From a report by Joselito Sosmena 

In mid December, Super Typhoon Rai made landfall in central and southern Philippines, causing massive damage. Super typhoons like Rai have affected the Philippines with depressing frequency since Super Typhoon Haiyan landed in 2013.  Super typhoons are linked to rising ocean temperatures, making the Philippines one of the countries that is most directly affected by the climate crisis.  

 “I remember Super Typhoon Haiyan. There were endless lines for water, queues in banks for money wire transfers, overpriced gasoline, and food was scarce,” says Joselito “Lito” Sosmena, who worked on NCCP-ACT Alliance’s 2013 Typhoon Haiyan humanitarian response. “Eight years later, it has happened again but now more areas are experiencing the same fate.”  

Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, caused massive damage in southern and central Philippines including in Bohol, where Lito’s family lives. As of this writing there are 375 casualties, an estimated 3,800 houses have been destroyed by the typhoon, and more than two million people have been displaced.  Meeting basic needs with food, potable water, hygiene kits and temporary shelter is difficult. 

COVID-19 and the increasing threat of the omicron variant has complicated matters. Lito’s mother was diagnosed with COVID-19 the day before Typhoon Rai landed.  She went to hospital with difficulty breathing, leaving her husband at home with their three grandchildren.  

When the typhoon landed, the nearby river flooded, and the waters rose to the level of Lito’s parents’ roof.  “Our house was wiped out in a snap, along with all our belongings,” said Lito.  This included a small store, animals and a fishing boat, essential for the family’s livelihood. His mother’s illness was added to the family’s difficulties. “How can my mother be quarantined at home when there is no house left for her to go to?” he said.  Ultimately relatives provided temporary shelter for his mother’s quarantine, but the family still had challenges accessing medicine. 

Five days after Typhoon Rai’s landfall “our people still lack access to safe water, power and communication lines,” said Lito. “It seems like the lessons we learned from Typhoon Haiyan have been forgotten.”  

“I hope that in our united efforts and continuing call for accountability from the government, we will recover stronger,” he said. 

 
For more information contact Sylwyn Sheen Alba-Salvador 
Networking and Advocacy Officer, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) 
Coordinator, ACT Philippines Forum 

Youth and climate justice was featured in two discussions at the recent ACT Assembly 2021. Hope was central to both. 

An  intergenerational panel on youth and climate justice took place early in the Assembly. A few days later, two Latin American ACT members, Marcelo Leites of Uruguay and Fernanda Zuniga of Chile, reviewed the key points of this discussion. Both Marcelo and Fernanda are themselves young people who have been involved for many years in organising other young people in their countries, Marcelo with the World Student Christian Movement and Fernanda with the Lutheran Church in Chile.  

The key points they noted were: the importance of Christian unity in climate action; developing youth’s capacity to lead and to engage in negotiations; the urgency of action given the climate crisis; and the hope offered by youth involvement to the Alliance and the world. Marcelo noted two additional points that had emerged in the intergenerational discussion: that “all change is possible if we have hope” and that “there is no climate justice without social and economic justice.”  

Fernanda focussed on the call to promote climate action based on shared Christian values. She added that education is not just a tool to empower young people to act on climate, but to empower them to become decision-makers in negotiations and policy. And their lived experience is important. Youth should “not only be telling others’ stories about loss and damage, motivation, gender,” said Fernanda, but also “sharing their own experiences.” 

“We need a new climate and new relationships between people, nature and men and women,” concluded Marcelo. “We know women and children are the most affected by climate change.” 

Fernanda and Marcelo’s dialogue, below, was recorded in Spanish with English subtitles.  

It’s been more than a month since COP26 ended, and the world continues to reflect on the results of the two weeks of negotiations hosted by the UNFCCC in Glasgow in November.  

Featuring observations by COP26 ecumenical participants, the COP26 Ecumenical Preliminary Analysis – End of Summit offers rich reflection and analysis on both the results of the summit and ecumenical collaboration at COP26.  

“Youth are now and will continue to be disproportionately affected by climate change in the coming decades and implore world leaders to stop selling off their future,” said Savanna Sullivan, the LWF Program Executive for Youth, and a COP26 observer. “We are deeply concerned about the Glasgow result. Despite some progress, we are still far from solving the climate crisis, and we will need a drastic increase in the ambition of all parties.” 

ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Council of Churches (WCC) and their members followed the summit closely. “We feel that there is still a lot that must be done to achieve climate justice, particularly for communities in the Global South,” says the document, pointing out that the people who face the worst effects of climate change have done the least to contribute to it. 

A commitment to the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage is one step forward at COP26. “[It] will be crucial in strengthening the technical capacity of Global South governments to bear the shocks of climate change,” said Patriciah Roy Akullo of DanChurchAid Uganda. There are caveats. “[The network’s] technical capacity must be complemented by the provision of new and additional loss and damage finance,” said Julius Mbatia, ACT Alliance Climate Justice Manager. This will be needed to fund interventions that will help vulnerable communities affected by the climate crisis. 

“As people of faith, we are disappointed but not disheartened by the lack of concrete results from COP26,” say the document authors. “As partners in the ecumenical movement, we will continue to care for creation, work for climate justice, and stand with the most vulnerable. We call on churches worldwide to keep raising their voices for creation and for climate justice.”  

“If the goal to stay below 1.5 degrees is to be reached, all parts of global society should be included. The Glasgow Climate Pact mentions the importance of collaborations with civil society and many groups but not faith groups,” said Rev. Henrik Grape, coordinator of the WCC working group on Climate Change. People of faith need to be included in the global discussions to move forward. 

Preparing for COP27 

Preparations are underway for COP27, scheduled to be held in Egypt from 7 to 18 November 2022. It will be an important meeting. 

“World leaders must stop ignoring the climate crisis and act to bring forward significant emission reduction targets in 2022 to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change,” said Elena Cedillo, LWF Program Executive for Climate Justice.   

Follow ACT Alliance’s Twitter account, ACT Now for Climate Justice, for ongoing analysis, news and actions that you can take to influence pre-COP27 preparation meetings.  Join us in working together for a just result at COP27.   

As the G7 Health Ministers stated, with the rise of Omicron, “[t]he global community is faced, at a first evaluation, with the threat of a new, highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, which requires urgent action.” (G7 Joint Statement on the Omicron variant) We, at ACT Alliance, appreciate the G7 Ministers’ recognition of the strategic relevance of ensuring access to vaccines while also providing operational assistance, taking forward donation commitments, and tackling vaccine misinformation, as well as supporting research and development. However, we worry that this rhetoric will not translate into action. We are particularly concerned that ‘donors’ often fail to deliver on their commitments and/or to give good advance notice of upcoming donations, coordinate with ‘receiving’ governments, and to share adequate doses that have sufficiently long ‘shelf lives’. 

Some of our members and faith partners (See, for instance, call for endorsements related to a faith-based statement calling on the WTO to urgently waive patents.) have already highlighted that failure to properly rollout vaccines globally is costing lives and is further delaying the end of the pandemic. For instance, jointly, ACT EU members have been working on targeted and concrete action focusing on the inaction of Member States (See more at Vaccines for all: time for the EU to rise to the challenge (brusselstimes.com).) Inaction is not only unwise, as it stalls our ability to revert back to a new normal and to recover from the social and economic shocks of this crisis, it is also a moral failure. Whereas in Global North countries like Portugal vaccine coverage is remarkable, only 6% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose- a far cry from the whopping 54.5% coverage globally. This is wildly unjust and unfair. 

What is needed to tackle the current vaccine apartheid? In the ACT Alliance vaccine equity brief,  we warned back in July 2021 that we would not see the end of the pandemic until everyone, everywhere, was safe and vaccinated. To make sure calls to tackle Omicron translate into concrete outcomes, we urge countries housing vaccine production and those with large vaccine stocks to: 

• Immediately share doses, guaranteeing affordable prices, fair allocation and prioritisation while taking into consideration the price in relation to GDP.  
• Resolve liability issues and avoid distributing vaccines too close to expiry or those coming in slow waves between doses. 
• Based on the available scientific evidence, commit to at least 5% of overall supply to equitable vaccine distribution and prioritise vaccine equity over booster shots. 
• Increase production and transfer capacity, technology and production, temporarily waiving patents and IP rights to enable manufacturing in the Global South as well as sharing of technology and know-how through the C-TAP mechanisms. 
• Be responsive to where there is untapped potential and a strong call from faith leaders in relation to the moral responsibility to value human life and dignity above all else. 
• Ensure COVAX is inclusive and responsive to civil society’s demands as well as supporting the initiative for a treaty on global pandemic preparedness that protects the health and livelihoods of all. 
• Prioritize high risk groups including the people living with HIV/AIDS, people with palliative care conditions, the key and most vulnerable populations. 
• Create a more robust form of global pandemic preparedness that protects the health and livelihoods of all, that strengthens public health systems and recognises the fundamental role played by civil society actors, in particular faith actors, in COVID-19 mechanisms. 
• Remove ineffective travel bans from countries who have shared the information about new variants, which only impose economic hardships on these nations without effectively slowing the spread of the variants. 
• Reject the immoral prioritisation by manufacturers of new vaccine supplies to Global North countries with high rates of vaccination and instead prioritise the fulfillment of commitments to the COVAX Facility. 

In summary, we call for action and an end to the empty political rhetoric. We must protect our common home and our brothers and sisters with the same passion and energy as we protect ourselves. As ACT Alliance, we are a Christian network and we share with our constituencies and those of many other faith-based networks the basic thirst for global justice. We think the issues formulated above are part of the long road to global justice. 
 
We also urge all Global North countries to call out blockages and maneuvering as well as to put an end to fallacies that argue that vaccine hesitancy is an adequate reason to avoid the sharing of doses. Evidence has clearly shown that there is uptake when vaccines are available and distributed in a predictable way. We therefore demand all countries to end vaccine inequity. 

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria  
General Secretary, ACT Alliance  

 ——

ACT Alliance is the largest coalition of Protestant and Orthodox churches and church-related organisations engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world, consisting of more than 140 members working together in over 120 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality in keeping with the highest international codes and standards. 

At its closing plenary on December 3, the ACT Electronic General Assembly elected its new governing board, the officers of the board, and the membership and nominations committee (MNC).  

Officers, members of the board, and of the MNC must demonstrate active engagement in the life of the Alliance prior to being nominated for the positions. The elected individuals will serve for a period of three years, until the next Assembly in 2024. 

ACT’s governing board is made up of 22 members representing the various regions, as well as two seats for youth.  Congratulations to the newly elected board, and a warm thank you to all who put their names forward for these roles. Here is the new board:

The officers of the board are the Moderator, Vice-moderator, and Treasurer.  Erik Lysén, from Act Church of Sweden, was elected as the new moderator.

Lysén serves as the Director of International Affairs with Act Church of Sweden, and has been involved in ecumenical justice work for over 30 years, beginning his work in 1991 in South Africa, and said, “the lasting memory of that time is one of being together in a global struggle to combat racism, ending apartheid. It holds similarities with our mission today. We’re in the alliance because we have a common cause, a global faith-based struggle for climate justice and social justice.” 

Lysén went on to say, “I am proud to moderate an alliance that embodies commitments to sustainable development, multilateral cooperation, respect for democracy and human rights, peace, dignity, and equality – a global coalition of actors that work together to contribute to a just, inclusive, and peaceful world. A church-based alliance with its roots in faith-based communities at the local level. An alliance that puts Christian faith and hope into action.”

Lysén picked up on the importance of youth to the Assembly and to the life of the alliance. “This general assembly has shown that we can be proud of our youth COP and their expertise, not only on climate change, but also on all the conversations we’ve had during this week… We’re on the way to building a strong youth movement, but will only do it through your experiences, advice, and competence.”

“The value of ACT Alliance members working together is so much more than members acting alone”, he concluded.  “So, let us be brave and see the light. Let us put faith and hope into action. Let us be the change ourselves!” The full text of his speech can be found here.

Erik Lysén will work with Minnie Anne Mata-Calub, from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines as Vice-moderator, and Simangaliso Hove, Lutheran Development Service in Zimbabwe, will serve a second term as treasurer.

The Membership and Nominations Committee will be composed of:

One seat will remain vacant for the moment until a process for filling it is agreed to.

Members of ACT Alliance Canada recently hosted a virtual consultation exploring both the results of COP26 and the impacts of the climate crisis as they affect Eastern and Southern Africa. The consultations were a collaboration between agencies and ACT members in Canada and with ACT members and forums in the region. 

Structured as moderated discussions with experts followed by small group participant discussions, the intent was to look for new pathways to strengthen Canadian agencies’ collaborative work in the region, identify challenges and opportunities and share experiences.  As noted by one of the hosts, Guy Smagghe (Presbyterian World Service and Development), the consultation would “stay clear of the blah, blah, blah and identify what we have agency over.” 

Panellists and moderators included ACT Alliance members from Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as members of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Lutheran World Service and the All Africa Conference of Churches. The hosts, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, Presbyterian World Service and Development, the United Church of Canada, the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, World Renew and the World Alliance of Christian Communicators, are members of ACT Canada. 

Day One: Naming the challenges 

First day panellists were moderated by Jim Cornelius of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and included Julius Mbatia (ACT Alliance Global Climate Justice Programme Manager), who began with the inequities facing Africans. “Africa has contributed 3.8% of the world’s greenhouse gasses,” he said. Yet today, 600 million Africans have no access to power. “That’s 48% of the continent, and this restrains economies.”  At COP26, financing for loss and damage from climate change was “pushed back several years,” said Mbatia. “We need to advance the conversation to give communities hope,” and support “locally-led initiatives, technical accompaniment and transformation at the local level, where it’s needed.” 

Lillian W. Kantai (LWF World Service Kenya) pointed to humanitarian issues in the region: “There are millions of refugees,” she noted, creating a “burden for host countries that are already burdened economically.” Governance issues affect climate finance. “How much of the money reaches locally-led initiatives? From a human rights perspective, we must hold our governments accountable and hold locally led initiatives to account as well,” she said. Kantai also spoke eloquently of women’s unfair burden under the climate crisis.  

“More impacts from climate change are coming,” said Paul Hagerman (Canadian Foodgrains Bank). Money needs to reach those most affected, and African people need to be heard on these issues. A further issue is that “donors in the north see climate finance as optional, as aid or charity,” said Hagerman. “Developing countries see it as a justice issue.” He added that more analysis of the impacts of climate change will allow those involved to plan improved adaptation projects. 

Day Two: Best practices, lessons learned, new opportunities 

Day two of the consultation was moderated by Elizabeth Kisiigha Zimba (ACT Alliance Regional Representative, Africa). Panellists began by describing the effects of the changing climate in their countries. “Cyclone Idai … killed people and displaced others from their homes. It impacted the economy and lives,” said Collins Shava (All Africa Conference of Churches). Melton Luhanga (ACT Malawi Forum and Churches Action for Relief and Development) added that changing rains and the increasing number of floods in Malawi mean that “food insecurity is now widespread in most areas.”  

When asked to discuss opportunities for action and collaboration, Patriciah Roy Akullo (ACT Uganda Forum and ACT’s Climate Justice group) advocated putting youth “at the forefront” and collaborating with the private sector for solutions in research and innovation. The need for private sector engagement was echoed by some other panellists. 

Philip Mato Galgallo (ACT Burundi Forum and Christian Aid Burundi) noted the “paradox” that when communities lose livelihoods suited to a past climate, they “may be pushed into industrial work that further destroys the environment.” As well, African countries “don’t lack policies, but do lack enforcement,” he said. “We can collaborate” to change this. 

Collins Shava added that there is still room to push for commitments at future COPs, and to “push for our countries to take responsibility.” Building capacity in faith leaders remains important as “religion and faith are more influential than politics in my country” of Zimbabwe. He also advocated for promoting women in decision-making.  

Melton Luhanga pointed to the consultation itself as an important example of collaboration. “What we are doing here is one of the greater opportunities. This is capacity-building,” he said. “Between and amongst us, there are appropriate technologies” that with adequate financing and promotion can solve the problems created by a changing climate. 

Next steps 

In summarizing the two days of discussions, PWS&D’s Guy Smagghe began by noting that “our Earth is a temple that has become a marketplace. We need to bring it to another level.” He pointed to some key threads in the consultation, such as building consortia and encouraging effective youth involvement, and to issues that need more exploration, such as Indigenous knowledge and appropriate technologies. He noted that some of these issues can be brought to ACT Alliance.  

“We are challenged,” Smagghe said, “to strengthen the livelihoods of people now facing climate change impacts that destroy their livelihoods.” Finally, he said “We need to digest the input of all who contributed during the last few days … This is just opening the door to trying to make a greater difference together.”  

There is a famous statement by Malcolm X, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare today.” This statement is especially true for the ACT Alliance Youth CoP, as education and capacity building was a recurring theme in the discourse and dialogues on the third day of the 2021 ACT Electronic General Assembly. Fernanda Zúñiga, a young climate activist with LWF said, “mobilizing young people to be involved and empowering them to participate in negotiations and creation of policy will ensure knowledge is gained by listening and retained  by practising.”

Are there opportunities for youth In climate justice? The youth are especially excited by the commitment of Matias Söderberg, co-chair of the ACT Climate Justice Reference Group, who said the group is committed to work with the youth. This is a good place to begin; creating a network which will provide a platform for learning, exchanging ideas and participating. A good suggestion was brought forth to establish a programme in the ACT secretariat to involve the youth and member organizations in Climate Justice to drive this agenda and Climate Justice advocacy.

Marcelo Leites of WCSF said, “There is a need for a radical change, because young people are not only the future but the present.” As ACT identifies the opportunities to involve youth, “We have to establish that there is no climate justice without social justice” he said, “because young people are the most impacted by climate change effects and many times they are left with no dignity.”

It is a win that the youth are already doing the basics, “Planting trees, saving water, restoring water bodies and taking personal responsibilities to preserve and restore the environment.” It is a first step of many towards the change we want for planet Earth. 

There come moments in every generation, when the Lord reintroduces Himself to a generation and amplifies His message (William McDowell). For Climate Action, the moment is now. The youth are awake and aware of the need to be in the frontline and they will be instrumental, but only if guided and supported to channel their energy wisely.

In the 2021 assembly, we have laid the foundation through the intergenerational dialogues. Let it advance to intergenerational action with those that went before us mentoring us, imparting knowledge and creating space for youth on the boards, reference groups and communities of practice to strengthen youth engagement and build youth synergy. In Kenya, we say, “Umoja ni nguvu, utengano ni udhaifu,” which means, coming together as individuals, strengthens us to achieve what we set out to do.  Together we can make climate justice a reality!

—-

Irene Sebastian-Waweru. Youth Volunteer with Anglican Development Services a member of ACT Alliance Kenya Forum. Currently co-chair ACT Alliance Kenya Forum and ACT Africa Youth CoPs.

Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen reflects on her 3 years as ACT Alliance Moderator as her term comes to an end.  She is General Secretary of DanChurchAid.

Please share a few highlights from your 3-year term as Moderator. 

A regular feature of governance meetings included reflecting on the external context, and how the Alliance can adapt and respond in a rapidly changing world to remain relevant, cohesive, effective and accountable.  

ACT Alliance is in a very exciting time, where important changes are taking place in many areas and on many fronts. These changes range from new partnerships to a more proactive engagement in humanitarian response. At the same time, the Alliance faces financial challenges that need to be addressed. These challenges require ongoing revision of approaches, structures and procedures, all designed to promote cohesiveness, relevance and effectiveness.  This will benefit not only the Alliance, but also its individual members. 

The revised model for membership, also called the “engagement model,” came into effect January 1, 2020. In 2019 the Governing Board, with the support of the Membership and Nominations Committee and the Secretariat, began to further develop an implementation plan for the revised membership model. Although the new model improved members’ active engagement in the Alliance, it also presented some challenges. 

In May 2021, the revised ACT Humanitarian Policy was approved by the Governing Board. Planned improvements in enabling mechanisms, such as ACT Appeals, the Global Rapid Response Fund and the Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans, are scheduled to roll out beginning in 2022.  

We also implemented a system of “reporting back” to respective regional members on important decisions made by the Governing Board. In this way, ACT members were given the opportunity to share views and insights on important matters affecting the life of the Alliance.  

One major decision was adding two Youth seats on the Governing Board, which I am personally very happy about. These were filled in the first half of 2021. 

What were some of the challenges the Board overcame during your tenure, and how? 

In June 2019 the ACT Secretariat started a discussion with key funding members of the Alliance to address its unstable and unpredictable financial situation.  

A revised funding model for the Secretariat was produced and presented to the CEOs of the member organizations. It provided concrete and constructive feedback and requested reconsideration of the ambitious timeline to put the new model in place despite the urgency of its critical financial instability and the inherent risk of the current funding model.  

The ACT Governing Board endorsed the direction of the proposal and encouraged continued discussions with funding members in order to have a sustainable and predictable model in place considering the financial challenges that the main funding members are currently facing. 

What advice do you have for the next Moderator? 

Recognise the competencies and skills in the Board – this is a joint effort, and everyone wants to contribute. 

And recognise the amazing work of the Secretariat – they work hard, find solutions to challenges, and demonstrate a high degree of responsibility.