ActionAid is a UK-based policy-making non-governmental organization that works on the rights of women and girls and issues in disasters and crises. It is also committed to ending violence and tackling poverty around the world and conducts research in improving these areas. ActionAid puts the rights of women and girls at the center of all its work because it believes that violations of these rights are one of the biggest causes of poverty around the world and serious injustice.
ActionAid works for women and girls around the world who face unequal treatment simply because of their gender. That's why ActionAid actively involves women and girls in the design and decision-making processes of its programs, empowering them to become leaders and agents of change.
As part of this commitment to the rights of women and girls, ActionAid applies and advocates for feminist principles in the way they work and the way they conduct business. As part of this feminist system of governance, they take care of their own emotional and physical health and encourage others to do the same. To this end, the establishment of deadlines and work schedules takes into account care obligations and, in particular, the protection of women from double workloads. They also include everyone in the hiring process to create diverse teams and respond to different barriers to participation. They create space for everyone to lead, encourage employees to recognize their values and talents, and support them to put themselves forward for committees, promotions, and other opportunities. They recognize and change discriminatory policies and processes in the workplace when they occur. The policies they provide to their employees include maternity and paternity leave, job security, well-being, and practices that take into account all realities of life. They also anticipate who might dominate in any discussion and instead create an environment where everyone can voice their views.
ActionAid is committed to diversity and inclusion. This ranges from their hiring process to addressing unconscious bias, to make sure they eliminate power structures that disadvantage underrepresented groups within the organization, including members of the LGBTQI+ community. ActionAid is also a trans-inclusive organization and aims to ensure that trans colleagues feel represented outside of binary gender classifications. Their practices around diversity and inclusion include gender-neutral restrooms, voluntarily adding pronouns to the HR system and email signatures, updating internal policies and procedures to ensure that language used does not assume gender, creating a trans-inclusive language guide for communications, and meeting twice a year with the ActionAid LGBTQI+ network.
ActionAid also keeps all its operations transparent and accountable. It is possible to see how they are funded, how they spend their income, and how they make an impact through their financial accounts and annual reports.
Sources: https://www.actionaid.org.uk/
