The Word Development Movement

I've been interested in the whole globalisation/capitalism debate for quite a while now. I've read a decent amount of books on the subject including the excellent "Globalization and Its Discontents" and am strongly of the opinion that the way we have things set up that make us all so wealthy (and house prices so high *grumble*) is what is keeping the rest of the world so poor. From what I've read and also seen in my last year away there really isn't much going on to even the balance. Unfortunately many charities appear to be sadly misguided in their execution. For example, NGOs in South East Asia have a reputation for driving around in air-conditioned SUVs and living in gated communities. I also get the feeling a lot of the money ends up disappearing in corruption, which is absolutely rife in places like Cambodia and being bled dry by crazy bureaucracy in somewhere like India.

The World Development Movement is different. They're not about funding idealistic projects which are supposed to "empower" poor communities, but pressure "decision-makers to stop policies that hurt the world’s poor". Donating money to them goes towards things like producing campaign resources for protesters and toolkits for parliamentarians. They have been very successful in raising awareness in issues such as the disastrous privatisation of water companies in places like Tanzania and Guyana which are being pushed on developing countries by organisations like the IMF and funded by our government.

What's even better about WDM is that you can actually take part. They have four groups in London alone. This isn't some extreme left wing group (although I'm sure it attracts a lot of weirdos). Its about our politicians and companies paying more than just lip service to all the shit they spout.