Swiss Church Aid ensures access to clean drinking water in Ethiopia’s community
Through ACT appeal’s response to the prolonged drought in Horn of Africa , ACT member Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) implemented an emergency drought response project in the Hudet Woreda region of Ethiopia. The rehabilitation of a traditional well, improved access to safe water for the communities in the region. The well was non-functional for the last five years, due to technical problems with the generator. This had created enormous challenges for the people living in that area. HEKS/EPER upgraded the system to a solar-powered submersible pump, installing six solar panels and repairing 50 meters of pipelines to improve water distribution. Now the well is benefiting more than 5,000 people.
Halima Mohamed , a mother of five living in Hudet Woreda, who earns a small income notes that access to clean water was very challenging for her family during the drought.
“We used to collect water as far as 5 km away from traditional wells but also ponds for our daily consumption. It was not safe, but it became a matter of survival” Says Halima. She would send her daughters to collect water so that she could take care of the house and her newborn. This meant that her daughters could not attend school on a regular basis.
“I was worried about their future, that they will end up like me, staying home with no income and dependent on others“ she adds. The lack of access to clean drinking water affected the health of her children, as they were continuously ill.
Halima’s family is one of the households that benefit from HEKS/EPER’s project. She is now able to easily fetch water in her neighbourhood. ‘Now I can keep my children healthy and we can drink clean water. I don’t need to keep my girls at home to support me with the house works. They started going to school, which gave me so much relief, now am seeing a bright future for me and my children.”
“Dignified Assistance in Every Crisis”: CWSA’s campaign to promote quality and accountability in humanitarian action
In June 2023 Community World Service Asia (CWSA) launched a digital campaign to promote quality in humanitarian action. The campaign “Dignified Assistance in Every Crisis”, which is still running, aims at strengthening the understanding of humanitarian principles among field workers, emergency responders and local civil society.
« As a regional and national focal point for quality and accountability standards, CWSA is focusing on activities that aim at strengthening the capacity of local NGOs, as well as the availability and use of contextualised resources, techniques, and procedures to reinforce systemic and cultural changes, » said Palwashay Arbarb, Head of Communications at CWSA.
Although focused on the local context and translated into local languages, the English version of the campaign, which is currently running on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, is available for all ACT members to circulate.
« We really urge our partners in ACT Alliance, and its network in Pakistan, to widely circulate the content of this campaign to ensure humanitarian response in the country at all levels is safe, people- centered and dignified. », concluded Palwashay Arbarb.
The Season of Creation, the annual ecumenical celebration that encourages parishes to listen and respond to the cry of Creation, begins September 1 on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
This year’s theme is “Let Justice and Peace Flow” and invites us to join others in working for climate justice. A range of actions are suggested, from prayers to meeting with national climate negotiators to influence their decisions. The Season of Creation Celebration is intentionally scheduled just prior to the annual UN climate convention (the COP) to encourage climate action and advocacy in parishes. The Season of Creation Celebration Guide and promotional resources are now available in several languages.
The Season of Creation formally begins September 1 with a global ecumenical online prayer celebration at 09:00 New York, 15:00 Geneva, Johannesburg 16:00, 21:00 Manila, 01:00 Aotearoa. It will be streamed on the Season of Creation YouTube channel.
ACT members are involved in many different ways. The Celebration Guide is available in Arabic thanks to translation provided by the Middle East Council of Churches. The Season of Creation has been “on fire” in the MENA region, says ACT MENA Regional Representative Rachel Luce.
Patricia Mungcal of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and co-chair of ACT’s Global Youth Community of Practice introduced the Advocacy section in June’s global online Celebration Guide launch. “This guide sharply unites us towards our advocacy goals,” she said. “For climate justice, now that we have the commitment for a Loss and Damage facility, we need to ensure that fair funding is allocated… with no colonial conditionalities for the Global South.”
Patricia was followed by a video of ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria speaking of the power of united faith action on climate justice. “Together we can be a river that can move the mountains of injustice,” said Bueno de Faria. “As an ecumenical family, we can engage in these actions to ensure the web of life is preserved and cared for.” See video below.
ACT General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria
ACT Alliance calls for an immediate lift of the blockade of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh and adherence to humanitarian principles
In the face of a growing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), ACT Alliance expresses deep concern with the blockage imposed by Azerbaijani authorities to block the Lachin corridor, the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, precipitating a humanitarian crisis.
Over the last seven months, the blockade has severely impacted the lives of the people in the region, especially the most vulnerable. Some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, including 30,000 children, are suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. In addition, this crisis is affecting their ability to access medical care and life-saving services.
On 25 February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement of all persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions.
ACT Alliance is concerned by Azerbaijan’s lack of observance of its ethical obligations and humanitarian principles and urges the Azerbaijani government to end human suffering, giving particular attention to the most vulnerable. Blocking humanitarian aid should not be used as a strategy to resolve a conflict or other disputes.
ACT Alliance calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor and allow for unhindered and safe passage of civilians and goods along the corridor, as well as guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access in line with international law and the order of the ICJ.
ACT Alliance is furthermore calling on the international community to urgently work to end the blockade and to find diplomatic solutions to bring a just peace to the region.
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria
ACT Alliance General Secretary
Loss and damage – we need a pragmatic and science-based approach
In 2022, massive monsoon flooding left over 6.4 million people in Pakistan needing humanitarian assistance. The increasing intensity of these kinds of events are due to climate change. PHOTO: Sahar Zafar/CWSA
The ongoing debate about climate-induced loss and damage is rife with conflicts. Different perspectives, political views, and ideologies make it difficult for parties to agree on a way forward.
Since 2019, the Danish NGO DanChurchAid has been monitoring projects, implemented by our local partners, that address loss and damage. I believe our experience can provide some helpful perspective for the ongoing negotiations.
As an NGO working across the humanitarian and development nexus, we were already monitoring, and reporting, on projects related to cutting emissions and adapting to climate change. However, we also wanted to learn more about the efforts to address loss and damage.
Loss and damage is a reality now. The people we meet in the drought-affected Turkana region in Kenya, the flooded villages in South Sudan, and the farmers who lost their livelihoods due to cyclones in Malawi, know what we are talking about.
Defining loss and damage
At the international level, there is no agreed definition, and no accepted marker to identify projects. Our solution was to develop our own methodology. The support we give to communities to reduce exposure to climate-related hazards, for example by setting up an early warning system for cyclones, is labeled as ‘adaptation’. Meanwhile, the provision of emergency response, for example by delivering cash to families who lost their belongings, is labeled ‘loss and damage’.
One of the first lessons we could draw is that attribution is difficult. Is a drought climate-related or weather related? And are people being displaced as a result of the drought or due to local conflicts? It is not clear-cut and, in reality, it is often a combination of factors. For people on the ground, the label doesn’t matter. They are concerned about whether any support at all exists for them.
We have therefore chosen a pragmatic, but still science-based, approach. We talk about climate-associated loss and damage, rather than climate-induced loss and damage. A small but important difference that can determine whether a community will receive support or not from a future loss and damage fund.
Funding streams
Our monitoring indicates that the projects are funded from a variety of funding sources, both humanitarian and long-term development funds. That is relevant for the negotiations about ‘funding arrangements’ for loss and damage. Most of our support is directed to rapid-onset disasters, such as a hurricane, while few projects have a focus on slow-onset events, like desertification, and non-economic loss. The gap would need to be addressed by the loss and damage fund, as was agreed at the COP27 climate talks last year.
Another lesson relates to how the projects are designed. More than four-fifths of our activities include elements of both loss and damage on one hand, and adaptation or mitigation on the other. That indicates that the projects not only build back to pre-disaster situation after a loss, or damage, but that they do so in a way that improves conditions. It means that communities are more robust when the next extreme event strikes.
The UN negotiations must ensure a new fund will be eligible for cross-cutting activities, addressing both loss and damage and adaptation, to ensure the long-term perspective.
Local engagement
Finally, our monitoring makes it clear that it is local communities and local actors themselves that are spearheading the work. They are the first responders, and those who stay behind when the hazard is under control. Yes, they need support, but they are best placed to know what kind of support is needed.
Even if the new loss and damage fund is negotiated within the UN, decisions about the actual destination of the money must engage the local communities that are affected. We need locally-led actions to address loss and damage, and this must be a priority when the new fund is operationalised.
is a chief advisor at DanChurchAid and co-chair of ACT Alliance’s climate justice group.
Faith Actors come together to Advance Gender Equality
Picture credit: Karin Hugsén , Act Church of Sweden
Over 25 diverse faith-based organisations attended Women Deliver 2023, which concluded yesterday in Rwanda. ACT Alliance co-convened a ‘meet and greet’ at the conference, for faith actors to connect, share, and strategize on our collective work for gender justice. Rising fundamentalisms, which are pushing back hard against women’s rights at every level and across the world, religion can often be perceived as only contributing to the problem of gender inequalities. Patriarchal gender norms continue to be packaged in the language of religion because it legitimises them, it makes them appear divinely ordained and unchangeable. Anti-rights actors are mobilising religious language to block or even reverse progress on gender equality.
Nearly 84 per cent of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Many faith-based organisations, who participated in Women Deliver, are advocating for the importance of engaging in faith-based partnerships to advance gender justice.
A focus of the Women Deliver conference is advancing Sexual and reproductive health and rights, which will not be achieved simply by changing laws, reducing poverty, or improving education and health care services. While these are all essentialsteps, we also need to challenge and eliminate discriminatory social norms that constrain bodily autonomy, agency and rights.To this end, the ACT Gender Justice Programme is working closely with our members, national and regional forums and platforms to harness the value-based power of faith actors to advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
For example, the ACT Argentina Forumis confronting fundamentalist and hateful discourses which oppress, manipulate, and deny the fundamental freedoms of women and girls in all their diversity. The forum is developing and sharing liberating faith narratives and theological perspectives that encourage the rereading of sacred texts and cultural contexts. It is also creating safe spaces of trust, which are open, intimate and focused on active listening without judgement.Together, we are working to support and amplify those prophetic voices who are courageously calling for transformative action to achieve justice for all.
Choosing partners who are leaders on gender issues in their contexts: International collaboration and partnerships are pivotal for achieving all SDGs, especially now as the world tries to recover from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving SDG 5 is deeply interconnected with achieving all SDGs.
Encourage religious literacy: Development agencies need to provide training throughout their organizational structures that convey a basic understanding of the ways in which religious discourses are context-specific, historically situated, internally diverse, continually reinforced and altered by both internal and external factors.
Conducting comprehensive gender analyses prior to projects and partnerships: A comprehensive, context-specific, and theory-based gender analysis can highlight the religion-gender intersection in each locality and facilitate the inclusion of religious actors. It can also uncover the patriarchal power dynamics behind religious arguments supporting gender inequality.
ACT Palestine Forum statement: APF Condemnation of the escalation of violence at Jenin Refugee Camp
The ACT Palestine Forum issued a statement on July 4, 2023, condemning the escalation of violence at the Jenin Refugee Camp which has left at least 8 people dead and 50 injured.
“We emphasize that the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law should be paramount in any conflict,” the statement reads. “The excessive use of force against civilians, including children and the elderly is deeply concerning and unacceptable.”
The ACT Palestine forum “call[s] the international community and related parties, including the United Nations, regional and international organizations to react immediately without delay to address the situation and for immediate cessation of hostilities that ensure the safety of all civilians including those living in refugee camps and its surrounding.”
Keeping Faith in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Five Key Takeaways from ACT Alliance’s participation CPD56
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the ICPD Programme of Action, and while progress has been made, this remains too slow and uneven. ACT Alliance convened a global delegation of members to participate in the 56th UN Commission on Population and Development, with representation from Argentina, Ethiopia, Nepal, Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil. ACT members were also part of the national government delegations of Sweden and Norway.
As we reflect on our participation, here are our 5 key takeaways:
Multi-stakeholder partnerships and feminist allies are critical to amplify a collective voice. To implement the ICPD Programme of Action, and advance SRHR, we must break silos and be catalytic collaborators, working across different sectors. For example, ACT Alliance has been participating in the broad civil society platform of International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition and actively collaborating with secular feminist organisations, UN Agencies, and Member States, to create collective calls and collaborations for reproductive justice, and counter backlashes on human rights, including SRHR.
