Newsroom

ActionAid provides real-time news comment, updates to journalists and interviews with spokespeople all over the world.

For all press enquiries please contact Laura Sullivan on: Telephone: +32 2503 2422 Mobile: +32 485 781 255 or Laura.Sullivan@actionaid.org

EC report on social impacts of biofuels is a whitewash, claims ActionAid
Wednesday, 27 March 2013 –

Wednesday 27th March: While welcoming the European Commission’s ambitions on climate and energy presented today in a Green Paper, the EC has covered up the negative social impacts of Europe’s biofuel policies by severely underestimating the amount of biofuels-related land grab in Africa and the impacts on global food prices in an EC report also out today, claims international anti-poverty agency ActionAid.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS: British Sugar Giant Dodges Zambian Tax Bill Big Enough to Put 48,000 Children in School a Year
Sunday, 10 February 2013 –

(Lusaka, 10 February 2013) A new investigation released today by ActionAid has revealed that the Associated British Foods group (ABF), owner of Silver Spoon sugar and other household brands, is avoiding its tax bill in Zambia, one of the world’s poorest countries.
New EU biofuel proposals inadequate: world hunger and greenhouse gas emissions would increase warns ActionAid
Wednesday, 17 October 2012 –

ActionAid’s Head of Campaigns Belinda Calaguas is available for interview by contacting Laura Sullivan on 0032 (0)485 781255
Belinda will speak at a press briefing at 8.30am at Mi-Figue Mi-Raisin, Rue Archimede 71, Brussels and on a E uropean Development Days panel at 2pm today.
ActionAid welcomes the Commission's food before fuel approach
Monday, 17 September 2012 –

ActionAid welcomes confirmation from European Commissioners Hedegaard and Oettinger today of plans to limit the amount of food to fuel biofuels in the EU, calling on them to go further and abolish crop based biofuels entirely.
New draft EU legislation inadequate: world hunger needs a ban - not a cap - on biofuels warns ActionAid
Friday, 14 September 2012 –

News that the EU is planning a limit on the use of food-based biofuels has been welcomed by ActionAid. But the anti-poverty agency warns that without a total ban on food and land based fuels, millions will still go hungry because food prices will continue to be affected and land will still be grabbed.
EU aid commitments at historic low, NGOs warn crisis hitting the poor
Tuesday, 26 June 2012 –

The AidWatch report 2012, ‘Aid We Can: more investment in global development’, written by CONCORD, the European confederation for Relief and Development NGOs, shows that:

9 EU countries beat aid targets, but Germany and France missed the mark in 2011. Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Malta (the only EU 12 country), Belgium, Finland and Ireland all met their targets. Germany and France however are way off track, both giving less than 0.5% of their GNI to development aid.

Aid budget cuts are becoming a major trend, with €500 million slashed from total EU aid spending in 2011. 11 EU countries cut their aid levels last year, with 9 countries planning further cuts in 2012. Spain and Italy are likely to face the biggest cuts; 53% and 38% respectively. Total EU aid amounted to €53billion in 2011.

14% of EU aid or €7.35 billion didn’t reach developing countries in 2011. Genuine Aid, that represents a real transfer of resources to developing countries, is highest from Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland.
Will Brazil be a Hunger Hero and Rescue Rio+20 Summit?
Tuesday, 19 June 2012 –

ActionAid Identifies the Ingredients to a Successful Summit

Rio de Janeiro – The 15th of June, Brazil assumed the role as host of the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20), and with it the responsibility to ensure that the negotiations are concluded successfully. Brazil takes leadership at a critical moment, when agreement on issues around food security have all but stalled. With only three days of negotiations left before the heads of state arrive, the question is if Brazil can move countries to agreement on food and agriculture issues that will protect the right to food.
NEW REPORT HIGHLIGHTS ABSURDITY OF G20 STANCE
Tuesday, 19 June 2012 –

Europe’s demand for biofuels could drive up food crop prices by as much as 36% by 2020, helping to push millions more into hunger, a new report from ActionAid reveals. But despite this and other widespread evidence that biofuels are a major contributor to global hunger, the G20 will yet again avoid the issue when it meets in Mexico next week.
Stop Human Rights Abuses Fuelled by EU Biofuels Policy, says ActionAid
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 –

As the European Commission is given an opportunity to revise the EU’s biofuels targets in 2012, a new ActionAid report reveals that the EU continues to ignore that its biofuels policies are driving up global food prices and pushing people in poor countries off their land.
Devil is in the detail on EU’s energy plans for developing world
Monday, 16 April 2012 –

ActionAid welcomes the initiative announced by the European Commission today to increase development aid to promote access to sustainable, renewable energy for the poorest and most excluded people in the world, particularly women.
EU biofuels targets will cost €126 billion without reducing emissions
Wednesday, 1 February 2012 –

Motorists across Europe are set to pay an additional €18 billion a year for petrol and diesel as a result of EU biofuel targets that have been shown not to reduce emissions, says new research published today.
EEAS marginalises anti-poverty objectives in EU foreign policy
Tuesday, 10 January 2012 –

The European Union is marginalising anti-poverty objectives within its new foreign policy arm, the External Action Service (EEAS), outlines a new report today by CONCORD, the European confederation of Relief and Development NGOs.
G20 – ActionAid reaction to Bill Gates’ report
Thursday, 3 November 2011 –

Comment from: Neil Watkins, Director of Policy and Campaigns, ActionAid USA, who was also directly involved in the NGO consultations on the report with the Gates Foundation. Member of the G20 endorsed GAFSP (Global Agriculture and Food Security Program)
Every day a billion go hungry and billions are lost in tax havens
Wednesday, 2 November 2011 –

As G20 leaders gather in Cannes on Thursday, they will discuss the Eurozone crisis, but must also grapple with the huge challenges facing developing countries.
EU’s new growth-led development policy is flawed, says ActionAid
Thursday, 13 October 2011 –

A new EU development policy unveiled today reveals an alarming shift, moving EU aid away from supporting poor people to end poverty and towards promoting economic growth.
EU agricultural policy putting poor farmers out of business, says ActionAid report
Tuesday, 27 September 2011 –

Massive subsidies in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy are putting local farmers in poor countries out of business, reveals a new report by ActionAid. Milking the poor shows how subsidised EU milk is causing unfair competition to poor farmers in Bangladesh, suppressing investment in the dairy industry and undermining EU investments in food security.
Real aid is reducing aid dependency says ActionAid report
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 –

Aid dependency among 54 of the world’s poorest countries has declined by a third over the last decade, according to a new report from ActionAid. The Real Aid 3 report reveals that since 2006 there has been an increase in good quality aid – real aid – from 51 per cent to 55 per cent.
G20 ministers fail to take strong decisions needed to avert global food crisis
Thursday, 23 June 2011 –

The first G20 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting has failed to take the strong decisions needed to avert the looming food crisis.
New food crisis "one bad harvest away" ActionAid warns G20
Monday, 20 June 2011 –

ActionAid today warned G20 ministers that the world is one bad harvest from a recurrence of the 2008 food crisis.
EU ‘self interest’ inflates aid by over €5bn in 2010, say NGOs
Thursday, 19 May 2011 –

Launched in Brussels on 19th May, this year’s AidWatch report – Challenging self-interest: Getting EU aid fit for the fight against poverty says that: