ACT News - Page 24 of 101

ACT Alliance at Stockholm+50 : Youth taking Lead

By Emma Berglund

This week in Stockholm, the commemoration of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment will celebrate 50 years of global environmental action. “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity” will bring together nations and stakeholders to collaborate, share expertise and work towards accelerate the implementation of the “UN Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, including the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement on climate change, the post-2020 global Biodiversity Framework, and encourage the adoption of green post-COVID-19 recovery plans” (Stockholm+50).

However, while recognizing the many efforts that have been made for environmental protection over the last decades, this is not the time to celebrate. We are standing at a turning point in human history, facing a triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss and the window of opportunity to limit global warming and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacities of our communities is growing smaller and smaller.
It is imperative that Stockholm +50 does not become “just another meeting”, but actually a turning point in which direct and decisive action may be taken for a sustainable transformation and climate justice.
Over the last two days prior to the Stockholm +50 meeting, almost a hundred young people from all over the world have met for the Youth Environmental Assembly. To collectively finalize the Youth Policy Paper, support the draft of speaking points for youth delegates who will speak during the plenary sessions, as well as hosting capacity building and networking for young climate activists. The Policy Paper will be launched on Friday, but the third draft version can be found here.

As youth activists, we stand on the shoulders of thousands of climate champions, who have fought for climate justice over the past 50 years, here in Stockholm and all over the world. Instead of commemorating 50 years of fruitless high-level UN meetings, I want to instead commemorate those who are not here today, those who stand at the forefront of environmental degradation and face the immediate effects of climate change. Those who are facing threats, violence and imprisonment as environmental defenders and activists. We demand climate justice for all.

Emma Berglund is the Co-Chair of ACT Alliance Youth Community of Practice and Agera volunteer within Act Church of Sweden.
“Ageravolontärerna” (Act volunteers) is a network of internationally engaged youth within Act Church of Sweden and Church of Sweden Youth. From the left Lovisa, Elvira, Alicia, Zandra and Emma.

ACT Alliance at the International Migration Review Forum

ACT Alliance participated in the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), from the 16^th to the 20^th of May in New York. The following comments were submitted by ACT at the policy debate session on May 18.

ACT Alliance is a member of the Global Coalition on Migration (GCM), and endorses the recommendations made in its Spotlight Report on Global Migration. We are also a founding member of the Climate, Migration and Displacement Platform (CMDP), whose remarks we support as well.

We welcome the policy debate today but remain concerned that we are now further from the aim of making migration more humane and bringing a much-needed paradigm shift than when the GCM was adopted. The progress declaration of the IMRF in its final form, although initially more ambitious, makes this painfully clear.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that migrants are still vulnerable in many situations. Urgent action is needed to better protect their rights. Such action is indeed possible when there is political will.

Examples of positive practices in response to the pandemic included the swift implementation of alternatives to detention, suspension of returns, and the simplified regularisation of status for undocumented migrants. This showed that a different way is possible.

Conversely, indiscriminate border closures, massive layoffs, unplanned returns, and exclusion from access to health measures have hit many migrants hard and have disproportionately affected migrant women.

Thus, the pandemic has glaringly shown how arbitrarily the political process treats migrants.

The scope of changes needed can only be achieved if states focus on Objective 5 of the GCM, enhancing the availability and accessibility of regular migration pathways. It remains one of the most under-fulfilled objectives of the GCM.

Despite the initiatives some states have taken to improve their own array of pathways, the reality is that they remain limited in scope and fall far short of what’s needed.

There are tools in the GCM and other instruments that can and should be used to turn regular pathways from a privilege for the few into a rights-respecting and gender-responsive reality to address current mobility and protection needs. These include labour mobility agreements, free movement regimes, and improved procedures for family reunification and academic mobility. They also include practices for admission and stay to address vulnerabilities in migration, based on compassionate, humanitarian or other considerations, which can complement other tools and help close protection gaps.

