Photo: ACT/Sean Hawkey

United Nations climate change talks in Bonn (Germany) have been suspended on a positive note, with countries closer to agreeing a new global climate deal next year that would put a reign on runaway climate change.

It follows recent signals from the US and Mexico of carbon emission cuts, as well as the decision to put the new Green Climate Fund into operation.

However, delegates have left the final session in Bonn, Germany, with a series of tight deadlines they must meet in order to prevent the process collapsing. ACT Alliance says the small successes of this conference mustn’t be lost to the bigger work ahead.

“It’s not a really bad result. We’ve seen some good progress on the different elements of the deal: a consensus that next year’s agreement should have adaptation at heart and the parties are all talking about the need to cut emissions,” ACT climate change advisory group co-chair Mattias Söderberg said. “However, we can’t let up, the hard work must continue.

“Most parties have tried to find agreement and common ground and to raise their ambition to reach agreement. There is an increasing urgency to find a global way to tackle climate change, and we must start to look for solutions rather than focusing on the problems.”

UN negotiators need to come up with the structure of the new agreement before the meeting resumes in October. By March, countries need to present the contributions each will make to a future agreement.

The contributions, known as intended nationally-determined contributions, were a major topic of debate at the talks. “Emissions reductions will of course be part of the contributions, but it is also important to address means of implementation. With no support, many developing countries will not be able to deliver concrete results. It is unfortunate that the meeting in Bonn didn’t agree on what to include as contributions. The pressure on the next meeting to deliver is now increasing, as parties need clarity before preparing their contributions in the beginning of 2015” Söderberg said.

Söderberg said he was happy there were constructive discussions about finance, and loss and damage, which are important elements of the future agreement. “Our members see the compound effect of harsher and more frequent weather disasters and the long-term effect of changes to weather patterns. Developing countries need funds for the irreversible effects of climate change on their lives. Loss and damage must be included in the 2015 agreement.”

In summing up, co-chair of the meeting, known as the Advanced Durban Platform, Kishan Kumarsingh, congratulated countries for making significant progress on the draft text of the new climate deal, and for starting to identify elements of the contributions that countries will need to make to the agreement.

“Many new ideas have been brought to the negotiating table. You have made significant progress on all elements of the 2015 text, fleshed out and clarified proposals, and have a better understanding of proposals. There is growing convergence on many issues. You have identified politically-significant choices that still need to be made.”

But countries still need to agree on the elements of the text, he said. Although countries have a better appreciation of how the parties view broader outcome of the deal to take effect from 2020, many parties have called for acceleration of implementation and the importance of building trust and confidence in the years before 2020, he said.

2014 marked the 10th anniversary of ACT’s programme of work in Darfur in partnership with Caritas.

The UN has described Sudan’s western Darfur region as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 300,000 people having been killed and 2.3 million violently displaced. Current estimates say 1.2 million Darfuris live in camps and 3.2 million rely on humanitarian aid. Those displaced are living predominantly in camps in both Darfur and nearby Chad, where access for humanitarian workers is limited, severely reducing the ability to deliver aid.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the ACT-Caritas programme has raised more than US$120m for health, nutrition, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and emergency preparedness and response.

In Hamedia camp near Zalingei in central Darfur, the ACT-Caritas emergency response unit offers essential household goods, such as plastic mats, blankets, jerry cans, soap, cooking sets and mosquito nets.

When people arrive at the camp they are first registered with the World Food Programme, in order to receive monthly food rations. When a new plot of land becomes available within the camp, people are moved from the reception area and are able to use the permanent services of the camp, many of which are run by ACT Caritas, including schools, health clinics and nutrition centres, and services for improving economic wellbeing.

In 2014 some 420,000 people benefited from the programme.

Strengthening the dialogue between civil and religious relations, and strengthening the sector is a priority objective of the development project in Belarus by the HIA recently launched. The spirit of these objectives will be a few days to visit as well, which Aniko Levai, the Lehel Relief Organization Goodwill Ambassador Laszlo and the organization’s CEO will attend.

During the program, the HIA delegation of several high-ranking church leaders, including Archbishop Demetrios of vitebski, William Castle Rock Ambassador to Hungary and the EU delegation of local leaders accept. In the framework of discussions on the HIA delegation in talks with the further development of co-operation opportunities, launch new programs.

During the visit, the Hungarian Interchurch Aid local partner organization, the Belarus Interchurch Aid Organisation (IMCSS) leaders presented reintegration program launched in recent venues – including a number of herbal cultivation and beekeeping holdings – aimed at ex-prisoners for the rehabilitation of the promotion. The organization’s staff report for the first months of experience and results. Funded by EuropeAid and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, approximately HUF 112 million in the first program, which executes Hungarian civil organizations in Belarus.

