New Women and Girls Envoy welcome – but without funding, it risks just papering over the cracks rather than driving real change.
Responding to the appointment of a new Women and Girls Special Envoy, Baroness Harriet Harman, Hannah Bond, Co-CEO at ActionAid UK, said: “The appointment is a welcome step, and with a strong track record, Baroness Harman could drive real change. But on International Women’s Day, without funding to back it up, it risks being more symbol than substance.
Deep cuts to the UK’s ODA budget—both last week and in recent years—will gut vital programmes that support women and girls. This appointment won’t restore what’s been swept away—only sustained investment in women’s rights organisations and frontline services can. If this role is to create the urgent change we need, it must come with the backing and resources, to undo the damage. Otherwise, the government risks just papering over the cracks.”
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Contact the ActionAid press office on uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486.
Hannah Bond, Co-CEO at ActionAid UK, is available for interview on request.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.