The UN Network on Migration’s Thematic Working Group 3 on regular pathways, which was co-led by ACT Alliance (together with the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network and OHCHR), issued a Guidance Note on this topic last July which we hope will lead to more consistent adoption of these much-needed policies and practices.

Migration and climate change

As a network that has been advocating for climate justice for many years, we would like to insist that climate change is not so much an “emerging challenge” as it is an intensifying crisis, which must be addressed on multiple fronts. In the context of human mobility, which interacts with climate change in complex ways, this means that we must avoid one-dimensional policy responses.

There are those whose lives and livelihoods have already been massively impacted by climate change, and who may even be forced to relocate in the not-too-distant future. Many others have been facing tough circumstances and have had to supplement family income with occasional cross-border work. Others still may have gone abroad for a period of time with the intention to return, only to realize that the basis of their livelihood has continued to erode, so they may need to extend their stay, change their status, or be allowed to leave and return, depending on their situation.

All of them would benefit from a more holistic and flexible approach by states to the question of regular pathways, so that they are not forced into situations where their options are diminishing and they may end up without status, without protection, and without hope. In this, the climate crisis is creating groups whose needs are at the same time very specific, but also common to migrants in general. For all of them, a human-rights based approach to regular pathways that overcomes the current hesitancy of states, is central to preserving their dignity and creating a brighter future.

Complementarity

Finally, we would like to recall the importance of complementarity between the GCM and all other relevant frameworks, not least the Global Compact on Refugees, which promotes the elaboration of complementary pathways. Lessons from this should be applied in the context of GCM implementation, so that human rights, refugee rights, and migrants’ rights are upheld coherently and consistently, and so that no person is excluded from additional protections and opportunities on account of a disconnect between government policies.

We thank you for this opportunity.

Prepared by Alison Kelly, ACT’s UN Representative, and Christian Wolff, ACT’s Migration and Displacement Programme manager.

ACT Europe Forum statement calls on the EU and European governments to maintain commitments to development assistance

Refugees in Sudan, fleeing from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, are paid to help build 3.5m latrines in the Tuneybah refugee camp as part of NCA’s work in the joint ACT/Caritas response to the crisis. Photo: Iker Muntes-Burgos/NCA

The ACT Europe Forum released a statement at its annual meeting on May 12, calling on the EU and European governments to maintain their Official Development Assistance commitments. The forum is deeply concerned about the multiple crises triggered or exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and their impacts on other countries, especially in the Global South.

The forum has been heavily engaged in responding to the Ukraine crisis through humanitarian response and advocacy. Its members are also responding to crises in countries including Ethiopia, Syria, and Yemen, and to the growing drought and potential famine in the Horn of Africa.

The ACT Europe Forum is concerned by the decisions by several European governments to move ODA funding- previously committed to long-term development assistance and humanitarian efforts across the globe– to receive Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

The forum stands united in asking the EU and European governments to retain previous commitments to ODA and to fund the necessary reception of Ukrainian refugees from other sources.

“We are deeply concerned about the multiple crises facing the most vulnerable people in the world today,” the statement reads. “Conflict, Covid-19 and the climate crisis have pushed more people into poverty, food insecurity and displacement. The number of people in need of humanitarian aid is rapidly increasing.”

ACT’s European members are “very worried about a number of European countries that have reduced their development aid funding to countries and groups affected by poverty, or are planning to do so,” noting that “these political actions are weakening trust in international commitments, and weakening the critical fight against poverty and the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The Forum urges the EU and its member governments “to keep up the ambitions and meet the targets they have set for humanitarian and development funding.”

Dagfinn Høybråten, the Secretary General of Norwegian Church Aid and chair of the Europe Forum, highlighted that “it is our moral obligation to stand with our brothers and sisters wherever they are and regardless of how that might benefit ourselves. Our message is quite simple: Do Ukraine well, without dropping the ball on other crises.”

Read the full statement here.

ACT Palestine Forum and the Middle East Council of Churches statement on the murder of the beloved journalist Ms. Shereen Abu Aqleh

With shock and great sadness, the Middle East Council of Churches headquartered in Beirut, the Ecumenical Palestinian organizations, and members of the ACT Alliance working in Palestine and the region, received the news of the murder of the beloved journalist Ms. Shereen Abu Aqleh. Shereen was killed by a bullet fired from the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin, a city in the northern part of the West Bank, while she was on the job. She is not the first nor will she be the last voice silenced by the violence of the Israeli occupation, as her death is, unfortunately, one among many in the world of Palestinian journalism.

All of us in Palestine, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East are devastated by this news. Shereen’s death impacts all who fight for freedom of speech across the globe. Shereen was not just a journalist, she was a clear voice of the pain and hurt that we have all felt as a result of Israeli occupation here in Palestine. On this tragic occasion, we once again reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to a state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

We salute Shereen and what she represented through her persevering and thorough journalistic work. Shereen aimed at exposing the truth of the occupation and conveying the oppression and persecution of us, Palestinians.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of Shereen, and to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora for this heavy loss.

May her soul rest in peace and may she always be remembered.

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses (Paul First Letter to Timothy 6:12)”

Rest in Power, Shereen.

ACT Palestine Forum

Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL)

Department of Service to Palestinian Refugee / Middle East Council of Church (DSPR)

East Jerusalem YMCA (EJ- YMCA

Climate promises only good if they’re kept

PHOTO: Albin Hillert/LWF

In recent years governments have made several promises to tackle climate change. UN summits have led to decisions about climate finance, an increased focus on adaptation and climate-induced Loss and Damage, and commitments to reduce emissions. But these decisions should only be celebrated if they are acted upon.

This week, ministers from more than 40 countries will meet in Copenhagen to discuss how the existing agreements are being implemented. This is an important initiative which can remind them of the importance of turning words into action.

There are a few key promises I would like them to remember.

Firstly, at last year’s Glasgow climate summit, COP26, all Parties promised to return home to revisit their national climate plans. This decision was made because they were forced to acknowledge two things: the existing plans to reduce emissions are far from being ambitious enough; and the agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is realistic only if countries scale up their ambition. So far, there seems to have been no follow up to this decision. I believe Brazil is the only country which has updated its national plan, and its targets are still not ambitious enough. I do hope that the ministers at the meeting in Copenhagen will confirm that they have now started to revisit their national plans, as promised in Glasgow.

Secondly, COP26 concluded with a commitment by developed countries to double their support for adaptation. This decision should be seen in the light of more than a decade of broken promises. Developed countries continue to fail on commitments to mobilise adaptation finance. I have not heard of concrete pledges to ensure this promise will be kept, but I could be wrong. Hopefully, developed countries will raise their hands in Copenhagen and confirm that adaptation is a top priority in their new climate budgets.

Thirdly, climate-induced Loss and Damage received its own chapter in the 2015 Paris agreement. There are limits to adaptation, which is why parties agreed to address the Loss and Damage that people and communities may face when climate-related disasters devastate their livelihoods. Despite this text in the Paris agreement, there is still no agreement on how to mobilise the necessary support. If Loss and Damage is to become more than text in a document, decisions about how to tackle these events must be made.

Finally, several promises about climate finance need to be kept. One is the promise by developed countries to deliver USD 100 bn a year, starting in 2020. Developed countries have promised that these funds should be “new and additional” to ensure that an increased focus on climate change will not erode support for other important development needs.

The list of promises is long, and we should remember that each promise is meant to address one specific problem. That problem is that we have a climate crisis, and it cannot be tackled unless all the promises are kept.

I hope the ministers enjoy a good meeting in Copenhagen. Even more importantly, I hope they reaffirm their commitment to keep their promises and turn them into action.

