Campaign blog

70% of the world’s poorest people are women and girls. This is totally unacceptable.

Promoting women’s rights is at the centre of all of ActionAid’s work around the world – so International Women's Day (8 March) is an amazing opportunity to draw attention to the achievements, but also the problems faced by women in developing countries.

We’re holding loads of events this week, kicking off with a forum this evening on women’s rights in the global economy. Together with the Gender and Development Network, we’ve managed to get both Gordon Brown and Development Minister Douglas Alexander involved. We’ll let you know how it went tomorrow.

In the meantime, help celebrate International Women’s Day by taking action. We’re calling on Gordon Brown to put women’s rights at the centre of the fight against poverty. Send him your message now!

Good news late on a Friday afternoon at ActionAid towers ...

Our Who pays? campaign campaign took a step closer to achieving its goal of a supermarket watchdog today. The government inquiry into supermarket power – undertaken by the Competition Commission – published their latest paper today, which you’ve probably seen reported on the news, and they are proposing a supermarket watchdog, which is exactly what we’ve been calling for.

Our very own Dominic Eagleton said "We welcome their proposal for an independent ombudsman to make supermarkets play fair, providing it has enough clout to do the job properly. Any regulator must have a global reach, as supermarkets are global businesses that buy goods worth seven million pounds every day from developing countries.”

However, the job isn’t finished yet! The Commission doesn’t publish its final report until the end of April, so we must keep up the pressure. We need to make sure the Commission stands firm and introduces the watchdog in the face of heavy lobbying from supermarkets to water down the proposals. We also need them to go further, and make sure the watchdog will oversee supermarkets’ relationships with their suppliers in developing countries and bring improvements to the lives of millions of women workers.

If you're not one of the amazing 35,000 who have already taken the Who pays? loyalty pledge then this is your moment!  Sign up here now!

The daily trudge into the office was brightened up for staff at the Department for International Development, as we asked them to put women's rights at the heart of their new AIDS strategy this Valentine's Day.

We greeted hundreds of DFID workers with Valentines Day cards, chocolates and a band of singing telegrams belting out the classics, before delivering an extra special card to their boss - Douglas Alexander.

Watch this film to see what happened and then send an e-card yourself to support the campaign.

Have a look at our new Who pays? campaign video.

If your loyalty card does this too, then we’d love to hear about it ...