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ActionAid was founded in 1972 as a child sponsorship charity when 88 UK supporters sponsored 88 children in India and Kenya, the focus primarily being to provide children with an education. Global accounts are now reported in Euros and in 2007 and 2008 turnover was close to 180m Euros. ^[1] ActionAid is an international anti-poverty non-governmental organization whose primary aim is to fight poverty worldwide. ActionAid has been a growing organization for over 30 years. Today, it helps over 13 million impoverished and disadvantaged people, in 42 countries worldwide. ActionAid works with local partners to fight poverty and injustice. ActionAid’s vision "is a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys their right to a life with dignity." ActionAid’s mission is "to work with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice." In June 2010, ActionAid faced a leadership transition, as Joanna Kerr became the new Chief Executive of the organization, replacing former Chief Executive, Ramesh Singh. ^[2][3]

Being connected with the local community and bearing witness to the poverty and injustice are very important aspects of ActionAid’s work. ActionAid works on various projects, from those that address the immediate conditions of poverty to those that focus on campaigning and advocacy, which address the causes of poverty and change practices and policies at both local and national levels. The nature of the work at ActionAid is about assisting different groups of rights-holders to claim and enjoy the rights that they possess.^[4]

International reach[link]

ActionAid International works in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Caribbean. The international secretariat is based in South Africa, and operations are organised on a regional basis; managed from Kenya, Thailand and Brazil. Within each region there are a number of countries with an ActionAid office that manages the work there. The international functions for finance and fundraising are based in the UK, and there is a US office in Washington DC for fundraising and lobbying purposes.

ActionAid's work[link]

Over time, ActionAid has moved from being a British charity based on child sponsorship to becoming an international coalition fighting poverty across the globe. ActionAid works with poor and marginalised communities throughout the world to help them recognise, promote and secure their basic rights, and control their own development. Its mission is to work with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice.

In order to achieve its mission, ActionAid works in the following areas:

• Women's rights and gender equality
• Education
• Food rights
• HIV and AIDS
• Emergencies and conflict
• Democratic governance
• corporate accountability
• Trade justice
• International aid and debt

ActionAid has been fighting poverty worldwide^{[citation needed]} for over 30 years and working in over 40 countries. The charity works within regions such as Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean; it is secular and has no political affiliations. The charity campaigns and lobby against the root causes of poverty, to try to ensure that poor people are treated fairly by governments, companies and international institutions whose decisions affect these people’s everyday lives and their basic human rights. ActionAid works in partnership with communities on practical projects aiming to improve the opportunities for these communities and provide them with facilities such as wells, water systems, schools and health centres in order to tackle the causes of poverty.

Organization focus[link]

The seven main areas that ActionAid is focused on are:

1. Aid and Debt: this includes lobbying for debt cancellation with The World Bank, IMF, and donor governments
2. Emergencies and Conflict: Providing immediate relief in emergencies, setting up long-term projects to help the most vulnerable people rebuild their lives, their communities and livelihoods.
3. Women’s Rights advocacy: Lobbying for gender equality
4. Corporate Accountability: The charity is campaigning for new UK and international laws to make multinational companies accountable for their impact on local communities and the environment.
5. Trade: ActionAid are lobbying and campaigning for an international trade system to make fairer regulations.
6. HIV and Aids: ActionAid is lobbying for greater provision of AIDS treatment in the developing world especially for women
7. Education: ActionAid provides adult literacy and social change programmes. ActionAid also provides education funding and to ensure that schools are places where the right to education is respected.

Organizational Themes[link]

The themes that ActionAid focuses on are the following:^[5]

• Women’s Rights
• Right to Education
• Right to Food
• Right to Human Security in Conflict and Emergencies
• Right to Life and Dignity in the face of HIV & AIDS
• Right to Just and Democratic Governance

.

Organizational Values[link]

ActionAid’s values are as follows:^[2]

• Mutual respect: Requiring ActionAid to recognize the innate worth of all people and the value of diversity
• Equity and justice: Requiring ActionAid to work to ensure equal opportunity to everyone, irrespective of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, HIV status, color, class, ethnicity, disability, location and religion
• Honesty and transparency: being accountable at all levels for the effectiveness of the organization’s actions and open in its judgments and communications with others
• Solidarity with the poor: The powerless and excluded will be the only bias in ActionAid’s commitment to the fight against poverty
• Courage of conviction: Requiring ActionAid to be creative and radical, bold and innovative – without fear of failure – in the pursuit of making the greatest possible impact on the causes of poverty
• Independence: Independence from any religious or party-political affiliation
• Humility: Humility in ActionAid’s presentation and behavior, recognizing that the organization is part of a wider alliance against poverty.^[2]

...

Women's Rights[link]

ActionAid’s new strategy, “Rights to end poverty”, furthers the women’s rights agenda. ActionAid believes that women’s rights and gender equality help with poverty eradication and hence, women’s rights must be protected and promoted. Women’s rights and gender equality are priorities that lie in the heart of ActionAid’s international agenda. The organization works directly with other women’s organizations in order to advance gender relations. ActionAid wishes to see that women grow in confidence, skills, and knowledge throughout the world.The ultimate goal is that women shape their own destiny, live without fear of violence, and participate effectively in those decisions that affect their quality of lives and livelihoods.^[6]

Women's rights within other topics[link]

Right to education[link]

• Support excluded and disadvantaged groups, especially girls, in gaining access to the quality

education which is their right

• Promote the rights of all learners within education systems and ensure that both boys and girls

understand women's rights, and discrimination and violence are eliminated.^[6]

Right to life and dignity in the face of HIV/AIDS[link]

• Push for the rights of women and girls
• Push for freedom from stigma and discrimination
• Free comprehensive treatment and care should be given to the poor and excluded, especially to women and girls.^[6]

Right to just and democratic governance[link]

• Capacity building strategy to help women and other poor and excluded people to organize themselves to claim their rights, participate in the decision-making process, and have a say in politics and public policy.^[6]

Right to human security in conflict and emergencies[link]

• Promote the protection of women and girls during conflicts and disasters
• Assist women’s groups and civil society to be active in conflict resolution and peace building.^[6]

Strategic priorities[link]

ActionAid pursues four main strategic priorities:Reduction of violence against women and girls; Increase attention and action on women’s rights in relation to HIV and AIDS; Contribution to greater recognition, realization, and protection of women’s land rights; enhance women’s participation in politics.

• Reduction of violence against women and girls:
  • Increase awareness about violence against women and girls
  • Call for laws that protect the rights of women and girls
  • Improve effectiveness of organizations and movements that focus on violence against women and girls.^[6]
• Increase attention and action on women’s rights in relation to HIV and AIDS
  • Increase awareness about HIV & AIDS as it relates to females.
  • Call for laws that protect the rights of women and girls in the HIV/AIDS context.
  • Improve effectiveness of organizations nad movements that focus on HIV/AIDS as it relates to females.^[6]
• Contribution to greater recognition, realization and protection of women’s land rights
  • Increase awareness about women’s land rights.
  • Call for laws and policies that protect women’s land rights
  • Call for new organizations (and improve existing organizations) that focus on women’s land rights.^[6]
• Enhance women’s participation in politics
  • Increase awareness about women’s leadership, or lack of leadership in the political sphere.
  • Call for laws and policies that will advance their leadership and participation in politics.
  • Call for implementation of existing laws that enhance women’s political participation.
  • Assist other organizations and networks that work in this area of women’s political participation.^[6]

Gender Mainstreaming at ActionAid[link]

ActionAid places a major focus on achieving women’s rights. In addition to achieving gender equality in the local communities, ActionAid works towards achieving gender equality in the organization itself. For example, in ActionAid Nepal, the gender imbalance in the organization itself was so great that ActionAid Nepal established a temporary “Women-Only Recruitment Policy,” which raised the percentage of female staff from 12% to 24%.^[7] In 1995, in the Beijing Platform for Action (also known as the Fourth World Conference on Women), gender mainstreaming was identified as the most important mechanism to reach the ambitious goal of gender equality. There are eight major components of gender mainstreaming policy that are implemented by ActionAid.They are as follows: ^[7]

1. A dual strategy of mainstreaming gender combined with targeted actions for gender equality.
2. Gender analysis
3. Internal responsibility
4. Gender training
5. Support to women’s decision making and empowerment
6. Monitoring and evaluation
7. Working with other organizations
8. Budgets^[7]