Mattias Soderberg of DanChurchAid is co-chair of the Climate Justice Reference Group

Survivor and Community-Led Response- a new paradigm of humanitarian aid in Haiti

Survivor and Community-Led Response is a new paradigm in humanitarian relief work which puts the power to choose how their community can affect change to improve their situation in the hands of the communities themselves. The ACT Haiti Forum has been working with communities to develop SCLR work for several years, and the 2021 earthquake provided a chance to see how this approach works in a major disaster response.

ACT interviewed Naomie Beaujour from the LWF/NCA joint office in Haiti and Charlotte Greene from the DKH Haiti office to discuss this new approach to humanitarian relief and how it is being implemented within the 2021 ACT Haiti Appeal. Here is the video of that interview:

Hungarian Interchurch Aid consignment reaches Kharkiv

The aid organisation helps civilians living in bomb shelters and subway stations of the city besieged since the start of the war

Article shared by HIA

Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine in close proximity to the Russian border has received its first aid consignment from Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA). Half of the 1.5 million inhabitants have already fled due to the constant attacks on the city since the outbreak of war. Most of those who stayed have nowhere to go, or are unable to flee to a safer environment because they need to care for their small children, elderly and those needing constant medical care. Taking refuge in bomb shelters, cellars, basements and subway stations these people are subjected to 5-6 air raid warnings and subsequent attacks often lasting hours.

Several utility services are out of order, apartments are left without running water, gas or heating. Electricity is also frequently cut. Returning to flats in housing blocks – even if only for a couple of hours and presuming the flats are still intact – is very hard or the socially most disadvantaged civilians with health problems, as elevators have stopped working city-wide. Although in the city some grocery stores are still open, they can be hard to reach since public transport isn’t operational either. Travel is already risky due to the constant fighting, frequent missile attacks and air raids especially targeting infrastructure.

Sergei Babin and his wife have stayed in the city nevertheless. Their association “International Bridge” aims to help the citizens of Kharkiv suffering the effects of the war and is affiliated with HIA partners Zlatograd Foundation of Dnipro. Altogether, they have 50 volunteers helping them in their efforts. Despite all war-related difficulties, HIA managed to deliver an aid consignment to the besieged city on 30 April. The 70 food parcels and almost 100 hygiene kits were distributed to civilians who had been holed up in the subway stations and bunkers for a good part of the two months since the start of the invasion.

„There is a great need for food and hygiene products, potable water and flashlights. We receive a huge number of requests for aid from the hospitals, maternity wards of the different districts of the city, and there is also a shortage of medicine. We are grateful for any kind of help, as the people of Kharkiv have been suffering from this serious humanitarian crisis for many weeks now” said Sergey Babin, expressing his gratitude for the HIA aid consignment.

In the two months since the outbreak of the war, HIA has been able to continuously expand their assistance to new methods and geographical areas. The humanitarian operations now stretch from the extreme west of the country to the Dnieper bend in the east, encompassing 10 regions of Ukraine. Until 24 April, the HIA response has reached 70,921 people, providing emergency access to basic food and non-food items, health & hygiene products, protection and links to transportation services. In total, HIA has sent 40 trucks filled to brim with core relief – every week 4 or more trucks cross the Hungarian border. In addition to the tangible, in-kind aid, in cooperation with partner organisations the aid organisation is also able to provide psychosocial assistance to the traumatised people fleeing the horrors of war. Furthermore, the organisation also supplies over 200 community shelters for IDPs with all kinds of aid.

Will global donors rise to the occasion to help starving people of East Africa?

As the drought crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya worsens, ACT has joined 53 national and international NGOs in a joint call to the international community, asking for increased assistance to prevent a tragedy, as more than 14 million people face starvation.

As donors convene in Geneva, over 50 NGOs and NGO networks call for an urgent and substantial step-up in funding and leadership to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe facing millions in the Horn of Africa due to the severe drought, warning that further delays will cost lives.

