ActionAid USA

ActionAid’s vision is a just, equitable, and sustainable world in which every person enjoys the right to a life of dignity, freedom from poverty, and all forms of oppression.

They know this can only be done by shifting power – towards communities and away from elites – and aid as traditionally practiced does not accomplish this.

That’s why ActionAid takes action in partnership with people on the frontlines of poverty and injustice in more than 70 countries, including Afghanistan, the Arab Region, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, occupied Palestinian territories, The Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

About ActionAid

ActionAid’s approach ActionAid’s human rights-based approach (HRBA) enables communities we work with to drive their own change by claiming the rights they are entitled to. We empower people to understand their rights and hold duty bearers to account for protecting and fulfilling these rights. We think and act globally and locally, ensuring communities participate in key decisions that impact their lives and meaningfully engage in policy action.

Eight core principles provide the foundation for our work:

1. We put people living in poverty first and enable their active agency as rights activists

   2. We analyse and confront unjust and unequal power

2. We advance women’s rights, taking a feminist approach

3. We work in partnership

4. We are accountable and transparent

5. We rigorously monitor and evaluate to evidence our impact and we critically reflect and learn to improve our work

6. We ensure links across levels to address the structural causes of poverty and injustice

7. We are innovative, solutions-oriented and promote feminist alternatives

Monitoring, evaluation, accountability & learning (MEAL)

We rigorously monitor, evaluate and document our work to reflect and learn so that we can be more effective in the future. Doing this regularly enables us to learn more about challenging power and how change happens, leading to new insights to take forward in our work to support new, stronger action for change. Rigorous evaluation deepens our accountability to donors, tests innovations and builds the evidence base for alternatives. Our approach to MEAL privileges the voices, perspectives and analysis of people living in poverty and exclusion, particularly women. Their knowledge is used throughout the programme cycle, strengthening our own learning and knowledge generation. Our programmes work to reduce the risk of violence against women and girls, fighting for women’s equal rights to economic opportunities, and prioritising women and girls’ rights and their leadership in humanitarian crises.