News blog

A recent study of NGOs is proving controversial amongst aid agencies in the UK. The basic premise of the June paper by the Brooks World Poverty Institute is that development is more focused on aid rather than the root causes of poverty.

While it's easy to adopt a defensive approach - Oxfam’s Duncan Green legitimately claims that the feeling you might get as an NGO worker when reading the paper is equivalent to how "private sector, government or the multilateral system feel when they read a generalised and ill-informed NGO attack on their work" - perhaps we should look at the main question it raises: How are NGOs taking steps to solve the root causes of poverty?

ActionAid’s Tax Justice Campaign has been making progress since 2008 on the tax dodging that sees billions leeched out of developing countries each and every year.

The tax loopholes which allow this to happen are one of the main root causes of poverty in developing nations, which also increases inequality in the world’s poorest countries. We know that British businesses, like Grosch and Peroni owner SABMiller are dodging their taxes in Africa. As a result poorer countries lose three times more money to tax havens than they receive in aid every year - funds that are urgently needed to pay for basic services such as education and healthcare.

It is not the aid agencies that are responsible for this vast outflow of vital resources, but we’re doing all we can to stop the endless loop of poverty.

Please sign our petition to close this noose of tax loopholes, which are strangling the revenues of poorer countries.

We celebrated summer this week at the ActionAid blog party. It was a jam-packed afternoon of stories, socialising and some lots of cake! ActionAid ambassador Alex Graham, who’s seen first-hand the change that’s going on in Myanmar, wowed and inspired me.

In a film about his trip to Rwanda Jimi Mistry talked about how child sponsorship inspires both his and his daughter’s life.

Two of our amazing mummy bloggers, Gemma (helloitsgemma.wordpress.com) and Penny(aresidence.co.uk) put on a brainstorm about how bloggers could get involved with ActionAid which also bowled me over.

Then there were the kids who came along. While their blogger parents were hearing about kids all around the world this great group were having a whole bunch of fun hitting the paints, glitter, pipe cleaners and sticky back plastic.

More pictures can be seen on our blogging events pinterest board.

It was such a great afternoon that surprised me and hopefully everyone who came along had a lovely time too:

>> aresidence.co.uk @aresidence
>> babesabouttown.com @babesabouttown
>> helloitsgemma.wordpress.com @helloitsgemma
>> perfectingpru.wordpress.com @prusinger
>> sylwiapresley.com @presleysylwia
>> coffeeandvanilla.co.uk @coffeenvanilla
>> frenchyummymummy.com/ @FrenchYumMummy
>> johnsonbabies.com @_johnsonbabies
>> diaryofthedad.co.uk @TomBriggs79
>> jenography.net @jhowze
>> pienbiscuits.wordpress.com

As the month of Ramadan draws to a close this Sunday, David Cameron’s Hunger Summit has been hitting the headlines.

The Prime Minister’s hope to secure pledges to help prevent 25 million children suffering stunted growth before the Rio Games cannot come a moment too soon.

Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world despite the government’s commitment to fight malnutrition.



ActionAid’s Ramadan appeal 'Sponsor a Child for Zakat' is raising awareness about the problem that many children face in Bangladesh and helping to put that right.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP) the government’s sixth Five Year Plan 2011-2015 has not been effective due to limited distribution of nutritional supplements, inadequate growth monitoring and lack of skilled personnel.

In Bangladesh nearly half of all children under five (7.8 million) are too short for their age, a sign of nutrient shortage, according to 2009 data analysed by WFP.

Another two million children are estimated to have acute malnutrition, weighing too little for their height.

Nobel Laureate, the poet Gabriela Mistral said, "Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer 'Tomorrow'. His name is 'Today'." 


At the end of Ramadan, Muslims also celebrate Eid-ul Fitr - “Festival of Breaking of the Fast” - often hosting lavish banquets for, or paying the Zakat to, the poor before Eid prayer.

For just £15 a month you can sponsor a child in Bangladesh and do just one thing to help put a stop to the constant, never-ending hunger pangs today.

 Because children cannot wait.

ActionAid has worked in Myanmar - or Burma, for several years.

Many UK supporters know that our ambassador Emma Thompson recently visited the country and met opposition leader (and Nobel Peace prize winner) Aung San Suu Kyi, at exactly the time that the world realised we could well be at the start of a Burmese spring.

It was a heady period and progress towards reform and democracy continues.

Yet Burma has been in the news again for more challenging reasons – sectarian violence in Rakhine state between the minority Rohingya people who are Muslim and their majority Buddhist neighbours.

 There is long-standing tension between the two groups and it is being reported that 70,000 Rohingya Muslims have been moved out of the state capital Sittwe into temporary camps and their neighbourhoods razed. 

It reminded me about something our country director in Burma told me at the time of Emma Thompson’s visit. That Burma, which has a population of over 48 million, is a country with many different ethnic and religious groups and that poverty linked to trigger points can easily exacerbate simmering intercommunity violence. 

To learn more I listened to John Ging speaking to Channel 4 news (16 minutes into the programme). John Ging is the Director of Operations for the highly respected UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has just visited Rakhine state and the camps.

 He reported that there was decades-old animosity between groups, that this had recently flared into conflict triggered by allegations of violence and rape, that people were living in real fear and that those who had been displaced were surviving in desperate conditions. He also said that the situation was explosive and needed to be quickly stabilised. 

As ever, in complex and complicated situations, that requires clearly thought out political action - both national and international - to reinforce commitment and bring just and lasting peace. 

Whilst recognising that the situation remains tremendously difficult, John Ging felt that Burmese politicians were committed to addressing the situation and also that international Islamic organisations were working hard to mobilise goodwill and calm grievances. 

So this is therefore a moment of opportunity. But as John Ging said, as well as addressing immediate humanitarian needs, people need to be treated fairly, given hope and that goodwill must be reinforced by action at a grass roots level. 

Ultimately, the future of Burma lies in the hand of its people and ActionAid’s Youth Fellowship Programme is working towards that.

It aims to develop young leaders in Burma to work with all communities at a local level. And in a country where 40% of the population are children and young people, youth fellowship and common cause provide a huge opportunity to help harness the energy of a generation to overcome poverty and violence.

>> Read more on ActionAid's work in Myanmar (Burma)