This drought is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, desert locusts, and now a further surge in food and commodity prices due to the conflict in Ukraine. Over 14 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya – about half of them children – are already on the verge of starvation. This number will rise to 20 million by the middle of 2022 if the rains continue to fail, prices continue to rise, and significant funds are not surged to meet the needs of those in crisis. In Somalia alone, over half a million people have already fled their homes in search of food and water since the start of 2022.

Even in the best case scenario with above average rains, it would take months for people to recover, and as many as 11 million people would remain highly food insecure in drought-affected areas through September 2022.

Women and children, especially girls, are always hit hardest by a food crisis. Many are at an increased risk of abuse and gender-based violence, including child marriage. Nearly 5.7 million children are threatened by acute malnutrition which leads to lifelong cognitive and physical impairments, increases the risk of other illnesses, and ultimately causes death. “Because of the drought, we are skipping meals. I have to ration supper, and divide meals so that some of my children who need additional food are able to eat more than others,” says Elizabeth Akaale, mother of seven children living in Turkana, Kenya’s northwestern-most county.

The outpouring of support and solidarity for people affected by the conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated a strong sense of shared humanity. However, as humanitarian and development actors working in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, we have yet to see the same level of urgency and solidarity for millions of people like Elizabeth and her children, who bear the brunt of some of today’s biggest shared challenges, including the climate crisis.

“Not getting much needed international attention and additional resources at a time of historic need in the Horn of Africa would result in the loss of thousands of lives that could have been saved by a timely and at-scale response,” says Heather Amstutz, Danish Refugee Council Regional Director for East Africa and the Great Lakes.

We saw the horrific consequences of acting too late in Somalia in 2011, when over a quarter of a million people died as a result of drought and famine. In 2017 however, the Somali government and humanitarian community prevented the worst impacts of drought by swiftly acting on early warning signals, showing that a collective “no-regrets” approach to funding and programming can effectively avert famine. Now, more than ever, our shared responsibility must translate into action for communities in the Horn of Africa.

“In Somalia, national and local actors are making every effort to intensify their response, but there is only so much they can do without the necessary funds. It is critical that funds are directly channeled through local actors who work on addressing the root causes of hunger through a community-driven, integrated humanitarian response,” says Issack Malim, Executive Director of the Nexus Platform in Somalia.

Failing to act quickly will also cost more to donors in the long run and risk reversing the last decade of investments in building resilience and ending drought emergencies in the region.

“In addition to a hunger crisis, we are seeing communities’ capacity to cope and recover from shock at its breaking point. The clock is ticking, and we must act quickly and wisely by increasing investments to strengthen communities’ resilience to future shocks,” says Sean Granville-Ross, Mercy Corps Regional Director for Africa.

Humanitarian partners have requested more than $4.4 billion in funding to provide life-saving aid and protection to approximately 29.1 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya in 2022. For Somalia, so far less than 5% ($64.7 million) of that has been secured. The near-record levels of resources and attention for the Ukraine response sit in stark contrast with the badly underfunded crisis in the Horn of Africa, but also show that with enough political will, the response could be rapidly scaled up.

In the past, the strong leadership and convening power of donor governments have proven very effective at mobilizing attention and resources in moments of humanitarian crisis. Today, that leadership is missing for the Horn of Africa.

Efforts by the EU and UN to convene the international community to discuss the crisis in the Horn of Africa and unlock additional, flexible funds is an urgent first step, but we were disappointed to see the event downgraded from a pledging conference to a high-level roundtable. Preventing further deterioration of the crisis will require donors to start acting with a sense of urgency and take decisive action now. The question that remains, as we watch global donors gather in Geneva this week, is will they rise to the occasion?