• Dual strategy of mainstreaming and targeting gender equality:
  • ActionAid has used gender mainstreaming in policies, projects, and programs at all cycle stages.
  • ActionAid also takes actions that target gender equality.^[7]
• Gender Analysis:
  • ActionAid provides a gender analysis at all program cycle stages; however, sex-disaggregated data and gender info, along with a gender-sensitive budget analysis are not provided.^[7]
• Internal Responsibility:
  • At ActionAid, responsibilities are shared between all staff and gender specialists/focal points.^[7]
• Gender Training:
  • At ActionAid, there is an understanding and implementation of gender policy for staff and counterparts.
  • There is also staff/counterpart gender training/skills.^[7]
• Support to women’s decision making and empowerment
  • ActionAid strengthens women’s organizations through capacity building and training.
  • ActionAid offers support to women’s participation in decision making and empowerment.^[7]
• Monitoring and evaluation:
  • ActionAid contains effective tools for monitoring/evaluation and contains gender-sensitive indicators.^[7]
• Working with other organizations:
  • ActionAid strengthens gender equality by working with government, donors, UN, private sector, and NGOs.^[7]
• Budgets
  • ActionAid allocates certain financial resources for staff to carry out gender policy.^[7]

Rights-based approach[link]

ActionAid uses a human rights-based approach to eradicate poverty and assist nations in developing through support of their citizens. Its methods include consciousness raising, political organizations, encouraging participation by poor and excluded groups, promoting democracy and holding governments accountable.^[8]

Criticism[link]

ActionAid has been criticized for supporting US led violent regime change in Haiti in 2004.^[9]

See also[link]

• Target Poverty
• ActionAid Recycling
• ActionAid Australia

References[link]

• Brown, Lalage. Preparing the Future-Women, Literacy, and Development. Web ActionAid, 1990. March 2012.
• Ahmed, F & Werker, E. What do Non-governmental Organizations Do? Web Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2007. March 2012
• ActionAid. End Poverty Together. Web. March 2012
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. ActionAid (South Africa). Web 2012. March 2012

External links[link]

• Official website

Samantha Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress best known for her roles as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years and her role as Auntie Angela in the BBC comedy Outnumbered. She is married to Alexander Hanson and has two children, Molly and Tom.^[1][2] Samantha Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond and TV producer Pat Sandys, and is the sister of the actress Abigail Bond and the journalist Matthew Bond. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and is a resident of St Margarets, London^[3].

Career[link]

She has appeared in many television series, notably the 1997 adaptation of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and starred opposite Dame Judi Dench in David Hare's award-winning play Amy's View at the Royal National Theatre.

In 1983, she appeared in the original 1983 Southampton production of Daisy Pulls It Off before it moved to the West End.^[4] Also in 1983 she appeared in Mansfield Park and in the fourth series of Rumpole of the Bailey, where she played Rumpole's pupil 'Mizz' Liz Probert. In 1985, she appeared in the BBC's adaptation of A Murder is Announced, a Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie.

In 1989, she starred in the television adaptation of Oswald Wynd's novel The Ginger Tree. She played Mary MacKenzie, a young Scottish woman who finds disillusionment, love and heartbreak, in turn of the century Japan. It spans the time from 1903 to the outbreak of the Second World War. She also had a featured role in Erik the Viking, starring Tim Robbins, Eartha Kitt and Mickey Rooney.

In 1990, she appeared in the Agatha Christie's Poirot television series episode "The Adventure of the Cheap Flat". In 1992, she also appeared in the "Inspector Morse" television series - 6th, episode 1("Dead on time" as Helen Marriat)-. In 2004, she starred opposite Peter Davison in the ITV drama-comedy Distant Shores. In 2006, she returned to the stage in a new production of Michael Frayn's Donkey's Years at the Comedy Theatre. On 1 January 2007, Bond appeared as the villain Mrs Wormwood in the pilot episode of the BBC children's drama series The Sarah Jane Adventures, a spin-off from the popular science fiction series Doctor Who.^[5] She later reprised this role for "Enemy of the Bane", the two-part finale of the show's second series. She has also starred in the popular English drama Midsomer Murders in the episodes "Destroying Angel" (2001) and "Shot at Dawn" (2008), and again in Neil Dudgeon's 2011 debut as lead character, in the episode 'Death in the Slow Lane'. In the West End she stars in David Leveaux's production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York's Theatre (2009).

From 2007-2011, Bond has appeared as the recurring character of Sue's sister, Auntie Angela in the BBC semi-improvised comedy Outnumbered alongside Hugh Dennis, Claire Skinner and David Ryall. In series one (2007) she appeared in the episodes; 'The Special Bowl', 'The City Farm', 'The Quiet Night In', 'The Mystery Illness' and 'The Dinner Party'. In series two (2008), Bond only appeared in the first episode 'The Wedding'. In series three (2010), Bond appeared in the episode 'The Restaurant'. Bond also starred in series four (2011) for the final two episodes 'The Cold Caller' and 'The Exchange Student'.

In 2009 she took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history.

In 2009, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in part of a series of television programmes for Channel 4 charting particular periods of the monarch's reign.

She stars as Mrs. Cheveley in a new production of An Ideal Husband at the Vaudeville Theatre in November 2010. In 2011 she narrated a documentary on Operation Crossbow^[6] and one on the science of colour on BBC's Horizon series.

Most recently she has been in the ITV drama Downton Abbey.

James Bond franchise[link]

Samantha Bond has starred in four James Bond films as Miss Moneypenny. She was preceded by Caroline Bliss and Lois Maxwell. In a BBC Four interview, she remarked that she would retire from her role with the departure of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.

She appeared as Miss Moneypenny in:

• GoldenEye (1995)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• The World Is Not Enough (1999)
• Die Another Day (2002)

The role of Miss Moneypenny was not cast in the following Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. It has been speculated whether the character will return in the 2012 film, Skyfall.

In a commercial for London's 2012 Olympic bid, Samantha Bond once again suited up as Miss Moneypenny. She appeared alongside Roger Moore, who played 007 between 1973-1985.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Samantha Bond at the Internet Movie Database

Sarah Alexander (née Smith; born 3 January 1971) is an English actress, known for her roles in British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Alexander was born in Hammersmith, London, England. Her father, Frank Smith, was a television producer and director who worked on factual programmes such as Panorama. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.^[1] At 19, she left home after her A-levels and travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the hope of getting her start in acting.^[1] Her parents were opposed and wanted her to continue onto university. Alexander turned down a place at Manchester University to take up her first professional acting job.^[2]

Career[link]

In 1993, she played Muriel in an episode of the BBC comedy-drama Lovejoy. In 1994, she played Nicky, Damien's risk-addicted weather reporter girlfriend in Drop the Dead Donkey. In 1996, she played Beatrice in the British premiere of Octavio Paz's only play, Rappaccini's Daughter, at the Gate Theatre Studio. She has appeared in several other theatre productions, including The Vagina Monologues, Hand In Hand, The Secretary Bird, Northanger Abbey and as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.^[3] In the mid-1990s she met Ben Miller when they filmed an advertisement for disposable cameras together, and through him Alexander Armstrong.^[4] Miller and Armstrong became friends and collaborators, and Sarah went on to appear on their Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller (1997–2001), usually in the regular 'Nude Practice' segment.

Alexander began to move into comedy acting, in which she has specialised ever since. Other work on sketch-shows included Smith and Jones (1997–98) and Smack the Pony (1999–2003), also writing material for the latter. In the British science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf, Sarah played a French queen in the episode "Stoke Me a Clipper". She also appeared in Midsomer Murders' "The Garden of Death", as Fliss Inkpen-Thomas, who was hit over the head with a shovel.

In 2000, she appeared in the comedy The Strangerers, as well as becoming co-host of the current-affairs satire The 11 O'Clock Show, alongside Jon Holmes. She made her debut as Susan Walker, perhaps her best-known role, in the BBC sitcom Coupling, which ran for four series from 2000 to 2004. Other British TV roles have been Mel in The Worst Week of My Life, again alongside Ben Miller, and Dr Angela Hunter in the hospital comedy Green Wing, created by Smack The Pony creator Victoria Pile.

Alexander appeared in the USA as Alice Fletcher in the NBC's short-lived remake of the British comedy series Teachers, before accepting roles in the films I Could Never Be Your Woman and Stardust (both released in 2007). Her previous film credits include Seaview Knights (1994) and Going Off Big Time, (2000).

Alexander also stars in the 2008 BBC dramedy Mutual Friends, again alongside Armstrong,^[4] and played the character of Layla Barton in the BBC drama, All The Small Things,^[5] which debuted on March 31, 2009.

Other work[link]

Alexander is a regular contributor to the biennial BBC charity telethon Comic Relief^{[citation needed]}, appearing in 2001 as a judge based on Nicki Chapman in a parody of Popstars, in 2003 as Liza Goddard in a spoof of the game show Blankety Blank and in 2005 in a celebrity version of University Challenge hosted by Angus Deayton.

Personal life[link]

Alexander is married to writer and actor Peter Serafinowicz,^[6] with whom she has a son, Sam, born in March 2007.^[4] They also have a daughter named Phoebe. She has appeared in both series of Look Around You which Serafinowicz co-created and stars in, as well as his internet-only E! News spoof, O!News.

She speaks French and Spanish fluently. Her interests include horse riding, tennis, swimming, karate and singing.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sarah Alexander at the Internet Movie Database
• Sarah Alexander at the British Film Institute's Screenonline