Development finance

Jalena Mohamed, 50, and Hawa Amiry, 41, pictured in Miyuyu Primary School, Tanzania

Photo: Andrew McConnell/Panos Pictures/ActionAid

More and better aid can lift millions out of poverty when local people decide how it's spent. That’s why we campaign for EU governments and the European Commission to meet their aid targets and keep their aid effectiveness commitments.

The European Union is the world’s largest aid donor, providing over half of all global Official Development Assistance.

Aid is crucial to improving the lives of poor people in many developing countries, that’s why we’re calling on rich country governments to increase their aid spending to 0.7% of Gross National Income by 2015.

But the aid system is still not geared towards achieving the poverty reduction goals agreed by all countries at the United Nations in the year 2000.

If development aid is to be effective in fighting global poverty, donors must improve the way it is both given and spent.

We believe that if aid is to work, it can’t be treated as a voluntary contribution by countries in the rich north to the poor south.

It must produce real change within countries whilst protecting human rights.

For this to happen, poor people’s needs and rights must be at the centre of all aid programmes.