When governments talk about sex – they might really be talking about geopolitics. Many adolescents and young people, including the most marginalized young people, continue to face structural and societal gendered barriers in terms of accessing education, which was the focus of this year’s commission. The crux of the negotiations focused on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), which can support adolescents and young people’s decisions concerning their sexuality, health and well-being. Yet, the relationships between nation-states (the geopolitical context) were apparent, as Member States navigated an overtly politicised and polarised discussion on the right to education.
Religion and human rights continue to be polarised in UN spaces. Whenever religion enters the public sphere or becomes powerful in politics, it tends to orbit around gender issues. Patriarchal gender norms, which block progress on advancing SRHR, are packaged in the language of religion because it legitimises them. You can read more on the nexus between religion, gender and development, in our co-published report, The Role of Religious Actors in Gender Equality since the Beijing Declaration (Khalaf-Elledge 2021: 44). However, this does not reflect the reality on the ground and ACT members and faith-partners engaged in ICPD show the importance of working with religious actors to advance SRHR.
Anti-rights actors are coordinated and have money. The 1994 UN Population and Development Conference in Cairo affirmed aspects of SRHR and a number of crucial aspects in regard to healthy, sustainable population and human lives around the world: “179 world leaders reached a consensus and adopted a programme of action, which enshrined individual reproductive rights as a basic human right.”. Yet, nearly 30 years later, strategic anti-rights alliances, which are often well-funded, are creating resistance to reproductive justice. In the case of the 56th CPD, the pushback on gender equality prevented an agreement by Member States from being reached.
ACT Alliance’s diversity is our strength, we have a powerful role as a rights and faith-based alliance, to reclaim religious narratives for gender justice.
“Whatever our faith or cultural background, let us give every girl the protection, information and resources she needs to thrive.” – Dr. Kanem, Executive Director, UNFPA;
“It is important to adapt the language of SRHR to the local level, faith communities are the potential translators for what this means.” – Nirmala, World YWCA, Nepal;
“Promote new narratives, aligning with bodily autonomy, by creating narratives close to the ground. Norms and values are not static; they are open to interpretation and change.” – Paula, CDD Mexico;
“As communities of faith we cannot be silent when girls and women in all their diversities are being threatened and inequalities exacerbated.” – Zanele, ACT Ubumbano, South Africa.
Our delegates contributed to Side Events, bi-lateral meetings with member States, strategy sessions, and networking with civil society actors. As faith actors, who are rooted in communities, our members powerfully shared how methodologies and practices are advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, including in an oral statement. As part of our advocacy we co-hosted the Side Event, ‘Between Taboos and Freedom: Religion, Rights and Reproductive Justice’, which you can watch on UN WebTV here.
Climate talks out of touch with reality
Media release
Climate talks out of touch with reality
Members of the ACT Alliance and ecumenical delegations call for more climate finance for the Global South, rather than more empty promises from rich countries around the world. Photo: Simon Chambers/ACT
Temperatures around the world are peaking. In some of the most vulnerable countries floods, droughts and cyclones are devastating communities and households. Climate change is a reality and deserves to be called a crisis.
After two weeks of UN (United Nations) negotiations in Bonn, the parties seem to have forgotten what is at stake if we collectively fail to solve this crisis. Talks instead focused on what to prioritise on the agenda, processes for future agreements, and dialogues meant to help parties understand each other.
As Mattias Söderberg, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice group and a member of the ACT Alliance delegation at the Bonn talks, says,
These talks are out of touch with reality. Rather than engaging in real discussions, parties gave speeches based on old positions and arguments, without reflecting on the crisis we are facing.
As an international Christian network, we in Act Alliance are committed to caring for all creation. However, with the current system of world development, we, as humanity, are not living up to our responsibility.
All parties are aware of the need to address the climate crisis. However, there is no agreement on who should act.
