, agenda of poor and excluded people and we also place great importance on our their organisations and movements. annual participatory reviews, which provide feedback from the poor and • Acting locally and globally excluded people with whom we work. The causes of poverty and injustice often Embedded in our accountability reside outside areas where the worst framework and system, this process symptoms are found. We therefore act provides the foundation for our learning against poverty on all fronts, local to and organisational growth. international. Our work to change national and international policies and practices • Organising and mobilising seeks to bring lasting improvements in the Resisting injustice is easier when you lives of poor and excluded people, while have strength in numbers. We therefore our local action seeks to contribute to promote and support the efforts of poor fighting poverty and injustice beyond the and excluded people to act together and immediate communities involved. with others to fight for their rights. For Although it is an area where we must example, by assisting groups of people improve, we aim always to achieve living with HIV and AIDS in many African coherence and connectedness between countries, we have helped them act to our actions at different levels of society. claim their rights. We also seek to mobilise civil society and citizens worldwide to tackle poverty and injustice. Core interventions We particularly support young people in forming solidarity networks across We are continually refining the methods and international boundaries. means by which we seek to reduce poverty and injustice, based on our learning from experience. • Strengthening capacity The following integrated set of approaches We work with our partners to strengthen underpins all our work, with priorities determined poor people's organisations, skills and by local circumstances: access to information and to enable joint action. A crucial part of our work involves the nurture of organisations and leaders that emerge in communities of poor and excluded peoples.

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By sharing skills, knowledge and • Advocacy and campaigning resources we, and our local partners, can We campaign and advocate to influence help them become strong enough to policy and practice locally, nationally and speak and act effectively for their people. internationally in favour of poor and Such an approach has helped excluded people. For example, we have communities in Bangladesh, Brazil, and successfully highlighted the negative Ghana to influence local budget impact of subsidies on poor people's lives discussions and to hold local by connecting community-led action on governments accountable. We also food security to national campaign strengthen connections between such coalitions and to the international arena groups and other organisations that through regional networking across Africa, negotiate for poor people’s rights. Latin America and Asia. Providing training, information, exchange opportunities and feedback review We seek to ensure that our advocacy and and reflection processes provides the campaigns are grounded in rigorous backbone for our capacity strengthening research, strong evidence, clear policy work. positions and people's action. We aim to propose solutions and alternatives as well • Working with social movements as to expose injustice and the abuse of We increasingly support citizens' people's rights. movements that are shaping alternatives – alternatives that serve poor people's Our campaigns draw energy, legitimacy needs and that shift the power to make and support from citizens in both rich and decisions closer to those affected by poor countries. We are especially them. Our work with the Africa Network committed to building on our encouraging Campaign on Education for All is success in educating and mobilising testimony to this. We are committed to young people. learning fast in this important but relatively new area of intervention. Advocacy and campaigning has many positive ripple effects. It helps to unite • Addressing immediate needs poor and excluded people and their We continue to provide essential support supporters in richer nations a world away and services in the form of training, around a shared agenda to address the information, materials and funds or causes of poverty and injustice. When it emergency relief so that poor and works, it also helps to increase the impact excluded people can address their of our work. immediate needs. Delivering services is not an end in itself – we do so in a • Using research to develop and manner that empowers communities to promote alternatives claim their rights and leverage support We carry out research to understand and from the state. In this way, alleviating the expose how existing systems, policies symptoms of poverty also enables and practices perpetuate poverty and communities to address its causes. injustice. We pilot innovative projects to develop and transfer good development We do not seek to duplicate or displace practice. For example, we are researching the state's obligations and actions. new ways of involving poor people in However, when necessary we will act to decision-making on education, budgets address the immediate needs of and policy. We develop models that seek communities with whom we work. For to advance understanding of the example, we provided new fishing boats processes behind marginalisation and and nets to fishing communities in Tamil exclusion, the better to defeat it. In doing Nadu affected by the December 2004 so, we increasingly collaborate with tsunami. academic and research institutions.

