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Ai clients include governments, international and European organisations, companies, NGOs, local authorities and trade unions. Find out more about Ai and our services >  Our director, Ann Pettifor and project manager, Georgia Lee have just returned from extended visits to Sierra Leone and Ethiopia, as part of a DFID-funded project to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. Ai is part of a consortium, that includes the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London; IMMPACT in Aberdeen and the White Ribbon Alliance.
The consortium is led by Options, the sexual and reproductive health consultancy, and will work closely with African partners to deliver better maternal and neonatal health services and outcomes by using evidence more effectively to generate political commitment; strengthen accountability and improve planning and decision-making at all levels. Ai’s visit to Ethiopia and Sierra Leone was part of a scoping exercise, to assess the maternal and newborn health landscapes in those countries. Jeremy Smith, 9th December 2011 I have just returned from three stretching days’ work in a workshop and conference in Cologne (28th November to 1st December) with 15 Palestinian and 15 Israeli Mayors, where I moderated the discussions (using every technique known to me from the meeting-management handbook!) to negotiate agreement on practical steps for cooperation between them. Okay, it was not exactly negotiating the Oslo Peace Accords, but at times we felt pretty close to how the diplomats must have felt at the time! At several points, our work seemed doomed to end without agreement – but finally, we managed to draw up a set of future projects to work on together, covering promotion of tourism to the West Bank (aiming to increase not just numbers, but the amount spent in the West Bank by tourists), environmental issues, water purification, exchange visits (political, business, young people etc.), as well as a mayors’ network to promote practical cooperation. Continue reading… ›
September 26th, 2011 All of the team at Ai are deeply saddened to hear of the death of friend, colleague and great leader Wangari Maathai. Ann Pettifor especially remembered the privilege of working closely with Wangari on the Jubilee 2000 campaign. Earlier today she said: “Wangaari stands shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere as one of Africa’s – and the world’s – wisest and most effective leaders. “I was privileged to know her as a friend; and as a colleague. But above all I was privileged to work closely with her during the Jubilee 2000 campaign. Not only was she Jubilee 2000′s representative in Kenya, but she helped lead the Jubilee 2000 Africa campaign “May she rest in peace; and may her leadership of that and many other campaigns to protect Africa’s environment, grow in the world’s memory; just as the many trees she planted and helped propagate across Kenya – continue to grow and thrive. The finest memorial a world leader could leave as a legacy.”
August 24rd, 2011 Last Sunday Ann Pettifor went on the Sunday Morning show with Ricky Ross to talk about Jubilee 2000, the fight to cancel the debt of the world’s poorest countries, and how the campaign on issues of international finance, sovereign debt and social justice continue. Ann also got to play some of her favourite bits of music – Janet Baker singing the Mendelssohn Aria ‘O Rest in the Lord’ and Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’. Click the link below to listen to the whole show here, the interview starts at 7 minutes in:
Jeremy Smith – 25th July 2011 At the end of June, I returned to Haiti (see previous post) for a packed 2 week programme of capacity building and advocacy support work, with the two national associations of local authorities, representing the Communes (FENAMH) and Communal Sections (FENACAH) of Haiti. The programme is organised by the local government associations of Canada (FCM, UMQ) and the Netherlands – I was there on behalf of the Dutch association, VNG International. It was my first time back for a year, and on the ground, nothing much had changed. The tent cities were as prevalent as before, and whilst there was less earthquake rubble in the streets, not much rebuilding had taken place in Port au Prince. A new President had been elected, after a far-from-smooth process, but his proposed government was voted down by the Parliament. And yet, despite (or because of) all the problems, the 25 mayors and elected representatives we worked with, from all parts of Haiti, were committed to achieve positive change – which in their view can only come through a real process of decentralisation. On 28th June, Lords from all political sides joined together to criticize the government’s proposals in Part 2 of the Localism Bill, quoting Ai Director Jeremy Smith’s criticism and critique first made in February 2011, in an article in Municipal Journal, “Fog over Parliament” . Under the government’s proposals, ministers would decide whether and how much to require local authorities to pay to central government, in the event of a fine from the European Court of Justice, which the minister decides they are responsible for. In his article, Jeremy had explained (a) how the government had misunderstood the relevant EU Treaty provisions, and (b) in particular, how the proposed clawback proposals were in breach of the principles of natural justice, with ministers being at once prosecutor, judge and co-defendant! Baroness Gardner of Parkes cited this article in the recent Lords’ debate.
6th July 2011 Aviva has brought together a collection of prominent thinkers to provoke renewed debate and fresh ideas about future prosperity and creating a culture of sustainable savings. Today this group of thinkers, the ‘Future Prosperity Panel‘, published their report ‘Big picture thinking – Towards sustainable savings’. Ann Pettifor’s article is called ‘Savings and the alchemy of credit’ and is published alongside valuable work from Alain De Botton, Simon Tay, Paweł Świeboda and Diane Coyle. Read a summary of Ann’s essay and watch her video interview to learn more … >
The African Foundation for Development UK (AFFORD) invited Ann Pettifor to give the keynote speech at its Africa-UK Diplomatic Engagement Evening Monday evening, in the presence of the High Commissioners of Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire. Speaking on the theme of “Enterprise, Workforce and Institution Building in Post-Conflict States” Ann emphasized the vital importance of post-conflict African states building sound monetary systems. She argued that such systems should be designed to give African politicians the policy autonomy needed to formulate and execute their own monetary policy – and with it the domestic economic policies that will protect the interests of their people, and support their country’s advance.
Ann Pettifor was invited, by Sir David King, to join a panel at this year’s World Forum on Enterprise & the Environment organised by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford. The session was led by Herman Mulder and was entitled ”Green the economy, Financial needs and tools: The economics of a world mobilising to address biodiversity issues on a massive scale.” Read more about the discussion at the WFEE at the Guardian, and watch videos of the many activating speakers over the two days of the forum on the WFEE website.
By Ann Pettifor – 19th June 2011 The BBC Radio 4′s ‘World Tonight’ yesterday devoted the whole of their news programme to the question of global food security, and invited Ann Pettifor to comment throughout. She focussed on Goldman Sachs’s Global Commodity Index – (about which you can read more here in Foreign Policy) not very different from the ‘Collateralised Debt Obligations’ (CDOs) that had been used during the property bubble to ‘slice and dice’ assets, and make them available for speculative purposes. The programming was in response to a recent statement by President Sarkozy to the World Farmers Union. He was speaking in his role as convenor of the upcoming G20 Summit in Cannes on 3-4 November, 2011, and called for greater regulation of financial markets: “We must regulate financial markets in agricultural commodity derivatives. I know the causes of agricultural volatility are debated, and various parameters, such as speculation and weather conditions, have an influence. All this can be debated. But I would like to make a proposal: let’s not wait for the experts to agree before we act! Because one thing is for certain: the experts won’t agree. If you wait, nothing will be done, and we cannot afford to do nothing. The G20 has made commitments to improve the operation of derivative markets, particularly oil derivative markets. I would like to see those commitments extended to agricultural derivative markets. Is there any reason, any argument for us not to apply what we did for oil derivative markets to agricultural commodity derivative markets?” Ms Pettifor appeared with Waseem Khan of Silk Invest, a financial advisor to Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Funds. For more, you can listen on Iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011w837. |
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