ActionAid

EU Legislative Interests

The ActionAid EU office works on three of the four ActionAid pillars and four of the six Strategic Objectives (SO) of the new Strategic Implementation Framework (SIF) for the 2021-2024 period, part of our 2028 Strategy, from a EU perspective: PILLAR 1. REDISTRIBUTION Objective 1) To advance economic justice and redistribute women’s unpaid care and domestic work through expanding fiscal and policy space and supporting investment in gender-responsive public services and social protection. Objective 2) Advocating for redistributive climate and humanitarian finance: making polluting countries, corporations and the rich pay based on equity and fair shares and ensuring finance reaches those most in need, to enable countries to invest in adaptation, ensure reparations for loss and damage and transition to greener pathways. PILLAR 2. RESILIENCE Objective 3) Promote a feminist, green and just transition [that builds climate resilience] especially in agriculture, led by women and young people. PILLAR 4. RIGHTS Objective 6) Strengthening citizen’s movements, challenging visible, invisible and hidden power through strengthening and connecting movements, defining and adopting a decolonisation approach, enriching our human-rights based approach, and challenging shrinking space. Within this framework, at EU level, we have been engaging in different EU public consultations, including 2021’s on 1) Sustainable corporate governance; 2) “Tax avoidance – fighting the use of shell entities and arrangements for tax purposes”; 3) “2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade” (mainly on digital taxation); and 4) Open public consultation on the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) We have also contributed to the roadmap and been analyzing with other stakeholders the Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st century and the development of the EU policy in this field. We also have input the roadmap on a A fair & competitive digital economy – digital levy. And we have and still are also closely following the development of the EU policy on corporate accountability, including the recent EC’s proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, advocating for a stronger women’s rights perspective. All along 2021, we have been participating in the EU regional programming consultations, as ActionAid itself, and we have also contributed to CONCORD’s input to those processes. We have been involved in the EU civil society spaces allocated ahead of the EU-AU Summit (February 2021), including the Civil Society Steering Committee, and we have participated in the organization of one of the sessions of the Civil Society and Local Authority Forum taking place the (15/02/2022) during the Africa-Europe Week. On the other side, ActionAid EU office follows closely the EU development policy in the field of agroecology and food systems. During 2023 we have maintained a strong dialogue with DG INTPA food security team to push for more and quality investment in agroecology. ActionAid EU office has contributed through ECCJ to the development of the new CSDD legislation. ActionAid EU office follows closely the external dimension of the GREEN DEAL regarding the international Climate Commitments. We have followed EU migration policies, particularly the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. We have been also part of the Civil society members of the Structure Dialogue on GAP III through CONCORD.

Communication Activities

PUBLICATIONS - Gender Justice Over Corporate Profits: A Gender Analysis of the Omnibus Proposal June 2025 - The Human Cost of Public Cuts in Africa May 2025 - Who Ows Who report. External debts, climate debts and reparations in the Jubilee Year Feb 2025 - Beyond borders, beyond boundaries" A critical analysis of EU financial support for border control in Tunisia and Libya. July 2024 - The European Investment Bank’s development and climate finance – what’s in it for sustainable agriculture? June 2024 - "European Finance Flows fuelling the climate crisis: The role of Article 2.1c under the UNFCCC" November 2023 -"Standing up for our Rights: Feminist Insights from the Ukraine Response" Feb 2023 https://actionaid.org/publications/2023/standing-our-rights-feminist-insights-ukraine-response -"Ensuring a gender-responsive and effective Corporate Due Diligence Legislation in 10 steps" Nov 2022 https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/ensuring-gender-responsive-and-effective-corporate-due-diligence-legislation-10 -"The Long Shadow of the Climate Crisis" Oct 2022 https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/long-shadow-climate-crisis -“Education versus Austerity” Why public sector wage bill constraints undermine teachers and public education systems - and must end https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/education-versus-austerity June 2022 -“Gender Responsive Disability-Inclusive Education Budgeting” https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/gender-responsive-disability-inclusive-education-budgeting May 2022 -Doubly Devastating: Local communities disproportionately affected by food, fuel, and fertiliser price rises https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/doubly-devastating-local-communities-disproportionately-affected-food-fuel-and May 2022 -“Safety with Dignity” Women-Led Community-Based Protection manual and toolkit https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/safety-dignity February 2022 -Believe in Better: From Policy to Practice https://actionaid.org/publications/2022/believe-better-policy-practice January 2022 - “Analyzing European Union Institutions’ Flows for Total Official Support for Sustainable Development” (https://actionaid.org/sites/default/files/publications/TOSSD%20EU%20Report.pdf), February 2022 ARTICLES - The EU's New Approach on Returns: More Externalisation, Less Protection and Safeguards https://actionaid.org/opinions/2025/eus-new-approach-returns-more-externalisation-less-protection-and-safeguards - Turbulence and transition: a call for feminist foreign policy in 2025 https://actionaid.org/opinions/2025/turbulence-and-transition-call-feminist-foreign-policy-2025 - The Commission’s deregulation package: their profits before our values! https://actionaid.org/opinions/2025/commissions-deregulation-package-their-profits-our-values CAMPAIGNS - ActionAid joins over 40 CSOs in new letter to the Multiannual Financial Framework https://actionaid.org/news/2024/actionaid-joins-over-40-csos-new-letter-multiannual-financial-framework - Together with others, ActionAid promoted "Stop Funding Destruction and Begin to #FundOurFuture" Sept 2023 - Together with others, ActionAid promoted "Justice is Everybody's Business" https://justice-business.org/about/ September 2022 EVENTS - Co-organization of "Eastern Neighbourhood and Black Sea Region. 2023 Opportunities for young people and women-led organizations" together with FOND and the Black Sea NGO Forum. - Co-organization of the European Development Days Lab “Extractives and Taxation. Addressing the challenges in taxation of minerals, to ensure that the Global South will benefit from the energy transition”, 15/06/2021, together with Eurodad and Oxfam, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrvVCjWanHk

Interests Represented

Does not represent commercial interests

Member Of

ActionAid International is a member of several non-profit networks and confederations. At the European level, we are members of: - Concord, https://concordeurope.org/about-us/who-we-are/members, - CAN Europe, https://caneurope.org/members, - Eurodad, https://www.eurodad.org/members (see under the South Africa flag), - The EU Food Policy Coalition, https://foodpolicycoalition.eu/participants - ECRE https://ecre.org/

Organisation Members

We’re an international organisation, working with over 15 million people in 45 countries. The full list of members (affiliates and associates), as well as of countries where we have programmes, is available here: https://actionaid.org/countries 8 of them are in the EU: 1. Denmark, https://www.ms.dk/en/home 2. France, https://www.actionaid.fr 3. Greece, https://www.actionaid.gr 4. Ireland, https://actionaid.ie 5. Italy, https://www.actionaid.it 6. Netherlands, https://actionaid.nl 7. Spain, https://www.alianzaporlasolidaridad.org 8. Sweden, https://www.actionaid.se

Additional Information

ActionAid International's whole income consists of a mixture of restricted and unrestricted funding. Operational costs are covered by unrestricted reserves, which finance costs for hub offices such as the EU office. Unrestricted funding is made up of International Contributions from members, who contribute certain percentages of their unrestricted funding to the Global Secretariat to cover operational costs, which are then allocated to hubs.