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bringing about enduring changes and success, Section four and (d) ActionAid's own capacity in terms of expertise and resources. While we do not Our strategic priorities prescribe which or how many themes or key actions a country programme will take up, we do emphasise the need to focus only on those where ActionAid's strategic priorities for 2005-2010 build they can deliver robust results and lasting impact. on our belief that poor and excluded people are the main actors in the fight against poverty and All parts of the organisation, however, will work on injustice, and that given the right space and the one or two main international campaigns of resources they have the capacity to prevail. Our ActionAid. strategies are also driven by the sheer scale and systemic nature of global poverty and injustice Strategic priority one: women's rights and the human suffering it inflicts. This has led us Throughout human history, women in many to focus ever more closely on the promotion and societies have been abused, discriminated defence of human rights at every level, from local against and excluded. In addition to embracing to global. The priorities laid out below also reflect women's rights as one of our overarching goals, the organisational competencies we already have, we will place women and girls at the heart of our or would like to build. By implementing them, we work around the world. We will also address aspire to make a significant and growing women's rights directly, for example, by seeking contribution to the empowerment of poor and to work with women's organisations to transform excluded peoples the world over. gender relations. Our hope and aim is to witness women worldwide growing in confidence, skills Working towards our mission and goals, as stated and knowledge so that they may decide their own in Section three, we will focus our efforts around destiny, live without fear of violence and six rights-based themes. These relate to specific participate effectively in decisions that affect their human rights where the urgency is greatest for lives and livelihoods. poor people and our distinctive approach and experience can make the most difference. Key actions:

This thematic framework will guide the whole • strengthen the capacity of women and spectrum of our work including research, girls to claim their rights and meet their advocacy and campaigning – at every level from basic needs local to international. Every action taken must contribute towards achieving the goals and • take actions to protect women and girls ultimately the mission. from violence and provide support if they suffer violence These six rights-based themes overlap and intersect with each other. For example, to secure • strengthen women's leadership and rights to food will require working on women's participation in governance and decision- rights to land and natural resources and to secure making the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS we will need to promote rights to food and nutrition as • build and strengthen women's part of their care and treatment. Our actions will organisations and movements and be prioritised in the areas of intersection between support them in connecting with broader the six themes. alliances

Within this guiding framework, individual parts of • advocate and campaign for laws, policies the organisation will have freedom and flexibility and practices that advance and protect to prioritise themes and actions. Country women's rights programmes and regions will do so according to (a) the needs, aspirations and plans of those with • raise consciousness and change attitudes whom they work – poor and excluded people and so that men and women relate to each their communities, organisations and movements, other as equals and men and boys (b) the potential for building and working with support the cause of gender equality. coalitions and alliances, (c) the potential for

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Strategic priority two: the right to education Strategic priority three: the right to food Over one billion people, the majority of them women, In a world of plenty, 800 million people go hungry lack a basic education and the links between every day. The denial of the right to food illiteracy and poverty are proven and strong. In many compromises people's ability to achieve all other countries, privatisation of education has undermined rights. To fight the scourge of hunger we must the basic contract of the state to educate its citizens. address its causes and not just alleviate its While schools have the potential to transform pupils' symptoms. The answer does not lie in importation lives for the better, in reality they are all too often of food. Nor, against a backdrop of surplus food reproducing the injustices and inequalities found dumping by rich nations, is simply increasing outside their doors. The Dakar Framework for Action production enough. on Education, agreed in 2000, offers a vision for a better future but the global community has failed The majority of people in the South depend on shamefully to follow this up with resources. agriculture to earn their livelihoods. Land grabbing For us, education is a fundamental human right, the and inheritance practices discriminate against responsibility of the state and a core element of a women. Unfair trade rules, subsidies and food development policy committed to social justice. Our dumping undermine local agriculture and food vision for education is that all children will have free security. Increasingly costly agricultural inputs and access to quality education within an equitable control of markets by transnational corporations system. We want to see schools where children's further threaten food security. The root cause of rights, especially those of girls, are respected, hunger lies in the denial of rights and unequal injustices are challenged and children's lives can be access to and control over natural resources such transformed. We want to see early childhood as land, water and seeds, and is exacerbated by education and adult learning that leads to social conflict. change. We have been campaigning for access to food Key actions: and working with poor farmers for decades. Our efforts have included providing seeds, technical • support excluded and disadvantaged advice and information to increase small farmers' groups, especially girls, in gaining access to production in many countries in Asia and Africa; the quality education which is their right empowering Kenyan sugarcane growers with