The HIA Belarus reintegration program
in 2015 until the fall term project implementation in Belarus Interchurch Aid Organisation (Interchurch Mission “Christian Social Service ‘- IMCSS) works together with the Hungarian Interchurch Aid. The ex-convicts a second chance to two years of support for reintegration projects in Belarus Gomel, Grodno and Vitebsk regions of a single economic history. The goals include reaching 1,500 people with information, 150 were detained personalized advice on the labor market participation of the three locations, 30 people working in this field training for social workers and the application of each holding two people.

The project is funded by the European Union.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Child survivors of the fires that razed 10 Chilean hill neighbourhoods a month ago will have the chance to relax and express their feelings through a children’s programme run by ACT.

Working through activity books titled ‘My Fire’, children aged six to 10 will soon be able to tell their own stories of the devastating fire through art.

The programme falls under the psychosocial work being led by ACT member Fundación Educación Popular en Salud (EPES), which heads the US$167,660 ACT appeal for survivors of Valparaiso.

“A lot of children have been sent to live in the city or elsewhere,” said Karen Anderson, director of EPES International Training Program and ELCA Global Mission Personnel in Chile. “As the communities rebuilding the emergency homes, the children will start coming back.” With the support of health professionals, students will identify children living on the hill and in homes, and the conditions in which they live.

“Their workbooks will then let them tell the story of all they have gone through. The facilitators talk about their families, and there’s a page with different faces and expressions so they can talk about how they feel, what they are worried about.”

The fire that consumed 3000 homes and caused damage to another 15,500 on the night of April 12, started when a forest fire spread to poor neighbourhoods.  It killed 15. It was not the first time the neighbourhood had been engulfed by out-of-control fires.

Neighbourhood looked like a ‘bomb had dropped’

The ACT appeal will support some 1855 people. One part of the programme aims to improve facilities at a popular community centre that has become the hub for locals, serving as an aid distribution site. It offers showers, food and relief goods and volunteers give advice.

Las Cañas Community Center also has a dining hall that serves 300 lunches each day, and has become a focal point for residents to organise themselves and demand their rights. “The centre is a very basic building but it’s wonderful to have these courageous young volunteers working here. This is the base from which the response is carried out,” Anderson said.

The rooms are filled with household goods: toiletries, soap, food for 300 a day and clothing is stored under makeshift tents outside.

“Living on the hill, 80 per cent of the volunteers lost their homes. After the fire, it looked like a bomb had been dropped, all the houses were wiped out and burnt. Now there’s enormous frustration about what’s happening, and they wonder whether their voices will be heard in the process of rebuilding. They don’t want to rebuild under the same inequitable, pre-fire socio-economic conditions. Will they have enough voice to oppose buildings made of hazardous materials, in a way that’s sustainable and gives the people the dignity that they believe they and their neighbours deserve? These young people angry, passionate and saw the fire as completely preventable. “

Community leaders too were angry they hadn’t been listened to, having brought many concerns before the government about the dangers of the houses on the hill. “They feel they will have to work hard with the nine other worst affected hills to build a stronger advocacy voice – one that involves communities in a much more sustainable and participatory way,” Anderson said.

Another aspect of the work will be carried out by another ACT member, CREAS, which will work with women, encouraging them to make their voices heard in the reconstruction process. Another component of the work will be ensuring homes for up to 1200 people are warm enough for the upcoming winter.

Anderson said the recovery process would be long. “The fire exposed the enormous poverty, inequality and lack of urban planning that affects Valparaiso. With over 3000 homes destroyed, 12,500 damaged over 10 hills, it is going to take a long time to really rebuild. Hopefully with a participatory process that includes the voices and vision of the communities themselves.”

Residents living precarious existence

Survivors are forced to live a precarious existence, on their former properties, in tents or shacks of corrugated tin and boards rescued from the fire. The first emergency dwellings lacked water proofing. As the winter cold and rains set in, the now-bare hillsides, which lack vegetation to contain the soil, also face the threat of landslides. Lack of running water, poor nutrition and cold weather will heighten people’s susceptibility to illness.

People who live in land occupations in the ravines are even more vulnerable. These communities live in constant fear of being evicted or not receiving the same benefits as those who have deeds to their properties.

Volunteers were the lifeblood of the emergency. Thousands of volunteers and community organizations from throughout the country responded to the emergency. Volunteers were essential in the process of clearing a great amount of the debris and organised solidarity drives to collect food, clothing, personal hygiene items and other basic, urgent supplies. Today, few of the 15,000 volunteers who worked in the initial weeks after the fire are to be seen, yet families still need support to prepare the ground for installing emergency dwellings. Trucks do not go up the hills, so the pre-fab wooden panels for the emergency housing units must be brought up in any way people can.

