Actionaid USA

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011

Signed

May 10, 2012

Return Version

2011v1.2

Gross Receipts

$8,024,682

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Education and Advocacy for Public Finance to Help Poor Countries to Adapt to Climate Change: Our climate program led major education and advocacy efforts in the lead up to the December 2011 Durban UNFCCC climate talks and helped to catalyze a broad network of organizations to engage in more coordinated and effective climate campaigning to shift the political debate towards solutions.In late July, ActionAid USA hosted Abdi Omar Farah, a pastoralist from Northeastern Kenya, and Augustine Njamnshi, an organizer with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), on a US education and advocacy tour. In partnership with the NAACP and PACJA, ActionAid USA organized 3 public events (1 in Los Angeles, CA, during the NAACP annual convention and 2 in Washington, DC), 13 meetings with policy makers, and 4 media interviews on the impacts of climate change on communities living in poverty and communities of color and the urgency of action.In 2011, ActionAid USA advocated that Green Climate Fund funding be based on transparent and nationally-led adaptation and mitigation strategies. ActionAid USA advocated for active participation of civil society from the local and national levels to the board level, mechanisms to ensure that programs funded through the private sector facility adhere to national priorities, for streamlined and direct access to funding, and more.ActionAid USA led a global process to draft fifteen key recommendations to the Transitional Committee (TC) which is the body designing the Green Climate Fund rules. The recommendations, which were signed by more than 80 local, national, and international organizations, became the basis for our direct engagement with members of the TC and with the United States Government (USG), representatives to the TC.As a result of the recommendations made by ActionAid USA, and due in part to the advocacy of the climate program, the final decisions taken by the UNFCC on the Green Climate Fund includes many of the points ActionAid USA has advocated for over the years. Funding to the Green Climate Fund will be based on transparent country-owned adaptation and mitigation plans, countries will have direct access to Green Climate Fund resources, and there will be active CSO observers on the board of the Green Climate Fund. Additionally, as ActionAid USA advocated, the Green Climate Fund outcomes includes a commitment to a gender-sensitive approach and checks on the private sector window.

Activity 3

Education and Advocacy to Reform US Biofuels Policy, Address Global Food Price Volatility, and Secure Land Rights for Impoverished People: ActionAid USA worked with the Environmental Working Group to release a new food price map on March 3, 2011 that shows which countries are most vulnerable to a food crisis and why. The narrative explains the causes and consequences of price volatility and makes linkages to US biofuel policy. See our website:actionaidusa.org/news/pr/new_map_reveals_hot_spots_in_global_food_crisis/ActionAid USA co-led a coalition of impacted industries and a broad range of environmental organizations, budget groups, and others in a successful campaign to convince the US Congress to eliminate a $6 billion subsidy to the corn ethanol industry. The subsidy had served as a powerful incentive for US farmers to divert their corn harvests for the production of ethanol (for fuel) rather than for food. This was a major contributor to rising food prices that impacted impoverished communities across the globe in 2007-2008 and again in 2011. ActionAid USA was the primary organization in the coalition making the case from a food rights perspective. ActionAid USA was uniquely positioned to shine a spotlight on how biofuels policies contributed to food crises, which elevated the issue in the media. Growing concern by constituents, and in the press, of the impact of turning food into fuel combined with a time of fiscal austerity compelled Congress to end the subsidy. On December 31, 2011 the subsidy officially expired.

Filer

EIN

52-2277575