funds and information to enable them to get a fair • strengthen citizens' participation in price from sugar factories; supporting recently education governance through initiatives such as budget tracking and involvement in freed bonded labourers in their struggle to win reform of policies and systems land allocation from the government of Nepal, and supporting the courageous Indian civil society • promote the rights of all learners within organisations who challenged their government in education systems and ensure that both the courts to guarantee meals for school children boys and girls understand women's rights and protect poor and excluded people from death and discrimination and violence are by starvation. At the international level, we have a eliminated long record of campaigning against the grossly unjust prices, subsidies and conditionalities that • advocate and campaign for constitutional prevent poor farmers from getting the best income change enshrining the legal right to from their produce. We have brought the priorities education in countries where it does not yet and stories of poor people from many diverse exist, and for its enforcement elsewhere countries into the international policy arena, giving them a voice where previously they had none. • influence resource allocation by national governments and international donors in Key actions: line with agreements at the Dakar Education Forum and other summits advocate and campaign for farmers' rights • – especially women's – to agricultural • work with coalitions and networks to advocate and campaign for education land, water, pastures, forest and seeds policies and practices that promote the right of education for all. • support poor communities to develop sustainable livelihoods and sufficient purchasing power for their needs

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• support and build strong civil society Key actions: networks that include farmers', women's and landless people's organisations, • support poor and excluded people in working together to secure the right to accessing appropriate assistance for food relief, recovery and mitigation of the impacts of emergencies and conflict • promote constitutional change or legal action to ensure that people get sufficient • generate knowledge and compile food as a legal right evidence of how women and poor people experience conflict, climate change and • advocate and campaign for the reversal of environmental damage unfair rules and practices imposed by the World Trade Organisation and seek to • advocate for the protection of women's embed pro-poor development at the and girls' rights during situations of centre of the multilateral trading system conflict and disasters

• advocate and campaign for policies and • work with governments and practices that promote food security for intergovernmental organisations to reduce people and food sovereignty for nations, risks and protect people, especially the including regulating corporate control of most vulnerable the food chain, achieving World Food Summit commitments and mitigating the • support women's groups and civil society impact of climate change. to be active and effective in conflict resolution and peace building

Strategic priority four: the right to human • support poor and excluded people and security in conflict and emergencies their organisations in demanding Every year about 300 million people are affected implementation of international treaties by conflict or natural disasters. Those who are which address human rights in conflict most vulnerable and least powerful suffer greatest and emergencies. impact. Weak or authoritarian states, competition for natural resources and a proliferation of small arms mean that more and more people live in Strategic priority five: the right to life and daily fear of violent conflict. Climate change and dignity in the face of HIV and AIDS environmental degradation subject millions more HIV and AIDS threaten the basic rights to life and to the threat of natural disasters. dignity. By 2004, nearly 40 million people were living with HIV and AIDS, 70% of them in Africa. In crises, fear and want predominate. We are However, Asia is expected to overtake Africa in committed to improving the security of poor terms of affected population by 2010. Emerging people facing conflict or disaster, so that they can epidemics are also being projected in Latin live free of fear and free of want. Eleven countries America. where we work are either experiencing or just emerging from situations of violent conflict. From Around six in ten people living with the virus are Rwanda and Burundi, through Sierra Leone and women, and the proportion is rising. Many women Liberia, Afghanistan and Nepal our work takes a in countries with high infection rates experience long-term approach, supporting an end to violence, unjust inheritance practices and violence, social and economic reconstruction and difficulties in negotiating safe sex. Health and peace building. This approach involves working social services in developing countries are both before potential crises erupt to reduce the overburdened and underfunded. Orphans, risks and mitigate impacts, and after crises occur, vulnerable children and youths are among those to aid recovery and explore the opportunities for who have least access to life-saving information, change that occur at such times of flux. We also care and treatment. conduct research and analysis on the dynamics of conflict in an urgent effort to reduce the extent of violence affecting poor people.

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In many countries, the human and economic • strengthen the capacity of PLHA, orphans costs of the epidemic are undermining national and vulnerable children and their support development. Funds committed by donors still fall organisations to engage meaningfully in far short of the amounts required according to decision-making at all levels and to take UNAIDS projections. Most people who need part in effective community responses to treatment are still unable to afford it. HIV and AIDS

ActionAid and our partners have a long history of • explore ways in which successful and working with communities to protect vulnerable widely-employed approaches developed groups from infection and to tackle stigma and by ActionAid, such as Stepping stones, discrimination. We work with HIV-positive people, can go further in tackling gender relations often using innovative methods, to develop their in communities and households. skills in living positively and claiming their rights.

We put people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA), Strategic priority six: the right to just and especially women and girls, at the centre of our democratic governance planning and implementation. The pillars of our The theme of governance runs right through our approach are: access to treatment and care; work at all levels, from local communities to sustainable livelihoods; an enabling policy international institutions, and across the spectrum environment; and strengthening organisations run of governmental, non-governmental and by people living with HIV and AIDS. community-based organisations – our own organisation included. Building on our experience, we will consolidate and scale up our HIV and AIDS response and A rights-based and people-centred approach to prevention work in Africa, Asia and the Americas. governance emphasises the participation of citizens and the ability of poor and excluded Key actions: people to ask questions, claim rights, make decisions and hold institutions to account. • promote the rights of women and girls, These are the foundations for deepening especially the rights to information, democratic processes where people can shape protection from violence, freedom from the state and the state, in turn, creates the social, stigma and discrimination, reduction in the political, economic and legal conditions in which burden of care and the power to make people can exercise their rights and be free from choices for safer sex practices fear and want.

• advocate for the basic rights of orphans Accountable governance will involve monitoring and vulnerable children, especially the policies and practices of local and national education, shelter, care and property governments, donors, intergovernmental inheritance organisations and transnational corporations.

• hold governments and other institutions Institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO accountable to their commitments, often impose policies on poorer nations that conflict especially for increased and equitable with the duty of governments to promote, protect and funding fulfil the rights of their people, particularly the excluded. Making local, national and international • promote the right of the poor and institutions and governments fully accountable for excluded, especially women and girls, their actions, and responsive to the needs of poor to free and comprehensive treatment and countries and people, will help to restore just and care democratic governance.

Key actions: secure sustainable livelihoods and good • nutrition for PLHA, especially women and • strengthen the capacity of women and poor girls; this includes their property rights and excluded people to organise themselves to claim rights, participate in decision-making processes and influence public policy

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• support civil society organisations and Geographical focus social movements working to achieve accountable government, democratic ActionAid works in over 40 countries in Africa, the international institutions and effective Americas, Asia and Europe. Our decision to work regulation of transnational corporations in a country is driven by an assessment of what our presence will bring to existing poverty • promote monitoring of the state's delivery eradication efforts – both by others in the country of social and economic rights by budget and by ActionAid internationally. tracking and other means, such as public hearings, citizens' tribunals and the right Our work will remain focused on countries where to information the depth of poverty or extent of inequality creates the most urgent need. Our largest investment will • work with national legislators and policy therefore continue to be in Africa. makers for democratic decision-making, especially on international loans, In this strategy period we are committed to contracts and economic policies consolidating our presence in the countries where we already have programmes. In countries where • promote accountability and transparency this is limited, we will target our efforts to attain within and among civil society optimum influence and impact. Where necessary organisations at local, national and we will develop programmes in new countries, or international levels introduce a staff presence, as part of a cohesive development of international, regional or sub- • advocate and campaign, nationally and regional programmes. However, we will take a internationally, for just trade, cancellation cautious approach to expanding into new of poor countries' debt, pro-poor aid countries. policies and the realisation of the Millennium Declaration of the United In this strategy period we also plan to expand our Nations presence and develop new affiliates in richer, more powerful countries so as to strengthen our • promote and support alliances of influencing and fundraising potential. Mobilising Southern countries and their initiatives for greater support and resources in the USA for our democratic regional governance and work internationally will be essential. integration. We will deepen our engagement in emerging global powers such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

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Section five Organisational objectives

