 About us |
2005 campaignsMake poverty history2005 will be an important year in the UK for international development. Britain will host the G8 meeting and hold presidency of the European Union for six months; the Prime Minister will attend a UN meeting to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and globally it's the start of the International Decade of Freshwater. During the year WaterAid will campaign to ensure that poor people's need for safe water and sanitation is not forgotten. Why WaterAid campaignsOver one billion people in the world are without water, and over two billion are without sanitation. WaterAid and its partners can only feasibly help a fraction of this number and so in addition to direct implementation work WaterAid aims to influence the policies and practices of the main decision-makers, donors and public to gain their commitment to the provision of these basic services. Campaigning is a vital way for WaterAid to bring about change in government policy, in attitudes, in power relations, or in the way organisations work, which is why in the last few years WaterAid's campaigns work has grown significantly. Flush out poverty
WaterAid's Flush out poverty campaign has been urging the UK Government to live up to its commitments towards the Millennium Development Goals of halving the proportions of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015, champion water and sanitation for the poorest and increase the amount of aid spent on these essential services. WaterAid's campaigners have been working hard throughout the year. Activities have included wearing loo seats around their heads to gain local press coverage and taking to the streets of London on 22 March, World Water Day, complete with WaterAid's tap and toilet costumes. The hard work paid off and 39,707 people signed the Flush out poverty petition which called for 10% of the UK's aid budget to be spent on water and sanitation. The petition was also signed by many celebrities including Billy Bragg, John Peel, Fran Healy, Vernon Kay, Fay Ripley and Liz Smith. WaterAid was delighted to hand in these signatures to Downing Street on 1 July with Don Foster, MP for Bath, and Peter Bottomley, MP for Worthing West. Thank you to everyone who helped collect signatures on the petition and also to all of you who signed it. WaterAid is delighted that the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review resulted in an increase in international aid. However, while some specific commitments were made, provision for water and sanitation was not mentioned. Flush out poverty will continue to lobby to ensure these basic needs receive adequate funding from the UK Government. Action in 2005
Many UK development agencies, environmental groups and community groups will be taking action in 2005. To create a powerful voice WaterAid has joined over 50 organisations under the banner Make Poverty History. This campaign will call for increases in the quantity and quality of aid, for the burden of debt to be lifted once and for all and for solutions to global trade injustices. While WaterAid is particularly focused on the aspects of aid in the campaign it also supports the calls on debt relief and trade justice. If countries cannot achieve economic growth because of unfair trade, and the burden of repaying bad debts to rich countries, then they will be unable to reduce poverty. This means they cannot invest in essential services like water and sanitation. Aid has played a major part in some large successes in the fight against poverty and disease and the effectiveness of aid in lifting people out of poverty has improved. Water and sanitation investments need to be spent in a way that ensures the poor and vulnerable gain access to services, that these services function for the long term, and that the provider of the service can be held to account for this performance. WaterAid believes access to water and sanitation for all is achievable but only if all existing sources of finance including aid, national finance and debt relief, are increased. Under the Make Poverty History banner WaterAid will continue to demand for increased investments and urge for these to be spent in a more effective way. Get involvedWaterAid's campaigning efforts would mean little without your invaluable support. Whether you have just five minutes to send an email, enough time to join local events, or are interested in volunteering to promote the campaign locally, your involvement can make a real difference to poor people's lives. As a WaterAid campaigner you will receive three newsletters a year with the latest campaigns news, ideas for campaign actions, details of local events and tips on campaigning. Sign up online today on our campaign page, or call the campaigns team on 020 7793 4523 for more information. By Sally Warren, WaterAid's Campaigns Coordinator.
|
|||||||
|
|
|
