Asian Development Bank

ADB is a multilateral development finance institution that engages in mostly public sector lending for development purposes in its developing member countries. Its overarching goal is to reduce poverty in Asia and the Pacific. ADB helps improve the quality of people’s lives by providing loans and technical assistance for a broad range of development activities. Its clients are its member governments, who are also its shareholders.

Department for International Development (United Kingdom)

The Department for International Development (DFID) is the part of the UK Government that manages Britain’s aid to poor countries and works to get rid of extreme poverty. DFID supports long-term programmes to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty. DFID also responds to emergencies, both natural and man-made. DFID works in partnership with governments, civil society, the private sector and others. It also works with multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, United Nations agencies, and the European Commission. DFID works directly in over 150 countries worldwide, with a budget of nearly £4 billion in 2004. Its headquarters are in London and East Kilbride, near Glasgow.

European Union

Nearly half the money spent to help poor countries comes from the European Union and its member states, making it the world’s biggest aid donor. But development policy is about more than providing clean water and surfaced roads, important though these are. The Union also uses trade to drive development by opening its markets to exports from poor countries and by encouraging them to trade more with each other.

Food and Agriculture Organisation

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information. It helps developing countries and countries in transition to modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. Since the founding of FAO in 1945, it has focused special attention on developing rural areas, home to 70 percent of the world’s poor and hungry people.

World Bank

An international organization fighting poverty in more than 100 developing countries by providing loans & advice.

World Food Programme

As the food aid arm of the UN, WFP uses its food to meet emergency needs and support economic & social development. The Agency also provides the logistics support necessary to get food aid to the right people at the right time and in the right place. WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry.