Patrick Watt

I was delivering Christian Aid envelopes even before I was delivering Labour Party leaflets so it was a real pleasure to meet with Longniddry Parish Church’s Christian Aid group this morning and join them for their fundraising coffee morning at the church.

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

.@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

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

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/6860db… via @ft

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-develop…

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…

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/c3rw…

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/015092… via @ft

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-a…

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/… via @issuu

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/c8jy…

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/…

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/20…

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

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-pos…

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/20…

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-health/…

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/cly0…

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