The openGlobalRights debate on internationalizating human rights groups has inspired a flurry of commentary on this “new” trend, but decentralization is not new to ActionAid International. In January 2004, we moved our headquarters from London to Johannesburg, taking a first practical and symbolic step on a long journey of organizational internationalization.
Today, ActionAid works with 15 million people in 45 countries to defeat poverty and achieve greater human rights. We are the only international development organisation headquartered in Africa, although others are now following.
Internationalization changed ActionAid from being a largely European-based development organisation working in Africa, Asia and Latin America, into a global federation governed and run by equal members across the world. It wasn’t a case of simply shifting staff and resources to South Africa, but also of shifting organizational power. All our member countries, wherever they are based, have the same voting rights and voice as those based in the traditional donor countries of Europe, the US and Australia.
