@WattPatrick profile picture
Patrick Watt @WattPatrick

CEO @christian_aid. Campaigner for social and environmental justice. Views are my own

Joined February 2012
  • Tweets 2,735
  • Following 577
  • Followers 2,679
294 Photos and videos
RT @D_G_Alexander: I was delivering Christian Aid envelopes even before I was delivering Labour Party leaflets so it was a real pleasure to…
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Patrick Watt retweeted
Rosamond Bennett @RosamondBennett
5 Feb 2025
I’m back from a week in Lebanon where I travelled with @WattPatrick to see the impact of the recent war & how Christian Aid’s local partners have been responding. Over just two months more than 3,000 people were killed & 1.3 million people (1/4 of the population) fled their homes
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.@christian_aid partner Najdeh has been able to scale up support to Palestinian refugees across camps in Lebanon, following mass displacement last October - thanks to generous donations to our Middle East appeal
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Thank you to the amazing volunteers of our Lebanese partner MSL - many of them women displaced by the war - for introducing their kitchen in Beirut's Burj Hammoud, which with @decappeal £ is providing hundreds of IDPs with good food and practical support
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Bishop Budde's 'achievement shouldn’t be measured in how many people attend her next service. It should be measured in how many other people feel a duty to speak out against what they know is wrong'. Amen to that. ft.com/content/6860dbe6-d56a… via @ft

Trump and the troublesome priest

The president complained about the bishop’s mixing of religion and politics but in his version of Christianity the two are intertwined

ft.com
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From a quality perspective 'peak aid' was probably hit around the time of the global financial crisis. Since then it's had less and less to do with poverty, as donors have bent it to commercial and geopolitical ends theguardian.com/global-devel…

With the knives out on development spending, have we reached ‘peak aid’? | Nilima Gulrajani and...

From Trump’s Project 2025 to a huge funding cut by the Dutch, donors are turning their backs on aid

theguardian.com
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Ihab Faisal, a human rights defender who worked for our long standing partner @pchrgaza was killed earlier today in an Israeli strike on Gaza, hours after the ceasefire was announced. There are no words reliefweb.int/report/occupie…

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Today's announcement comes 15 months too late for the many thousands of civilians killed in Gaza. To be more than a brief respite from war, the ceasefire must lead to a durable peace in which occupation ends and Palestinians Israelis have equal rights bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3rwqpj7…

US 'confident' Gaza ceasefire will begin on Sunday, as Israeli cabinet yet to vote on deal - live...

It comes as Israeli strikes have killed dozens in Gaza ahead of the truce which is expected to take effect on Sunday.

bbc.co.uk
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Climate adaptation finance for the poorest countries will either come from public grants, or it won't come at all - thanks to my colleague @Mariana_Paoli for this letter in today's FT 👇👇ft.com/content/015092f9-1db5… via @ft

Letter: Public grants to fill climate finance gap are overdue

From Mariana Paoli, Global Advocacy Lead, Christian Aid, London SE1, UK

ft.com
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We are still in November and already 2024 is the deadliest year on record for humanitarian aid workers. In an age of impunity, people are paying with their lives to do life-saving work reuters.com/world/record-aid…

Record aid worker deaths in 2024 in 'era of impunity', UN says

More aid workers have been killed this year than in any year since tallies began, the U.N. humanitarian office said on Friday, with most of them killed in the Gaza conflict.

reuters.com
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Following today's @christian_aid AGM, our latest annual report is now out. Last year our supporters' generosity enabled us to reach 19 million people in 26 countries. Find out more about our impact here 👇 issuu.com/christian_aid/docs… via @issuu

Our Year of Impact - Annual Review 2023/24

issuu.com
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The $1.3trn headline commitment at #COP29 has more holes than a Swiss cheese. Only 300bn is pledged as grants and 'low interest' loans, and of that it's unclear what will end up going to the poorest and most climate vulnerable countries bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8jykpdg…

'Too little, too late': Activists and poorer nations criticise $300bn COP29 deal

Western leaders welcomed the deal, as US President Joe Biden says the world is "one significant step closer" to achieving climate goals.

bbc.co.uk
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The stories told about global poverty matter. As does who is telling the story. It's encouraging to see the BBC running a thoughtful and balanced piece on this issue bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dl…

Band Aid at 40: 'We knew Christmas before your ancestors'

Forty years on, the Band Aid song continues to generate debate about the way it presents Africa.

bbc.co.uk
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Mainstream economists are saying that funding of 1trn a year to tackle the climate crisis is feasible. The real debate in Baku should be about the cost for climate vulnerable countries of footdragging by the major carbon emitters #COP29 theguardian.com/environment/…

‘It is feasible’: climate finance won’t burden rich countries, say economists

Experts say mix of taxes with development bank and private funding can provide $1tn a year needed by 2030

theguardian.com
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The wealthiest countries are passing the buck on finance at #COP29, leaving communities on the front line of the climate crisis doubly exposed - read this new blog from Christian Aid's @Mariana_Paoli aje.io/cn09ks via @AJEnglish
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I'm looking forward to joining this interfaith panel on Sunday at Reading Minster, on one of the most pressing questions of our time - tickets are available here - eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-peace-…
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While the ice caps melt, implementation of the Paris agreement has been glacial. Azerbaijan's attempts to turn COP29 into an oil and gas trade fair only drives home the point that COP summits need a fundamental rethink theguardian.com/environment/…

Cop summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’, say leading climate policy experts

Future UN conferences should only be held in countries that show support for climate action, urge influential group

theguardian.com
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The world's worst humanitarian crisis is its most neglected, both in terms of emergency aid and diplomatic pressure, at terrible cost for millions of people. Thank you @TufailH for this important piece 👇 telegraph.co.uk/global-healt…

The international community’s failure on Sudan has shocked me to my core

Future generations will not forgive us if we leave the Sudanese people to their intense suffering

telegraph.co.uk
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New @christian_aid report out today, as #COP29 opens in Azerbaijan: in the absence of concerted climate action the host nation faces a 8.5% hit to its economy bbc.co.uk/news/live/cly0gzxg…

Keir Starmer tells COP29 there will be new 'ambitious' climate target for UK

The prime minister confirms the UK's target to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 81% on 1990 levels by 2035.

bbc.co.uk
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There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen independent.co.uk/news/uk/po…

Starmer reels from collapse of Brexit ally’s government – hours after Trump win

Fall of Olaf Scholz’s coalition in Germany has led to calls for greater UK/ French co-operation as the EU grapples with it response to the US election result

independent.co.uk
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