Humanitarian

ACT Alliance demonstrates its value as the leading faith-based alliance in humanitarian response by working with faith and humanitarian actors at the global, regional, national, and community levels. ACT harnesses the combined strength of its members in delivering humanitarian response at scale and with considerable reach through joint programming approaches.

We commit to an effective ecumenical response that saves lives and maintains dignity, irrespective of race, gender, belief, nationality, ethnicity, or political persuasion. Humanitarian needs define our priorities and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence guide our actions. We remain committed to strengthening the resilience of affected communities and to being accountable to people and communities affected by a crisis. The ACT Alliance Secretariat is certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability and is committed to the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.

Our goals

  • Ensure ACT Alliance’s humanitarian responses are managed efficiently, delivered in a timely manner and evidenced appropriately.
  • Work with ACT forums and members to strengthen the resilience of disaster affected communities.
  • Support ACT forums and members to collaboratively ensure accountability to disaster affected populations in line with the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) commitments.
  • Support member-led and evidence-based humanitarian advocacy initiatives that amplify the voices of disaster affected
    communities.
act alliance logo

Key achievements

01

Emergency Steering Committee successfully established, activated more than 30 times since inception with over US$67 million mobilised since 2022 for ACT’s Humanitarian Appeals.

02

ACT Emergency Appeal coverage (the total amount of funds generated versus budget) has 02 risen from 28% to 46% from 2018 to 2023.

03

Systematic approach to appeal management – inception meetings, coordination roundtable
discussions, enhanced monitoring, results frameworks and closing meetings all introduced 03 with a focus on Quality & Accountability.

04

Extensive consultation with members and forums on locally led response within ACT Alliance 04 has led to a Pledge of Commitments which is being launched at the General Assembly 2024.

We are active in more than 120 countries worldwide

Through its national, regional and sub-regional forums ACT Alliance provides humanitarian and emergency preparedness support to local communities helping them during a crisis and to become more resilient.

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Policies and Manuals

ACT humanitarian mechanism

The Rapid Response Fund is an innovative funding mechanism designed to put local communities at the centre of decision-making and is recognised as one of few such funding mechanisms across the sector.

The RRF provides valuable opportunities to demonstrate the niche of faith actors in humanitarian response as we work closely with local ACT members and their community networks. On average, the RRF funds 20 emergencies annually and responses are implemented within six months.

The primary mechanism for large scale or global emergencies, including protracted crises: ACT Alliance raises an appeal to its membership with both requesting and funding members co-owning the process. Appeals are open for funding during their entire project period and accessible to both national and international ACT Alliance members.

Consortia represent a new funding mechanism for ACT Alliance. As part of Emergency Preparedness planning, consortiums are established before a disaster strikes and consortium members share a vision and strategic focus. Members self-organise and develop their own financial management models and programme strategies supported by the EPRP process and tools.

Emergency preparedness and response planning is integral to the strengthening of ACT Alliance’s capacity to respond effectively in emergencies through joint programming.

ACT national and regional forums develop emergency preparedness and response plans (EPRPs), working collaboratively to understand potential disaster risks and plan how to respond to emergencies quickly and effectively. Forum EPRPs are accessible by members through an online platform, which can be viewed by other members who may be interested to support them. ACT Forums use specific ACT guidelines and tools to support the process of developing an EPRP which is reviewed regularly.

EPRP platform

As part of the holistic and integrated approach to humanitarian response, development and advocacy, ACT’s emergency preparedness and humanitarian response is supported by stronger humanitarian coordination and advocacy with stakeholders and duty bearers.

In the current strategic period our advocacy focuses on three banner commitments to the Grand Bargain at the World Humanitarian Summit where ACT has made significant investments and where member engagement is quite strong: the localisation agenda and the primary role of national/local members and local faith actors; demonstrating the important role of faith actors in humanitarian response; and strengthening of cash-based programming across the humanitarian sector.


No.
Name
Date | Time
Location

Appeal Target: US$ 1'831'561. ACT members The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Finn Church Aid (FCA) are providing assistance to the displaced and vulnerable communities with protection, education, food security, nutrition and psychosocial support through the Appeal CAF151, issued at the end of April 2015. Due to late funding and critical security issues, implementation could not take place as quickly as anticipated, therefore, the appeal is extended till 30th April 2016 (instead of 31st December 2015). Appeals CAF151_War_affected_Communities_ extended

Rapid Response Funds Payment for US$ 59,454 (US$ 30,000 UELCI / US$ 29,454 CASA). UELCI will provide immediate life-saving relief (food and non food items) during the crisis stage along with early recovery for 1,950 flood affected families in Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh. CASA will meet the immediate food and NFI needs of flood affected people in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu state. RRF9_2015_India_TamilNadu_Floods

Preliminary Appeal Target: US$ 626,826 ACT member Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is aiming at providing life-saving support to earthquake-affected families in the 4 most devastated districts of the most affected Province: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with the following objectives:

  • Re-establish health services, provide mobile emergency services and patient follow up in the most affected areas
  • Ensure immediate food relief for vulnerable, homeless families
  • Supply emergency winterization kits to vulnerable, homeless families
  • Enhance quality in the earthquake response by building the capacity of aid workers and by mobilizing earthquake-affected communities to hold providers of aid accountable
PAK152Prel_Appeals Earthquake-affected

