About Us
General
Tuesday, 23 December 2008 18:44
IDP Action: strengthening the protection of the internally displaced in Africa
IDP Action is an advocacy organisation registered in the United Kingdom. It works to ensure adequate protection and assistance is provided to people in Africa who have been displaced within their own country by armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, natural or human-made disasters.
IDP Action's approach is based on three core competencies:
- Strategic excellence and policy and country expertise
- IDP Action's staff and Trustees have long experience in coordinating and managing campaigns for international NGOs and in research and advocacy on African countries with large IDP populations.
- An integrated research approach
- IDP Action staff members move agilely between the development, human rights and humanitarian NGO sectors, drawing on their own experience and extensive networks. The organisation looks at IDP crises through different lenses, leading to a deeper analysis.
- Coalition-building among civil society and political institutions in Africa and beyond
- IDP Action is well-connected to key institutions at the African Union and the United Nations and works with a broad network of African and international partners to achieve its aims.
IDP Action is independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion. It does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of the rights of IDPs.
Staff
Tuesday, 23 December 2008 18:37
The people behind IDP Action
The human rights professionals running IDP Action each have more than 10 years experience coordinating and leading campaigns for human rights and development NGOs, as well as a history of substantive involvement in Africa:
- Jeremy Smith, Director, Organisational Strategy, has held the posts of Deputy Director, Campaigns Program and Deputy Director, Africa Program, Amnesty International. He is currently a freelance campaign evaluator; clients in have included Oxfam, Greenpeace, Rights and Democracy and Saferworld. Jeremy studied Geography at Oxford University and has a Masters degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.
Board
Tuesday, 23 December 2008 18:50
- Frank Smith, Chair, is currently Global Campaigns Manager for World Vision. He has previously held senior campaigning positions with Oxfam and Amnesty International and has also worked as a consultant conducting research into civil society capacity development in Africa and providing advocacy training for groups including the UN Development Programme, Save the Children and the Southern Africa Trust.
- Kathleen Moriarty, Secretary, is a freelance consultant working in the field of education, rights and international development. In her previous role with Save the Children UK Kate lead the development and implementation of global advocacy for the international Rewrite the Future campaign, focusing on education in conflict-affected fragile states and humanitarian crisis. Kate has extensive experience of working in civil society coalitions and capacity development, and is familiar with the challenges facing civil society organisations in fragile states.
- Martin Clark, Treasurer, is a freelance consultant providing advice and support to campaigning organizations on strategy, evaluation, capacity building and campaign management. For several years he worked for Amnesty International as Director and Deputy Director of campaigns.
- Bénédicte Goderiaux is a researcher at Amnesty International. She worked on Sudan from 2003-7 and is now the thematic researcher on conflict in Africa, with a special focus on Somalia.