How we campaign

We campaign and organise to shift the power that is holding women and girls back and fuelling global inequalities, poverty and climate change.

We take on all those who discriminate against women and girls – whether they’re corporations, the judicial system, the police or the Government.

We work with women activists in low and middle-income countries on joint campaigns.
We campaign for the British Government and British companies to change their policies and practices.
We raise funds for activists to create change and influence their own governments and companies.

We build the feminist campaigning skills of the British public to organise and campaign.

We’re committed to intersectional feminist, anti-racist and trans-inclusive campaigns for justice.

We stand with those fighting back no matter where they live.

Join us in the fight against violence.

What we campaign on

Read more below about the causes we fight for.

Protecting Official Development Assistance

Official Development Assistance (ODA), sometimes known as overseas aid, is the financial support that the UK Government gives to countries to tackle poverty, support the world’s most marginalised people and respond to humanitarian and environmental disasters.

Since 2019 the UK Government has cut more than 4 billion pounds from the budget – impacting thousands of lives.

In 2020, more than 100,000 of us took action to try to stop the cuts and merger of theForeign & Commonwealth, and Development departments. Since then, we’ve been calling on the Government to restore this funding, especially for reproductive health services, and to directly fund local and women-led organisations.

Woman leader Luijah directs an ActionAid food distribution project for people suffering from drought in Kenya

Alice Oldenburg/ActionAid

Agnes Afua Obour at her office for Network of Communities in Development (NOCID) in Ghana.

Misper Apawu/ActionAid

Ending violence against women and girls

Violence against women and girls is a fundamental human rights violation, affecting one in three women and girls around the world. But grassroots organisations are building women and girls’ power to change this.

In 2022, ActionAid supporters raised more than £9,000 to directly fund Agnes Afua Obour and her team at the Network of Communities in Development (NOCID) in Ghana, and their plan to bring together local leaders, girls’ clubs and volunteers to end violence against women and girls for good. We made sure every penny of that money went straight to NOCID – none stayed with ActionAid.

“I want everyone to know their rights, especially the women and children, because we know if you know your rights no one can violate you or stand against your rights" - Agnes Afua Obour, NOCID.

Ending sexual harassment at work

Gender discrimination means that women are more likely to be in low-wage insecure jobs, paid less than men for the same work, have limited access to land and loans, and be impacted by violence at work.

In June 2019, after more than a decade of tireless campaigning and advocacy by feminist and labour rights activists including ActionAid in Ghana, Jordan and the UK, the International Labour Organisation adopted the first-ever international treaties to end violence and harassment in the world of informal and formal work: Conventions 189 and 190.

International treaties can seem distant from our daily reality, but C190 really has the potential to transform lives – and we’re working hard to ensure it does!

Join our campaign to ensure new laws are passed and properly implemented to end violence at work.

Fishing community In Andhra Pradesh, India

Poulomi Basu/ActionAid

Demanding climate justice

The world is in the midst of a climate crisis. We’re seeing extreme heatwaves, floods and storms from China to Germany to Cambodia – but not everyone is equally equipped to deal with them.

We’re calling on the world's governments and companies to stop their climate-damaging behaviour and ensure that everyone, especially women and girls, can adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Thousands of us have taken to the streets, funded billboards calling out decision-makers and are speaking out to ensure a sustainable and feminist future for all.

This summer we will launch a campaign to ensure the world’s biggest banks divest from agribusiness and fossil fuel projects that are harming women, girls, communities and the planet.

Defending fundamental rights and freedoms

Fundamental rights and freedoms are under attack across the world, including the rights to access reproductive healthcare, to claim asylum, to strike and to protest.

We campaign against attacks on fundamental rights and freedoms no matter where they happen.

In the UK, we campaigned against the introduction of anti-protest police powers, and we’ve taken action against the rhetoric and Bills that prevent people from accessing their right to refuge and safety.

Worldwide, we’ve joined organisations calling for a People’s Vaccine to ensure Covid-19 vaccines reach everyone that needs them, with hundreds of us recording WhatsApp messages for Pfizer and Moderna executives to be broadcast outside their annual general meetings in the UK.

In 2018, we campaigned to stop former US President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK, and supported the Women’s March through London and the People’s Banquet to stand up to Trump.

Women from the Rights Café in Bangladesh, marching down the street.

Nicole Bailey/ActionAid UK