ActionAid EU Campaign categories: poverty Location: Belgium

Every human has a right to live a life in dignity and respect.

At ActionAid we take advantage of our 30 years of knowledge and experience in fighting poverty. We apply the following principles to all our work:
•we work together with poor people, local partners and organisations in combating poverty
•we focus on fighting against the causes of poverty, not just the results.
We have prioritised five areas of work where we can make the most difference: education, hiv and aids, food rights, emergencies, women and girls and governance.

Our project work in Africa, Asia and Latin America is at the heart of what we do. We have developed projects that enable people living in poverty to claim their rights - to, for example, education, food, and drugs for treating hiv/aids.

These issues are often linked, and so we have developed projects that tackle them holistically. Through education more people are able to find out about hiv/aids prevention and treatment. For women and girls to protect themselves from the threats of hiv/aids, they need to have greater awareness of their rights against sexual violence, and support in claiming their right to equality.

We also campaign and lobby at both national and international levels to change rules and regulations that exacerbate poverty. In some instances, goverments and institutions in rich countries are still insisting that poor countries privatise their basic services or cut the amount of money they spend on health or education in order to qualify for aid money.

They are demanding that poor countries pay back massive loans that they have no way of funding. And they are tacitly supporting big business that insists on people in poor countries paying through the nose for lifesaving products such as antiretroviral drugs.

We actively target the world's most influential institutions - the World Bank, WTO, G8, EU and IMF - to change their policies so that we have a more equal world. A world where poor people have rights and a real chance to get out of poverty.

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