This statement was endorsed by the following 53 local, national and international NGOs and NGO networks working in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya:

Action Against Hunger, Action in Semi-Arid Lands, ACT Alliance, ADRA Kenya, Aid Vision, Arid Lands Development Focus (ALDEF Kenya), ASAL Humanitarian Network Kenya, Care International, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Centre for peace and Democracy, Christian Aid, CLEAR Global, Cohere (Formerly Xavier Project), Concern Worldwide, Daami Youth Development Organization, DanChurchAid, Danish Refugee Council, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, European Committee for Training and Agriculture, FCA Kenya, FCA Somalia, FilmAid Kenya, Food for the Hungry, Gargaar Relief Development Organization (GREDO), Horn of Africa Voluntary Youth Committee (HAVOYOCO), Humanitarian Translation for Somalia, Humanity & Inclusion, International Aid Services Kenya, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), International Rescue Committee, Irman Foundation, Johanniter Unfall Hilfe e.V. Kenya, KAALO, Kenya Charter for Change Working Group, Malteser International, Mercy Corps, Misereor, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Plan International, Relief Reconstruction and Development Organization, Social-life and Agricultural Development Organization (SADO), Save the Children, Somali NGO Consortium, Somalia Nexus Platform, Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC), Taakulo Somali Community, Tearfund, Trocaire, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), WASDA, We World, World Vision International.

Notes to editors

The World Food Programme has warned that the number of people facing hunger in the Horn of Africa due to the drought might rise from 14 million to 20 million by the end of the year.
In Somalia, around 6 million people (38 percent of the entire population) are suffering from severe food insecurity (IPC3 or above), with 1.7 million of them in Emergency (IPC 4), and 81,000 people projected to face famine conditions (IPC 5) before June. There is a real risk of famine if humanitarian aid is not scaled up immediately.
According to FSNWG’s Special Report on Drought, under an average to above-average rainfall scenario, Widespread Stressed (IPC Phase 2) and Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes would be likely through September 2022, with between 7 to 11 million people still highly food insecure (IPC Phase 3+) in drought-affected areas.
According to UNICEF nearly 5.7 million children are threatened by acute malnourishment in the Horn of Africa, with more than 1.7 million at risk of severe acute malnutrition.
As trade routes from Ukraine and Russia are severely disrupted, staples such as wheat are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. Countries such as Somalia, which relies on Russia and Ukraine for 90% of its wheat supplies, have seen wheat and oil prices rise by 300%. Because of the disruption in these imports, the cost of bread and other essential products is rapidly rising, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable.
For more information on the impact of drought and food crises on gender-based violence, check the Gender Based Violence AoR’s Brief Overview of Research, Evidence and Learning on the Links between Food Insecurity and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict Affected Settings.
For more information on humanitarian funding gaps for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, refer to the UN OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service
The High-Level Roundtable on the Horn of Africa Drought is co-hosted by the European Union and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It will take place in Geneva on Tuesday 26 April 2022 from 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm (EAT) and will be held in a hybrid format (online and in-person).

ACT at MENA’s first climate week

In preparation for

Panellists get ready for their MENA Climate Week side event on March 30. Photo: Julius Mbatia/ACT.

November’s COP27, the UNFCCC hosted the first ever climate week for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from March 28 to 31. ACT Alliance organised a side event with Ummah for Earth, an alliance of environmental and Muslim agencies working to empower Muslim communities facing crises.

Julius Mbatia, ACT Alliance Climate Justice Manager, facilitated the March 30 side event, called Multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder engagement for effective climate action. Panelists included Dany El Obeid (Middle East Conference of Churches and ِACT Alliance) Tarek Al Olaimi (ally of Ummah for Earth), Ines Belliard (Global One), and Devar Sher (ally of ACT Alliance).

The panel agreed that to achieve effective climate action at the global level, COP27 and COP28 climate negotiations must include the most vulnerable communities across faiths, notably women and youth. “Climate change represents one of the most urgent global challenges we are facing today,” said Tarek Al Olaimi, ally of Ummah for Earth. “Youth and faith actors need to be brought to the decision table every day, in order to include them in sectoral planning, prioritisation, and policy frameworks.”

Panellists discussed the need for better coordination to achieve an overall transformation of societies at the economic and governmental levels. They pointed to the role of faith communities in filling the gaps between different sectors, organising, and responding to specific needs in planning and action. They also pointed to the challenges of working on climate justice in the region.

