ACT Assembly - Page 5 of 11

#youthinaction

Paul wrote to Timothy: “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 NKJV)

The 2018 ACT Assembly is a historic gathering as youth for the first time take a central role in the Assembly, and use this space to demand real and meaningful participation across the Alliance. As ACT youth have gathered in the days leading up to the Assembly we have had the possibility to reflect on our work and our participation in the Alliance. These reflections have led to a strengthened network of engaged and brilliant young people who work, in faith, for a better world. Further, it has led to an increased understanding of the importance of youth within the Alliance.

Youth under the age of 30 make up nearly half of the world’s population but our voice is often not heard. However, we already foster change at the local, national and global level through ACT, and in our own communities. By engaging youth, ACT has the opportunity to work with the next generation of world-changers and spread the message of the Alliance.

Youth are key actors in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, but in order to do so youth need to have a voice at the decision-making tables around the world. However, only 7% of the delegates at the Assembly are under 30, these represent half of the world population. Currently the ACT Alliance has no representatives under 30 in their governance board.

We, the ACT Youth are seeking equal and genuine participation in the Alliance, as well as concrete and consistent platforms to engage within ACT. It is vital to acknowledge young people as vibrant and important components of the Alliance. And it is critical to create space for youth involvement, at management, program and decision-making levels.

We therefore have the following suggestions for enhanced youth participation in ACT:

Youth delegates with speaking and voting rights should be a regular feature of the General Assembly to make sure that youth are heard within ACT. And to ensure access to decision-making, youth should have two representatives in the Governance Board. We ask that the Youth CoP is recognized as a Global Youth Forum which will elect these representatives.

Further, the Youth CoP should be a place to exchange best practices and knowledge. In order to do this we need platforms. We need funding for biannual Youth General Assemblies, one of which would happen prior to the ACT Assembly. In addition, ACT needs to create a substantive youth desk to be a liaison between the CoP and ACT to coordinate the work of youth within the life of ACT.

The Alliance should have youth included in Advisory Groups, Communities of Practice and the National and Regional Forums. Finally, all member organisations should employ young staff and engage young participants at trainings and meetings.

To sum up we call for:

The youth CoP to be recognized as a Youth Global Forum
Two seats in the governance board
Youth to be included in all forums and advisory groups
And a youth desk within ACT

The future belongs to the youth and thus we need to play a key role in the alliance today. We are #youthinaction

Download the full statement here.

Sermon by Archbishop Antje Jackelén at the Opening Service, 2018 ACT Alliance General Assembly

Matthew 15:21-28. Hope in action – putting people first. What a great topic for a General Assembly! Our world is yearning for hope, for credible hope. Behind the most tormenting issues facing humankind, the question of hope looms large.

The new time starts now

Welcome to Uppsala and to the 3^rd ACT General Assembly! We have finally arrived to celebrate our achievements, but also to raise a new parameter for our Alliance. We have a big responsibility to define new scopes and perspectives for our work together. That will be an exciting exercise due to our diversity and what we represent together.

In this Assembly we want to acknowledge the uniqueness of every participant and make every possible effort to nurture their full participation in all sessions, which is crucial to promote the holistic dimension of our coming together. It will include moments of celebration, deliberation, decision and affirmation of our further journey as an alliance.

One of the major topics for this Assembly is the affirmation of the new strategic direction for the Alliance. To begin another journey of enthusiasm and achievements, it is important that we celebrate the fact that we are the world´s biggest Protestant and Orthodox humanitarian, development and advocacy network. This status already puts a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.

Our Assembly occurs in a moment in which the world is facing division, polarization, populism and attacks against democracy, where values are being questioned and human dignity undermined. As ACT, we are not free from these world dynamics, and as with any other organization or sector, we are exposed to situations that may undermine our Christian principles and values.

