Tag Archives: actionaid

Duncan Hames MP

Duncan Hames MP writes… Must we continue to use food for fuel?

By Duncan Hames MP | Fri 17th May 2013 - 8:25 am

The European Union is currently committed to ensuring that 10% of each Member State’s transport energy will come from biofuels by 2020. This originated as a well-intentioned attempt to combat climate change, but time has shown that using food for fuel can have devastating impacts on hunger and the environment. I’ve come to accept that it is time for a re-think.

In addition to concerns over their green credentials, biofuels are now recognised to be a key cause of hunger, affecting millions of people in developing countries. The World Bank, OECD, WTO, IFPRI, IMF, and five other UN agencies recommended …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , and | 15 Comments
The Voice

The Independent View: Sorry ActionAid – it’s time to put people in charge of their own development

By The Voice | Tue 20th September 2011 - 11:27 am

This is a response article to ‘The Independent View: Centre Forum is wrong about aid – UK aid makes a difference’ by Centre Forum’s Pauline Dixon and Paul Marshall

Failure to allocate international aid more effectively on a rising budget will lead to a rapid decline in public support for it. This is what the CentreForum paper ‘International aid and educating the poorest’ seeks to address, and this is why ActionAid’s concerns about our paper, set out last week on Lib Dem Voice, are misplaced.

We are not opposed to international aid (ActionAid comes close to implying we are). Nor do we oppose …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Lucia Fry

The Independent View: Centre Forum is wrong about aid – UK aid makes a difference

By Lucia Fry | Wed 14th September 2011 - 2:56 pm

At a time of economic difficulties, it is welcome that the Coalition Government is retaining its commitment to the UK overseas aid budget. Indeed, UK aid is demonstrating great value for money, and making a real difference in the lives of the poorest. Which is why CentreForum’s recent paper by Pauline Dixon and Paul Marshall ‘International aid and educating the poorest’ is so puzzling. The report paints an alarming – but highly partial – picture of aid doing little to help reduce poverty, promote growth or achieve progress in education, and everything to line the pockets of corrupt elites. …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Martin Hearson

The Independent View: Will Lib Dem proposals to tackle tax avoidance help save the world?

By Martin Hearson | Fri 28th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

What can we expect from the Government on tax avoidance and evasion?

Cast your mind back to the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto launch in April. A major theme was the plan to raise £4.6 billion by tackling tax avoidance.

This has been reduced to a single bullet point in the coalition’s Programme for Government, a promise to “make every effort to tackle tax avoidance, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals.”

Vince Cable remains committed, telling the Telegraph soon after his appointment as Business Secretary that, “tackling tax avoidance by businesses is essential and this is an area that I …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 9 Comments
Josie Cohen

The Independent View: Controversy surrounding biofuels continues to mount

By Josie Cohen | Fri 5th March 2010 - 3:50 pm

Josie Cohen is Campaigns Officer at ActionAid UK and writes about their biofuels campaign:

The controversy surrounding biofuels has been hotting up over the last few weeks, reaching its peak when a comment from a top official within the European Commission was leaked.

Picked up originally by Reuters, the senior official warned that taking full account of the carbon footprint of biofuels would ‘kill’ an EU industry with revenues of approximately $5 billion per year. You would have thought that this revelation would be enough for the EU to put the brakes on the current expansion of biofuel production which, after all, …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
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