displaced people in Somaliland.
In the face of growing inequality, the threat of climate change, shrinking civil space and an increasingly hostile global political context, throughout 2019, the women and girls we work with continued to inspire us. Together with our local partners, ActionAid staff and volunteers implemented 926 life-changing projects around the world. We also responded to 37 emergencies, reaching nearly 900,000 people in crisis.
We aim to help fix the structural problems which drive inequality. With our allies and partners, we continued the global pushback against the privatisation of public education. We worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to invest in local agroecology as a solution to hunger, instead of industrial agriculture being subsidised to drive land grabs from indigenous communities. Some highlights from 2019 include:
- In Ethiopia, Kenya and Nepal, ActionAid Ireland’s Women’s Rights programme (funded by the Irish government) focused on economic empowerment for women as a way to increase food security and end gender-based violence against women and girls.
- In Indonesia, where unsafe school buildings prevent children from receiving an education, Action Aid / Yappikka runs a ‘Safe School Programme’ which engaged parents in debates about children’s rights to an education and empowered local communities to successfully advocate the government for budgets to improve schools’ infrastructure.
- In Brazil, the land and livelihoods of Babassu coconut breakers are threatened by the advance of agribusiness and private properties. ActionAid Brazil organised for these indigenous community leaders to meet parliamentarians, activists, academics, and journalists, where they raised awareness about the growing persecution of Brazilian traditional and indigenous peoples.
- In March, Cyclone Idai struck South African countries including Zimbabwe. The crisis led to the displacement of thousands of people and a rise in cases of gender-based violence (GBV), linked to high levels of poverty caused by the disaster. ActionAid Zimbabwe, and local partner Jekesa Pfungwa Vulinqondo, constructed lockable wooden houses for women headed households, lockable toilets, and five safe houses to ensure the safety and protection of women. We also created safe spaces for women and girls to ensure GBV survivors could be referred to legal and medical support and counselling.
Find more information about ActionAid’s achievements in 2019 in our Annual Report. Thank you for your support.