As we start our assembly, it is important that we have in mind the founding values and principles of our Alliance, which all members subscribed when they became part of ACT. I urge all participants that all our discussions, deliberations and decisions during the Assembly prevail on these principles. It is important that we are bound together by several core values that are grounded in our Christian faith and which guide our work.

We believe that all persons are created in the image of God. Therefore, we act in ways that respect dignity, uniqueness, and the intrinsic worth and human rights of every human being, irrespective of race, gender, belief, nationality, ethnicity or political persuasion, and that make us to commit ourselves to listening to, learning from, and sharing experiences with other members in order to improve the quality of our work and draw on the rich diversity of our alliance.

The Assembly days are not enough to embrace all the richness of our work, nor to go deeply into the topics that require our attention as members and as alliance. However, this is the beginning of a new phase, which is the start of our deep engagement in the life of the Alliance and our response to the situations that the people of the world expect from organizations like ours.

Let´s put our efforts and commitments together to shape a new and innovative way to work together in order to promote our values, beliefs and proposals.

The new time starts now!

Involvement of Youth in Strengthening the ACT Alliance

The ACT Alliance Assembly is going to start today in Uppsala, Sweden. In this context, 30 youth participants have gathered from different regions of the world. The main focus of the Youth Pre-Assembly Days is to empower and ensure the Youth Community of Practice has meaningful participation in the Assembly, and to develop good leadership among ACT Alliance members.

The steps taken by ACT for the meaningful involvement and participation of youth members across its sphere of work is a very welcome strategic step, being taken at the right time. The global community, as it has shifted from the Millennium Development Goals paradigm to the Sustainable Development Goals has recognized the significance and role of youth in to contribute in the overall social, economic and environmental well-being of nations and the communities.

We believe that youth need perceived support, be it from the organizational level through procedural justice, supervisory support, or motivation and recognition of their works by providing sufficient space, time and opportunity. Youth need information on organizational happenings, they deserve to be part of the communication loop and to be consulted as part of decision-making. Youth resemble the new face of the rapidly changing generation, hence they reflect and pave road maps for necessary adjustments and changes to be made in the strategic, policy and operational levels.

Today’s world is VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Our global community is threatened by the alarming increase of ethnic and religious tensions and heightened insecurity in many communities. The scale and complexity of these phenomena are wide spread in tdeveloping nations.

These tensions are fueled by a sense of desperation and hopelessness, most particularly amongst the larger mass of young people. The result is increased unemployment, and competition over diminishing natural resources, poverty, frustrations and alienation.

The world has already observed and has been facing multipronged complexities and its consequences due to such problems, be it from war, terrorism, drugs, violence or corruption. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s future, the ecosystem within which they are nurtured and exposed reflects how they perceive and act upon their tomorrow.

There are brighter sides as well as the darker sides. All of which is the outcome of their past exposure, treatment and management. We think we should be optimistic and look at the brighter side of today’s global community, which is also increasing in opportunity for creating wealth and prosperous communities through the involvement of youth leaders through incentives, opportunities and leadership development.

The time has come to trace the qualities of youth, strengthen their leadership qualities and expose them in the VUCA world to engage and contribute for the development of the nations. Today’s youth has to be shaped and refined in a way so that they are competent, effective and can exercise control and decision making under conditions of uncertainty and complex scenarios.

The notion of building up organizational culture in mainstreaming inclusive, efficient and effective youth participation is thus significant and unavoidable. We believe that the role of ACT and its support in developing youth delegates from all over the world, and enabling youth participation is of paramount significance.

So we feel privileged, hopeful and look forward to more optimization and critical strategy steps taken by ACT in the coming days to strengthen youth in its sphere of work at the national and global level. In this regard, ACT Alliance has taken steps to address youth empowerment with paramount importance for mainstreaming organizational effectiveness and in development programing which is a positive step. In the changing complex and versatile global development scenario, active participation of youth is a matter of prime importance.

