Before you go!

ACFID endeavours to be a leader in information in the international development sector. We provide sector update, breaking insights, thought pieces and technical analysis to our members and the sector more broadly.

Please note that only those with member status in our CRM will receive member only communications. Members must use their professional email to gain this status.

Sector News – A fortnightly newsletter featuring general sector news, aid and development activity, and employment vacancies.

Sector Events – Ad-Hoc communication sent to a national and international audience. This newsletter ensures its recipients are up to date on events available to them, both online and face-to-face, spanning a wide range of topics relevant to the humanitarian aid and development sector.

ACFID’s Annual National Conference – Ad-hoc communications about ACFID’s Annual National Conference. Subscribers will receive promotion about the event, including first announcements, speaker and sponsor updates, ticket pricing and discounts, logistics, etc.

The Weekly (Member Only) – A weekly communication sent to ACFID members, featuring breaking insights, thought pieces and technical analysis, important meetings and events to attend, tasks to action, key employment vacancies, and a message from our partner(s).

Learning (Member Only) – Ad-Hoc communication which aims to build sector capability so that Australia has a high performing development and humanitarian sector that delivers for the stakeholders it serves.

Media (Member Only) – Ad-Hoc communication aiming to keep the membership informed of relevant media releases, interviews, and other key pieces of publicity.

Policy & Advocacy (Member Only) – Ad-Hoc communication aiming to work with government to foster an open, accountable and fair enabling environment for international development and humanitarian practice.

Code & Standards (Member Only) – Ad-Hoc communication about ACFIDs Code of Conduct. The ACFID Code of Conduct sets a benchmark for good practice in the Australian NGO community, as well as being an organisational effectiveness and learning tool.

Home 5 Our Focus 5 Achieve human rights and equity for all throughout transformative development

Our Focus

Achieve human rights and equity for all through transformative development

ACFID staff meeting with Equality Australia and Edge Effect at ACFID offices, 2025

For the past eight years, Haseena has lived with constant pain and irritation in her eyes from trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness.

Due to her condition, the 53-year-old mother of two in Pakistan’s Chitral District was left unable to work, relying on her husband’s modest wage as a labourer to support her family.

One day a Lady Health Worker visited Haseena’s village and identified her as an eligible patient for trachoma trichiasis surgery. She advised Haseena and her family to visit a nearby eye camp organised by The Fred Hollows Foundation in Chitral.

Haseena went to the camp and underwent surgery on both of her eyes, saving her sight.

After the surgery, Haseena and her family were overjoyed and expressed thanks to The Fred Hollows Foundation and its donors for providing her relief from the pain she had suffered for eight years. She was overcome with joy that she could now cook for her family again and have sound sleep, free of pain. Photo: The Fred Hollows Foundations Australia.

Australia’s international development and humanitarian programs should prioritise the fulfilment of human rights and achieve equity by addressing the underlying structural drivers of inequity to ensure transformative development outcomes for all.

In the face of a growing well-funded and coordinated global anti-rights movement, strategic and scaled-up investment to protect minority rights through Australia’s development program is needed now more than ever. This investment is necessary to prevent the continued erosion of hardwon gains. Rising authoritarianism, climate change and conflict also combine to amplify the aims of the anti-rights movement. The rights of women, girls and people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) are especially at risk, with sexual and reproductive health and rights often the first line of attack.

As we move towards 2030, the shared SDG pledge that ‘no one be left behind’ is at risk of remaining unfulfilled. Structural inequality and negative social norms contribute to the marginalisation of people with disabilities, women and girls, people with diverse SOGIESC, children and young people, First Nations peoples and those that face discrimination due to ethnicity, race, religious beliefs, displacement and cultural practices. Individuals and groups at the intersection of identities experience compounding marginalisation.

One of the most effective ways for Australia to support movements for transformational change on minority rights and achieve development progress is by working with locally-led constituent organisations and advocates. People with lived experience are the most effective advocates for change in their contexts and mitigate against critiques that the push for equality is a ‘Western’ or colonial agenda that is being imposed.

Anti-Racism and Racial Justice

ACFID recognises that racism is harmful and has real life impacts – including excluding people of colour from power and decision making – and that meaningfully addressing diversity and inclusion often requires engaging in questions of racism.

ACFID wish to initiate a vital dialogue amongst members about representation, participation, and access to decision-making. We are open to where members may go in the future with dialogue and options to address these critical issues,
but we believe it is not an option to not to discuss these matters.

As part of our commitment to racial justice, ACFID has:

Resolved to build greater representation, participation and access to decision making with peoples of varied cultural and racial origins and intersections in the sector
Supported the formation and development of the Racial Justice Community of Practice (RJCOP). Members are encouraged to join
Delivered training to ACFID secretariat staff and Members to support inclusion and racial justice, including anti-racist training with the organisation Hue
Amplified anti-racist practices within the Code of Conduct, including developing guidelines on good-practice for locally-led development
In partnership with the RJCOP, developed a racial justice framework and resource hub for organisations. See below for the Racial Justice Resource Library Guide. An interactive format will be coming to Learn with ACFID soon.