Organisational implications In order to deliver our mission-related goals and strategic priorities, we set ourselves the following six key organisational objectives. We expect that We are well aware that delivering this ambitious the actions and interventions that result will strategy presents a major challenge. In order to strengthen our governance, staff, skills, structure, succeed, we must strive to be accountable, culture and practices. effective, dynamic and international. We must be vigilant in ensuring that our organisational 1: Strengthen our governance and deepen structures, ways of working and behaviours accountability continually reinforce our goals. We will strengthen our governance to reflect our international nature – sharing power across North Our legitimacy, and ultimately our influence, and South, acting together with one voice from depends on us being accountable for all that we local to international. Our international spread and do. We will be open and transparent in our work diverse staff, the vast majority of whom are from and within our organisation. We will seek always developing nations, will bring a better to deliver on our commitments and lead by understanding of the issues that poor people face. example. We will hold ourselves accountable to poor and excluded people, to our partners and to We will make ourselves more accountable to the the supporters who give us time, money and poor and excluded and strive to ensure that our solidarity. work is relevant, cost-effective and appropriate. Accountability to our supporters and donors We will be effective – constantly striving for strengthens our relationships and influence. efficiency and excellence. Working together within Mutual accountability with partners reinforces the ActionAid family and with our partners and confidence, trust and effectiveness. allies, across functions, themes, and geographical boundaries, we will pursue the actions that make As we become more interdependent within the most difference to the lives of poor and ActionAid we will improve our internal excluded people. We will be cost conscious and accountability processes between different parts deploy our resources to maximise value. and levels of the organisation.

We will be dynamic – bold, responsive and To strengthen governance and accountability, we innovative – in relation to the ever changing and will: complex environment in which we work. While pursuing our new strategy, we will hold true to our • develop all current country programmes, existing commitments to poor and excluded where it is legally and practically feasible, people and communities. We will seek always to as affiliates of ActionAid be outward-looking, listening to those we work with and accommodating new ideas and • develop quality boards in all affiliates, with relationships. We will be committed to developing significant representation of poor and best practice and generating alternatives. Building excluded people in Southern countries on our diversity and learning, we will aspire on a and of volunteers or supporters in daily basis to improve our work. Northern countries

We will be international in our governance, • invest in the development of board management and the way we work. At the heart of members (both affiliate and international this approach lies our governing principle, that all boards) and in the continuing parts of ActionAid have a shared vision and shared development of ActionAid's governance strategies and act together towards eradicating systems and practices poverty and injustice, that all parts of ActionAid have strong relationships with the communities where they work, and that our organisational practices and work are connected at every operational level, from local to national to international.

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• clarify the roles and accountabilities of We need to develop a style of leadership aligned affiliates, associates and the International to our values and beliefs – focusing particularly on Secretariat, as outlined in ActionAid's promoting gender equality, rejecting patriarchal memorandum of understanding, to ensure attitudes and encouraging a sensible work-life a balanced system of governance, power balance among staff. We will: sharing and decision-making • strengthen leadership development, • strengthen a mutually reinforcing dual especially for women identity – both national and international – in all the national affiliates of ActionAid. • strive to attain gender balance and The aim is to increase our cohesiveness diversity in staffing – including recruitment as one international organisation, made from within the communities where we up of many parts work – and to sustain it at all levels

• strengthen systems, skills and practices • invest in training for staff, trustees and designed to ensure delivery of our partners on core concepts, tools, accountability, primarily to the poor and approaches and techniques, especially excluded people and their communities rights-based approaches, women's rights and organisations, but also to our and working with partners and social supporters and donors movements

• strengthen implementation of the open • develop and strengthen appropriate information policy in all parts of the methodologies and practice to enable organisation staff and partners to carry out rigorous power analysis and impact assessment • work to improve the quality of feedback from partners as well as to improve ours • strive to create an empowering and to them. motivating work environment in harmony with ActionAid's values and approach

2: Strengthen staff capacity • promote a culture of personal safety and Independent reviews of our work have work-life balance commended our committed and hardworking staff. Our successes and our evolving philosophy and • enable and encourage staff to reflect, approach flow from their creativity and hard work learn and grow within their daily working in partnership with the communities we work with. environment and to generate and share As we move forward we will continue to build a knowledge gained from their experiences. diverse cadre of staff, motivated, knowledgeable, accountable and confident in delivering ActionAid's mission. We will step up our efforts to 3: Strengthen our structures and systems develop leaders who will drive the organisation The effectiveness and impact of our work and bring about societal change. depends on the ability to work in diverse, flexible and empowered teams. We will provide space We will invest to ensure that our staff acquire the and incentives for staff to work within and skills, attitudes and values needed to deliver our between geographical divisions, functions and mission. We must build capacity for research, themes. We will strengthen management advocacy and campaigning. We will enable and structures to improve decision-making, encourage staff to understand and respond to the implementation and accountability. Power, realities of poor and excluded people. We will including financial resources, will shift within the offer learning opportunities such as inductions organisation to align with our strategic priorities. and secondments – promoting staff movement across countries, themes and job functions. We An organisational culture that encourages will provide opportunities for personal innovation, learning and sharing will enable us to development and for staff to be involved in respond to a rapidly changing and challenging shaping the organisation. external environment.

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excluded people to the general public, decision- We urgently need tools and support systems that makers and supporters worldwide to bring about link individual and organisational learning. We will change. It is also imperative that we communicate invest in developing and sharing our knowledge to a global audience what makes ActionAid and ideas. We will: different and effective.

• improve and clarify our management of To succeed, we need to build more and deeper work which cuts across geographies, relationships with local, national and international functions and themes, drawing out the media. We need to build our capacity and connections between areas of work experience, and that of our partners, in campaigning and communicating to the world • build and strengthen thematic and through the media and direct communication functional teams in line with the principles channels such as the internet and mobile of multiple accountability and our networks. It will take tenacity, courage and programme priorities creativity to make sure that we are heard. We will:

• invest in technology to improve efficiency • ensure that voices of the poor and and effectively manage distant and virtual excluded are part of our advocacy and team working campaigns and receive public and media exposure • develop systems to promote effective internal communication and encourage • establish a clear mechanism for input of external knowledge and prioritising and implementing international perspectives campaigns

• invest in structures and systems that will • invest in and develop our capacity to help us to generate and promote design and deliver effective, clear, innovations, knowledge and alternatives, focused and consistent national and as we strive to become a knowledge international campaigns leader in the outside world on our priority themes • build a professional and innovative communications team located in key • develop transparent and practical global media hubs in Africa, the Americas, methods of strategically allocating funds Asia and Europe in line with organisational plans and priorities • develop the capacity of staff to campaign and to communicate our messages • strengthen monitoring and evaluation through the media systems and reinforce our impact assessment capability to develop our • strengthen the ActionAid brand through understanding of how change happens greater visibility and quality campaigns and communications integrated with • improve cost effectiveness and develop fundraising. performance measures that enable us to monitor our progress and assess the impact of our work. We will aim to achieve 5: Increase our supporters and mobilise support costs at less than 15% of income. supporters and partners behind our mission One of our greatest assets is our large and growing number of supporters and their 4: Strengthen our communications and increasing willingness to engage in campaigning campaigns for change as well as giving money. In addition to ActionAid has low visibility, particularly in the nurturing our many long established supporters, North, in relation to its size, impact and ambitions. we have become more active in supporting Effective communications and campaigns will younger people in their desire to be activists and provide the bridge between us and the world and campaigners. the means to transmit the messages of poor and

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Vocal support from specific constituencies of 6: Increase and diversify income voters and consumers offers key opportunities to We expect that regular giving from individuals will influence Northern and Southern governments continue to comprise at least half of our income. and their power blocs through national and Linking donors to children and communities in the international campaigns. Recognising that South is the cornerstone of this approach, eradicating poverty requires collaboration, we will affording them closer understanding of the real work increasingly in alliances and partnerships experiences of poor and excluded people. This with social movements, networks and civil society reliable source of long-term funds enables us to groups. This will require exchanges of personnel commit to future plans, set aside appropriate and ideas, and joint campaign actions as we build levels of reserves and safeguard our a collective voice for social change. We will: independence.