Sushant Agrawal talks about ACT Alliance

Sushant Agrawal the present ACT Alliance Moderator shares his experience on how being the member of the alliance has helped CASA India in its developmental and humanitarian work across India and why the upcoming General Assembly is important for its +145 members.

ACT youth discuss their ambitions and concerns ahead of the Assembly

The ACT Alliance Youth Community of Practice (CoP) is hosting a two-day pre-meeting before the start of ACT’s General Assembly from 26- 27 October. The session is devoted to ACT’s youth delegates and presents a platform for youth and youth organisations associated with the alliance to share and organise their strategic work for increased youth participation in ACT’s new strategic direction (2019-2026).

ACT’s General Secretary, Rudelmar Bueno de Faria opened the session, “There is a substantial youth population in the majority of countries where our members serve, many ACT members also engage in youth-related work. ACT will aim to ensure that there are platforms and support provisions to enable youth engagement in all processes in the life and work of the Alliance.”

During the session, youth have been sharing their experiences, expectations, stories of hope, victories and challenges of working with and for youth in the alliance. “Our work as a Youth CoP is currently limited. We want to access additional platforms in ACT’s structures, including decision making bodies. Limited youth involvement could neglect one of the worlds key demographics, inactively oppressing youth. It could be detrimental to ACT to lose out on the engagement, capacities and knowledge of youth from around the globe,” says Mari Hasle Einang, co-chair of ACT’s Youth CoP.

ACT’s Global Strategy (2019-2026) advocates for a pro-youth alliance that responds to the importance of the full participation of youth as agents of change. “For youth to be able to participate fully and freely in the alliance, we need real access to forums and other decision making structures, and we will need support to fight existing structural boundaries,” continued Mari.

Along with these important conversations, the session will also feature guest speakers, including MsPhumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women and former Deputy President of South Africa, and MsLopa Banerjee, UN Women Civil Society Division Director.

The CoP will use the session to finalise a common youth strategy document to be submitted to ACT’s Public Statement Committee and shared during the opening of the Assembly

Esther’s Story- Psychosocial support for refugees

Esther is a community leader, a supporter of other women, and a refugee. Her story is one that is full of challenges, but ultimately of hope for herself and for other refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo thanks to programmes in psychosocial support from ACT member the Church of Sweden.

Uppsala – we have arrived!

It’s happening! Tomorrow we open the doors for registration in Uppsala for the 350+ assembly participants who are descending on this beautiful Swedish City for the 3^rd ACT Alliance General Assembly. I am so excited to see the years of planning unfold and all that we have envisioned for so long actually come to life! Uppsala – we have arrived!

It was a warm August day in Geneva, in the summer of 2016, when a small team of us at the ACT Secretariat met for our first official ‘assembly planning meeting’. With more than two years ahead of us to plan the assembly, it felt like we had all the time in the world! At that stage we didn’t know where the assembly would be or who would be hosting us. We didn’t know what our theme would be or even how many of us who sat around that table would still be working for ACT in October 2018 (2 of the 6 remain…)!

What we did have though was a vision of what we hoped the assembly would be…and looking back now at the notes from that first meeting, it is heart-warming to see how true to that vision we have remained, through all the twists and turns of the past 27 months of planning.

Rooted in our Christian Identity: From the very beginning, it was clear that we wanted the assembly to be founded on our Christian identity and celebrating the work that churches and church related agencies can accomplish when working together. What has eventually become the assembly theme – “Hope in action – putting people first” – indeed has a strong biblical rooting and firm theological basis and helps us reflect on the way that we put our Christian hope and faith into action as an alliance.