Sostina Takure, ACT Alliance Zimbabwe Forum coordinator and ACT Bonn delegation member, says,
The climate crisis is also a justice crisis. Communities with the smallest carbon footprints pay the highest price, while countries with the largest historic responsibility continue their emissions. Rich countries must take the lead in the fight against climate change.
Climate justice must be reflected in the negotiations. Developed countries should deliver on their promises to mobilise climate finance and increase their support to adaptation.
The need for climate finance is clear. Without funds, there will be no action. This was also stressed during the talks about future climate finance in Bonn.
In ACT Alliance we believe that future climate finance must build on the needs of vulnerable communities, and not on political compromises.
As Mattias Söderberg says,
Climate finance must be delivered to the most vulnerable countries as grants. The climate crisis must not be turned into a debt crisis.
All financial flows in both developed and developing countries must contribute to the fulfilment of the Paris Agreement goals. However, this commitment should not be confused with developed countries’ obligations to mobilise climate finance.
At the upcoming climate summit, COP28, parties will adopt a global goal on adaptation. This goal will guide continued collaboration to enable successful and adequate adaptation for all. In Bonn, parties were expected to make progress in talks about this goal. In particular, they were expected to develop a better understanding of the goal. However, these talks did not deliver more than a commitment to continue talking.
As Sostina Takure says,
The progress in adaptation policy has been described as sluggish. Bonn offered little to no progress in identifying the global goal, and that is a genuine disappointment. Without adaptation funding people and communities are at risk when they face climate-related disasters and events.
Countries must work out the global goal on adaptation in detail to achieve our shared aspiration of overcoming climate impacts and building resilience.
Lack of adaptation finance will increase climate-related loss and damage. This was an important topic on the Bonn agenda, yet once again parties left the meetings with very different views.
As Mattias Söderberg says,
We want the upcoming climate summit, COP28, to deliver the loss and damage fund as promised by ministers last year. The fund is important, as people on the frontlines of climate change are already experiencing loss and damage.
The loss and damage fund should guarantee rapid and scaled up finance to vulnerable communities to protect lives, recover livelihoods, and for reconstruction following climate disasters.
Media contacts:
Mattias Söderberg
ACT Alliance Climate Justice Co-chair,
+45 29700609
Fiona Connelly
ACT Alliance Communications Coordinator
+1 416 466-2428
About ACT Alliance
We are a global faith-based coalition organized in national and regional forums operating in more than 120 countries.
Through our more than 140 members, we work on humanitarian aid, gender
and climate justice, migration and displacement, and peace and security to support local communities. Our goal is to promote a locally-led and coordinated approach to advocacy, humanitarian and developmental issues.
Basic Facts about the Alliance
ACT Alliance is composed of more than 140 faith-based member organisations working in long-term development, advocacy and humanitarian assistance.
Our members work in more than 120 countries
Our members employ more than 30,000 staff and volunteers globally
Our members mobilise approximately more than $ 2 billion each year
The alliance is supported by an international Secretariat of more than 25 staff based in Geneva, Bangkok, New York, Toronto, Amman, Bogota, Nairobi and Brussels.
ACT Alliance was established on 1 January 2010 by bringing together the vision, resources, the people of the organisations who have been working together since 1995 as ACT International and since 2003 as ACT Development.
ACT Syria Forum sends message to Brussels Conference
In an effort to ensure continued international support for Syrian refugees and their host communities, the European Union is hosting the seventh Brussels Conference on ‘Supporting the future of Syria and the region‘ 14 and 15 June 2023. The Brussels Conference aims at reasserting the international community’s commitment towards Syrians. It will provide a unique platform for dialogue with civil society.
The ACT Syria Forum has submitted a statement to the conference calling for:
Humanitarian exemptions which extend beyond the earthquake response and are clear, open-ended and harmonized between jurisdictions;
A comprehensive revision of the sanctions’ framework from a legal perspective, in regard to the International Law;
A sincere analysis of the sanction’s intended, unintended, and counterproductive impacts on the population of Syria from a humanitarian perspective; and
Support for national and international organizations in engaging in interventions focusing on re-establishing the access to essential infrastructures to respond to the basic needs of the population on a sustainable manner.
All the sessions of the Conference will be live-streamed here.