Residents complain that government officials are absent on the damaged hillside neighborhoods and have not solved the most pressing problems. Moreover, there is no information about how to apply for the promised emergency assistance funds.

Violence associated with the Anti-Balaka insurrection in the Central African Republic (CAR) led to a sharp increase in refugees fleeing to Cameroon in early 2014.

Although the fighting is between two religious groups – the Christian AntiBalaka and the Muslim Séléka rebels – and is often presented as a religious conflict, the violence is underpinned by issues of land rights and poverty.

ACT members have struggled to provide relief for people inside the CAR because of security concerns. Therefore, while access has been restricted, efforts have turned to supporting refugees outside of the country, the largest group currently being in Cameroon.

Some 118,000 people arrived in the country in the first six months of the year, bringing the estimated total to 225,000. Over half of them were children, approximately 20 per cent under the age of five, and only three per cent were thought to be elderly.

To accommodate the influx of refugees in 2014, the Government of Cameroon, together with the UNHCR, made seven sites available and designated 308 host villages.

Due to the complex nature of the crisis, refugee needs were broad ranging. ACT members carried out situation and needs assessments, finding the most prevalent needs to be enhanced protection, psychosocial support, livelihoods, peace building and social cohesion.

Further efforts were also made by ACT members to improve the lives of the refugees, through mobilising resources to provide non-food items including clothing and finance. Church structures were used to host refugees, and infrastructure was renovated to improve bed space capacity and sanitation in hospitals.

Microcredit unions have become part of the landscape of development projects since the Grameen Bank pioneered the use of micro-loans to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral in Bangladesh.

In Mozambique, ACT member the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund microfinance project has gone one step further. The organisation has set up financial institutions owned and operated by the very poor it wishes to support.

These institutions, called caixas, are providing women the opportunity to access capital for small business ventures as well as a safe place to keep their savings. Caixas have also become catalysts for the further education of board members and tools for empowerment as women, many for the first time, are able to access capital without the need for a male guarantor.

Number of union members balloons

In 1996, a group of women who were making and selling cassava cakes came together to look for increased economic security. They approached PWRDF for support and training to set up a formal savings and credit system.

With the small amount of money they had saved, they started a credit union, with each person buying a US$0.05 share to become members. These women were the first 47 members of Caixa das Mulheres de Nampula (Nampula Women’s Credit Union) which, 15 years later, has ballooned to 4500 members.

Today, 90 per cent of Caixa loans are used to set up new businesses or expand existing ones. In many cases, women have become investors in their husbands’ businesses because they are the ones who can access credit. This has earned them the respect of their partners and families and strengthened their capacity to participate in household decisions.

In a region where unemployment is high, many women have become job-creators. Women have created competitive enterprises in the food, mining and furniture-building industries: Teresa Albino runs a restaurant, Carina Abias Zacarias has two hairdressing salons and employs four people, Fatima Mutela is a bamboo trader, and Zena Adelino Assane is a furniture maker who employs six women.

Women rising through the ranks

Many union members are now recognised as reliable entrepreneurs and courted by local politicians and banks. Women also report they have been able to educate their children to university level through their savings accounts and business endeavours, a first in many families.

The testimonies provided by Caixa members, their spouses, employees and community members are the best indicators of results. One of the members of Caixa Nampula ran for municipal elections, explaining that her years of democratic participation at Caixa events had given her the knowledge, assertiveness and confidence to run for office.

Microfinance is not a silver bullet for eradicating poverty but it helps. It puts resources into the hands of women and allows them to make choices that have an immediate impact on the lives of their families, such as better health and education for their children.

Venezuela is submerged in waves of orchestrated violence aimed at destabilising the country. In a letter to the Churches in Venezuela the General Secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI, a member of the ACT Alliance, expresses condemnation of the illegal and anti-democratic intentions of the opposition in Venezuela to bring about regime change using violence.

The letter is addressed to:

From the General Secretariat of the Latin American Council of Churches, we have sought to listen to the churches and you have confirmed that, in addition to the existence of greater social inclusion, there are serious problems of security, shortages and fiscal solvency that remain unresolved. Therefore the protests are legitimate in their call for greater security, against shortages and inflation, but the demand for a “regime change” does not match the democratic will of the majority of the Venezuelan people expressed in the last elections in 2013.

We thank you for sharing your views and commitment to peace with justice and we plead with God to continue giving you the Spirit of wisdom to accompany your people in these difficult moments. We are open to your suggestions for how CLAI can accompany you with concrete instruments of promotion and participation in the building of peace with justice.