A celebration of our work: At that first meeting, we were clear that this event was to be more than just a meeting place for voting delegates to conduct the assembly business. We wanted the programme to celebrate the work of the alliance, to be an opportunity for showcasing the different work from around the world with each other, to learn from each other and to encourage each other. For the participants to include our Forum representatives, Youth Representatives, Advisory Groups and Communities of Practice. Ultimately to celebrate the added value for our members in being part of the alliance. As I see the non-business elements of the assembly programme ready to launch – whether it is the Hope in Action Exhibition or the range of topics covered in the member conversations or the regional celebrations during dinner – I am confident that our dream of the assembly being so much more than ‘doing business’, as important as that is, will surely be achieved.

So Uppsala – we have arrived! From all over the world, from our different churches, our different organisations, our different countries! We have arrived to celebrate together the Hope we have in Christ put into Action through our work together in ACT Alliance. Bring it on!

A Manifestation of Hope in Action

“Hope is the biggest thing… hope for immediate evacuation, hope for rapid response, hope for rehabilitation and hope for recovery. Hope will be an empty dream without action. What we did is a manifestation of hope in action. Putting people first during disaster.”

On September 28, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake, followed by a tsunami, struck central Sulawesi, Indonesia. This disaster caused 2045 fatalities, 2549 major injuries, 67,310 destroyed houses, and 82,775 displaced people in 102 evacuation sites.

The ACT Indonesia Forum is responding to immediate needs for health care, emergency supplies, protection, psychosocial support, water and hygiene, shelter and disaster risk reduction.

‘Organic farming – because we were tired of struggling.’

ACT member Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) is working with communities in India to transform their infertile lands to more productive lands through organic farming.

Three years ago, Subhadrabai was struggling to maximise agricultural production on her two acres of land. The lack of sustainable livelihood opportunities has made it mandatory for men to leave their homes to find an alternative job. When the men go, women either migrate with their husbands or stay at home to take care of their children, farm and livestock.

With little farming experience, Subhadrabai sowed maize seeds immediately after the first monsoon rains, as her husband instructed. There were times, however, when this was not possible as bad monsoons and water scarcity severely impacted the region, making it difficult for Subhadrabai and others to grow enough food to feed their families.

“Buying fertilisers and pesticides from the market caused a financial burden that my husband and I had to bare. At times we suffered huge losses, especially when the plants stopped growing, or the seeds didn’t germinate,” said Subhadrabai. Along with the health and financial burdens of chemical farming, it requires a lot of water which is problematic for communities that have primarily depended on rainfall.

In a market where farmers were producing 1000-1200 kilograms of maize in two acres of land, Subhadrabai was producing only 200kg. Crop failure year after year led to a financial strain on the family. For a while, Subhadrabai and her husband could not figure out what was causing plant failure.

Agricultural scientists have noted that the soil in Subhadrabai’s region is not suitable for chemical farming. They encourage farmers to engage in organic agriculture, opting for cow urine and ‘Jiva amrit’ (a mixture of cow dung, cow urine and other organic wastes) over chemicals and pesticides.

CASA along with its partner Paryavaran Sanrakshan Adivasi Vikas Kendra (the Environmental Conservation and Tribal Development Centre) intervened with an alternative mechanism to assist farmers to maximise and maintain healthy agricultural outputs. They also encouraged farmers to sow their seeds in rows and columns and to introduce drip irrigation to their farming practices.

People in the village were taught to make vermicompost. This is the product of a composting process that uses earthworms to decompose organic waste over time until it can be used as a natural fertiliser. In drought-struck villages, vermicompost has increased the moisture capacity of the soil, helping people to convert their uncultivable land into productive land.

“My production doubled. Now I grow 500kg of maize. I save a lot of money on synthetic fertilisers. Instead of buying the compost from the market, I make it at my house. As our products are organic, it is in more demand in the markets. People want to eat healthy products. I encourage others in my village to follow the same method,” said Subhadrabai.

Subhadrabai identifies herself as ‘self-sufficient’ and has inspired women like Parvatibai from the nearby Bhatgaon village. Parvati started growing turmeric using organic farming with CASA’s help. She and her husband have been making vermicompost at their house, and can now engage in farming all year round, even during the drier periods.