• offer existing and new supporters more While our fundraising is successful in several and different opportunities to engage with Northern countries, we have been slow to expand ActionAid in addition to supporting us into new ones. Emerging fundraising opportunities financially in the South also offer potential to broaden our supporter base, raise money and engage with • broaden our supporter base to include a new donors to make aid more effective. wider representation of civil society from the North and South In this strategy period, we expect to increase the proportion of our income that comes from official • seek to constantly improve our donors. This will both bring in extra income and communication with supporters and to put us in a good position to influence official forge stronger links and a closer affinity donors' development policies and practices and between supporters and the communities their accountability requirements. in which we work Competition for funds is growing. New non-profit • invest in and use new media and other organisations are forming, demands from donors forms of technology to widen our are increasing, and more official funds are subject constituency to competitive tendering, resulting in greater competition and higher fundraising costs. We • continue to develop joint actions and must evolve to meet these challenges. campaigns with our peers and other organisations, networks and movements We must strengthen our fundraising capacity, focus our case for support, deepen and diversify • improve our capacity, policies and our income sources and products. Our capacity to systems to ensure that we are able to harness official donor funding must grow work more effectively and accountably significantly, though it will not exceed 40% of total with people's organisations, social income. We will: movements and a diverse range of civil society organisations operating at every • seek to significantly increase core long- level from small communities to the term income (excluding emergency international arena related), from individuals and institutions in the North and the South, from €113 • internationalise our youth programme by million in 2003 to between €215 and €240 connecting young people in the North and million in 2010 South and actively involve them in ActionAid campaigns. • diversify our income sources, products and donors, predominantly to reduce risk, safeguard our independence and increase our opportunities to influence donor policies

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• diversify our fundraising methods and the materials used to ensure they accurately reflect the work we do and exploit the technologies now available while offering maximum appeal to long-term supporters, including the opportunity for genuine and positive North-South exchanges

• expand relationships with official donors and use the opportunities this presents to influence policy and share information

• raise funds that are more flexible to allow income to be used where it is most needed

• maintain appropriate reserves in line with our growth and the evolving risks we face.

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Section six

Making it happen

This strategy is our springboard for action in the Taking this strategy forward from a statement of face of abject poverty and gross inequality. It intent to decisive action will require us to: builds on our experience and deeper understanding of the world to consolidate gains • develop a framework to assess our achieved in working to our previous strategy progress against the goals, strategies and Fighting poverty together. priorities we have set

This strategy brings greater focus to our work, • develop materials and tools to promote welding our goals to thematic priorities, which will and internalise the spirit and substance of help us achieve the greatest impact on promoting the strategy rights and justice that we possibly can. • manage change across the organisation It reflects our resolve to strengthen our alliances in order to promote a powerful partnership for • unlock financial resources to implement change between organisations of poor and an investment strategy aimed at excluded people and those of wider civil society maximising our income across all around the world. fundraising markets

It reflects the increasingly interconnected nature • develop thematic, functional and regional of our work and of our deployment of staff and plans to implement the strategy resources, as we play our part in the global internationally movement for justice. • align national strategies for coherence It emphasises accountability, leadership, the and synergy generation and sharing of knowledge and our desire for closer engagement with supporters, • critically reflect, innovate and learn. both new and existing, to increase our influence worldwide. Above all, it expresses our aspirations for change and progress that will better serve the interests of the poor and excluded and advance The way forward our mission towards our vision of a world without poverty and injustice. This strategy is about achieving change for the better. Change within ActionAid and change in the This is an ambitious strategy, but given the world around us. We are hopeful that, despite the massive scale of human suffering we witness scale of the challenge, the anti-poverty movement daily, a relevant one. We believe we have what it of which we are but one part will ultimately takes to deliver: rootedness in the communities consign poverty and injustice to history. We are we work with; committed supporters and donors; optimistic that, within the lifetime of this strategy growing partnerships and alliances; supportive and guided by its content, we will expand our trustees and a cadre of able and dedicated staff. impact and effectiveness in the world. We are grateful that, every day, we need only look to the creativity, energy and resolution with which poor and excluded people fight to overcome abject poverty in order to draw inspiration for our own efforts.

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