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Abebi teaches in a Nigerian primary school with no electricity or water and with no working toilet.

Public services

Public services should meet the needs of all people, irrespective of their gender, age, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation and social context.

For many women living in poverty, access to high-quality public services is an essential route to improve their own lives and those of their communities. Public services have the potential to create more equal societies: if public services effectively serve women’s needs, women will be better able to access economic opportunities and exercise their rights. However, too often public services are inadequate and under-resourced, and instead of supporting the empowerment of women and girls, they reproduce the structures that exclude them.

We believe in the need for public services that are gender-responsive, meeting the needs and priorities of women and girls. Gender-responsive public services should be:

  • Publicly financed, to ensure the greatest possible access for the people who need them;
  • Delivered by governments, not private corporations, and equally available and accountable to all;
  • Gender responsive and inclusive, irrespective of a person’s age, location, background, sexual orientation, disability status, and so on; and
  • Quality, focusing on the four standards of availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability.

Latest

44-year-old Mariatu Turay who though receives monthly salary, face similar struggles as Martha. The health unit she works in serves 15 catchments of 5351 people with five nurses who work on shifts of 2 or 3 at a time. They run the expanded immunization program, Antenatal care, Outpatient, General, and Under 5 cares.
News

IMF meetings are a chance to address harmful austerity and debt policies says ActionAid 

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Esther Nalumbulu and all her Daughters
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Reactions to the IMF programme in Zambia

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Nurse Margaret Kasolo gives an injection to a client at Kawala Health Center IV in Kampala, Uganda
Publication

The Public Versus Austerity: Why public sector wage bill constraints must end

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Haiti health worker
News

Pharmaceutical companies reaping immoral profits from Covid vaccines yet paying low tax rates

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ActionAid Rwanda is supporting education by providing funding for teacher's salaries.
Opinion

Funding for global education must move away from neo-colonial aid

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Anjana
Opinion

How the IMF’s Comprehensive Surveillance Review sidelines gender equality

Read more
44-year-old Mariatu Turay who though receives monthly salary, face similar struggles as Martha. The health unit she works in serves 15 catchments of 5351 people with five nurses who work on shifts of 2 or 3 at a time. They run the expanded immunization program, Antenatal care, Outpatient, General, and Under 5 cares.
News

IMF meetings are a chance to address harmful austerity and debt policies says ActionAid 

Read more
Esther Nalumbulu and all her Daughters
News

Reactions to the IMF programme in Zambia

Read more
Haiti health worker
News

Pharmaceutical companies reaping immoral profits from Covid vaccines yet paying low tax rates

Read more
ActionAid DRC vaccines
News

Africa needs a People’s Vaccine – a Covid-19 vaccine accessible to everybody free of charge

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Young women in South Africa demanding for decent work
News

New ActionAid research shows stark reality of Covid-19’s impact on young women’s lives in the developing world

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ActionAid Rwanda is supporting education by providing funding for teacher's salaries.
Opinion

Funding for global education must move away from neo-colonial aid

Read more
Anjana
Opinion

How the IMF’s Comprehensive Surveillance Review sidelines gender equality

Read more
Niveen Zam’areh is a midwife working in the Red Crescent Hospital in Hebron
Opinion

Access to a Covid-19 vaccine is a human right no one should be denied

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Okech practices his farming skills in Uganda
Opinion

A Covid-19 recession may have lifelong effects on young people

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Nima and her mother earn an income from their sewing shop in Tamale Peri, Ghana
Opinion

Young people face a very uncertain future after the pandemic

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A nurse prepares treatment for a patient in Uganda.
Opinion

Covid-19 vaccines must be free and accessible to people in the Global South

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Schoolchildren in India have been affected by Covid-19 school closures
Story

Covid-19 lockdown and school closures force girls into early marriage

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Photo of a nine year old c=girl called Sumaiya doing her homework
Story

190 organisations join our call for increased funding for education post-Covid

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People protesting for education funding
Story

Financing education

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Story

Tax pays for schools

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Nurse Margaret Kasolo gives an injection to a client at Kawala Health Center IV in Kampala, Uganda
Publication

The Public Versus Austerity: Why public sector wage bill constraints must end

Read more
Rohingya Woman, Cox's Bazar
Publication

The Pandemic and the Public Sector

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Hemedi and pupils in Tanzania
Publication

The bedrock of inclusion

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Women taking part in a village women’s right forum in India
Publication

Action for Global Justice in Practice

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Two women holding posters calling for fair taxation
Publication

Supporting fair tax systems

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A nurse tending to patients in a health centre
Publication

Who Cares for the Future: finance gender responsive public services!

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