Appeal Target: US$ 268,794. Community World Service Asia and Norwegian Church Aid will respond to 37,000 flood-affected individuals including male, female, children and elderly people that are displaced and do not have access to primary health care and basic WASH services in Sujawal District in Sindh and Rajanpur District in Punjab. This is in response to the urgent needs identified by the joint assessment conducted by the members, taking into consideration the response currently undertaken and planned by Community World Service Asia, the government and other NGOs in District Ghotki. NCA response in based on NCA assessment, current situation and needs in Sindh and Punjab. NCA will respond to the ongoing emergency for the first 6 months funded by an internal grant focusing on water supply months and part of the same beneficiaries will be targeted for early recovery in the areas of their origin. (Revision 1: Changes in areas of response; NCA has increased beneficiaries from 10,000 to 17,000 individuals; prolonged water provision from 3 to 6 months). (Appeals) PAK151Rev1_Floods_Sindh-Punjab

Rapid Response Funds Payment Request No. 08/2015 for US$ 59,998. The response aims to provide food packages (1-month ration) to 300 earthquake-affected families in Shangla District. Furthermore, through the deployment of a Mobile Health Unit and its own Mobile Laboratory, provide much needed emergency health services to those affected by the earthquake. RRF_08_2015_Pakistan_Earthquake

Appeal Target: US$ 47,553.57. This appeal follows an alert that was issued on 28 August 2015. The issuing of the appeal was delayed due to lack of funding. Now based on interest from ACT funding members and following advice from the ACT secretariat, the ACT forum in Malawi decided to revised the appeal in order to include only 1 ACT Requesting Member and to reduce significantly the appeal target. The overall goal is to restore dignity and save lives of 1,000 households (5,500 people) affected by food insecurity in Dowa District. Appeals_MWI151_Food_insecurity_in_Malawi

Appeal Target: US$ 840,396. Relatively late pledges to the Appeal delayed the implementation for one of the ACT members, EELCO. Additionally, in the meantime newly identified gaps in EELCO’s areas of intervention have motivated some change of activities. As a result, EELCO will revise its part of the Appeal, and request for an extension, while FCA, NCA and ECC remains unchanged (and their implementation period is now over). This first revision only affects EELCO part of the Appeal. The ACT DRC Forum members providing emergency assistance to Burundian refugees and host communities affected by the Burundi crisis in DRC are Finn Church Aid (FCA), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Eglise du Christ au Congo National Office (ECC) and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Congo (EELCO). (Appeals) COD151Rev1_Bur-Ref_DRC

Appeal Target: US$ 2,015,704. The response of the ACT Palestine Forum members focuses on improving access to health and medical care services, mental health and psycho-social support, improving the nutrition status of malnourished and underweight children, supporting young people with vocational skills training, cash for work, protection, shelter, food security among others. This full appeal replaces the preliminary appeal issued on 20 May 2015, now removed from this site. Appeals_PSE151_OPT_PostWar

Appeal Target: US$ 4,131,680. The following ACT Forum Members participating in the Appeal are operational in the flood stricken areas and well equipped to respond: Christian Aid (CA), Church World Service (CWS), DanChurchAid (DCA), Diakonia – Sweden, ICCO, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Priority needs are food, Non-Food Items, WASH, Early Recovery and Livelihoods, Early Recovery and Livelihood Restoration, Education, and Emergency Preparedness. Appeals_MMR151_Myanmar_Flood_Response

Rapid Response Funds Payment for US$ 60,000. The overall goal of the response is to contribute to assisting the newly arrivals of Iraqi refugees in Jordan through lifesaving interventions:

  1. Access to medical care and medication (free medical days) for around 1200 individuals needing urgent medical care.
  2. 150 medical referrals for 150 needy special cases of Iraqi refugees assisted.
  3. Food, Sanitation and Hygiene vouchers distribution for 220 families. The targeting is strictly for those at crisis levels.
  Rapid Response Funds - RRF07-2015_Rapid_Relief_to_Iraqi_Refugees_in_Jordan

Rapid Response Funds Payment for US$ 59,728. The goal of the proposed emergency response is to reduce the suffering of the most vulnerable flood affected families in the target area, helping them get back on their feet by providing for the most basic needs of food, non-food items and temporary shelter materials.   Rapid Response Funds - RRF06-2015_Lao-PDR_Flood_Response

14 August 2015 - ACT Pakistan Forum members, Community World Service Asia and Norwegian Church Aid are planning to assist the most vulnerable communities with health and WASH. PAK151_Floods_Sindh_Pakistan (Appeals and rapid response funds RRFs)


No.
Name
Date | Time
Location

Resources

Team

Niall O’Rourke

Head of Humanitarian Affairs

Global

niall.orourke@actalliance.org

Geneva, Switzerland

Caroline Njogu

Regional Humanitarian Officer

Africa

Caroline.Njogu@actalliance.org

Nairobi, Kenya

Cyra Bullecer

Humanitarian Operations Manager

Global

Cyra.Bullecer@actalliance.org

Bangkok, Thailand

George Majaj

Humanitarian Programme Advisor

MENA

Amman, Jordan

Anyi Elizabeth Morales Mora

Humanitarian Programme Officer

Latin America and the Caribbean

Bogota, Colombia

Marjorie Schmidt

Finance Coordinator

Global

marjorie.schmidt@actalliance.org

Geneva, Switzerland