MS says yes to ActionAid International
MS wrote history when an overwhelming majority of the members present at the General Assembly voted in favour of MS joining ActionAid International.
MS - Danish Association for International Cooperation - held its Annual General Meeting for the membership this past weekend, i.e. 13-14 September. At the top of the agenda was the question of whether the membership would follow the Board’s recommendation that MS should seek admission to ActionAid International, a worldwide movement working to fight poverty in more than 50 countries.
After a debate covering all issues an overwhelming majority of the members present at the General Assembly voted in favour of MS joining ActionAid International.
"Today", MS's chairwoman Trine Pertou Mach declared, "MS was writing history. MS will continue to support the poorest in their work to overcome poverty through democratic influence on the political processes. MS will continue to keep focusing on the human encounter in our efforts in support of the poorest. But from now on, our work will be immensely scaled up. We are becoming part of an international movement, and this will bring a tremendous boost to our efforts locally, regionally and not least internationally", declared MS’s chairwoman, Trine Pertou Mach.
Over the past years the MS has been looking into various options for alliances with international networks, taking into consideration, among other factors, that an ever-rising number of decisions are becoming global, and that civil society needs to forge strong alliances across borders in order to influence global decision-making for the benefit of the world’s poor.
"ActionAid International is the right choice for us. It gives us greater international clout, and ActionAid is in full swing building a network, in which the programmes in poor countries become independent and equal partners in ActionAid International. This approach has great appeal to us in MS, as we work to shift greater influence towards the South", says chairwoman Trine Pertou Mach.
ActionAid International will take up MS’s membership application at its Board meeting on September 28th. Subsequently, the two entities will be formally associated for 18 months, after which actual affiliation will take place, merging the work in individual countries.
The General Membership Meeting also gave wholehearted support to the critical and constructive line pursued by chairwoman Trine Pertou Mach over the past year in the debate on Danish development cooperation.
"In the world’s poorest countries, we seek to empower a critical and constructive civil society", said Trine Pertou Mach."Of course, we ourselves are also critical and constructive in the debate on development issues in Denmark, and we are ready to tackle whatever challenges may come up".
Facts about MS and ActionAid International
The process towards admission into ActionAid International began two years ago, when the General Meeting decided that MS should explore the options for joining an international network in order to strengthen international lobbying as well as the MS work on the ground in developing countries.
At last year’s General Meeting, the members determined that the Board, having already examined a range of ideas, should look more deeply into the possibility of joining forces with ActionAid International. In the past year, ActionAid and MS have conducted a series of mutual studies in order to assess the sustainability of any future cooperation. This research concluded with the MS Board’s unanimous recommendation of joining ActionAid International.
Facts about ActionAid
ActionAid International was founded in Great Britain after the Second World War, and is today present in over 50 countries across the globe. ActionAid International works to reduce poverty and hunger through support for poor people in their communities, and through international lobbying and campaigning.
In 1993 the Board of Trustees of ActionAid International decided to work towards the establishment of ActionAid member organisations in countries that have initially been recipients of its aid. The intention was to give these developing countries equal representation in the international movement’s governance structure.
ActionAid International is headquartered in Johannesburg. Its international Chief Executive is Mr. Ramesh Singh.
