About AID/WATCH

Our purpose

AID/WATCH is an independent membership-based watchdog on aid, trade and debt, working with communities in the Global South. We challenge practices which undermine the ability of communities to determine their own futures, and promote development alternatives based on social and environmental justice. We research and evaluate development policies and practices, and we campaign around these issues as part of the global justice movement.

Our vision

A thriving global justice movement, based on mutual solidarity, and on social and environmental justice. A world free from structural inequalities, where people can determine their own futures within a global framework of mutual respect for the environment and for one another. A world where trade, aid and debt no longer exploit peoples, but instead promote environmental and social justice.

Our values

We believe in solidarity not charity

We are committed to global justice and equality. We campaign as much for our futures as for the futures of others. We are respectful of the different approaches and views of others in the movement for global justice. We acknowledge and aim to strengthen the power and agency of communities.

We are independent and fearless

We are a member-based organization. We do not take funds from governments or corporations. We respect diversity of ideas. We are free to make critical comment and are uncompromising in advocating for social and environmental justice. We are principled and where necessary pugnacious. We are never afraid to say what we think.

We are informed and transformative

Our campaigns are grounded in experience and our research is thorough and constructive. We believe in building alternative futures, founded on experience and on community-level capacity. In this respect we are innovative and creative.

We are activist and movement-based

We are a member-driven activist organization, working as part of the wider global justice movement. Our campaigns provoke public debate to generate engagement with development issues, and to inspire public participation in efforts to transform development policies and practices.

To read about AID/WATCH governance click here.

To find out how to get involved and support AID/WATCH click here.