“We need to take a step back and take a snapshot of the MENA countries, specifically where armed conflict remains a living hell. We can’t expect conflict-affected communities to be aware of the climate hazard,” said Devar Sher (ally of ACT Alliance).

“I think what is needed are long term and clear projects upon which everyone can hop together and maintain,” said Dany El Obeid of the Middle East Council of Churches and ACT Alliance. “Maybe we can chop down the overwhelming task of combating climate change by taking smaller steps.”

Full media release here.

Forgotten crises

A refugee family from Afghanistan who came to the Greek island of Chios by crossing the Aegean Sea on a small boat from Turkey. From here they will continue to western Europe. PHOTO: Paul Jeffrey/ACT

By Rudelmar Bueno de Faria

The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than a month and the eyes of the world have been focused on it sharply. On social media and traditional media, we are constantly reminded of the cruelty of war. The coverage of this crisis has been at times overwhelming. People and governments of the world have responded with their hearts and their donations to support Ukraine.

ACT Alliance launched a $21.5 million USD appeal, and ACT members across the regions have generously donated to the work of Hungarian Interchurch Aid, the Lutheran World Federation, and Swiss Church Aid who are still responding to this crisis by helping IDPs and refugees in four border countries. Other ACT members have contributed with their own programming, part of a massive Total ACT Response.

This outpouring of support is entirely appropriate as over 11 million people have been displaced by the war, and those affected will face years of hardship as lives and livelihoods, homes and communities will need to be rebuilt.

As general secretary of the ACT Alliance, I applaud everyone who is working to support those affected by this war. I hope that the response to the war in Ukraine, both in terms of the speed and the volume of the support, becomes the model for future humanitarian responses.

However, I want to discuss an important issue which has been raised by many of our members around the world. This is not the only huge humanitarian crisis we are facing today.

The fact that the brutality of this war is all over the news does not mean that other conflicts are less brutal or heinous. In Tigray, Yemen, and South Sudan, to name a few, the humanitarian needs are dire. There are millions displaced in and around Afghanistan, Syria, and DRC. And while billions in aid are flowing to Ukraine and its people, the same cannot be said for those who are facing other crises.

The problem is not that Ukraine is receiving too much aid. In fact, it needs as much support as it can get. The problem is that not enough aid is made available for all crises. Most crises around the world are significantly underfunded as responding NGOs like ACT, the UN, and local and regional authorities struggle to meet the needs of the millions impacted.

These crises are also often connected. For example, the war in Ukraine will have a devastating impact on Africa, where many countries are reaching near famine state, including South Sudan and Somalia. Much of the wheat imported into northern Africa comes from Russia and Ukraine. In 2021, those two countries were responsible for almost 25% of the world’s exports of wheat. Those exports will likely not be available in 2022.

We are distressed to hear that some states are deviating ODA funding from other crises to support the Ukraine war response. Some are using those funds to support refugee resettlement within their own borders.

As Christians, our work draws on our faith, and our call is to support the most vulnerable everywhere and to work for a world where peace and justice reign, and the rights and dignity of all people are respected regardless of their race, creed, gender, or identity.

We call for a humanitarian funding system which is based on justice and solidarity, which does not discriminate on any basis – region, race, religion, gender, etc. – but responds to need as quickly and robustly as the Ukraine response has.

We call on states to continue and to increase support to all crises, be they natural disasters or conflicts, and to ensure that development aid is delivered to the communities impacted rather than diverted to fund, for example, refugee resettlement within Western countries themselves.

We call on the media to report on human suffering wherever it might take place, to discuss the reality of humanitarian need. Help to shine light on facts and the work of people to rebuild their own lives and communities, as well as on those around the world who support that work.

We call on all people of faith to continue to pray and work for a world of peace and justice, to promote and engage in dialogue, and to love our neighbours all over the world, supporting them as we are able.

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is General Secretary of ACT Alliance.