35 Aid Agencies warn of further irreversible impact, marking 10 years of Syrian conflict
35 of the leading aid agencies have joined together to warn of the suffering and increased, irreversible, damage if the growing humanitarian needs in Syria are not met and a political solution is not found. The 35 agencies have highlighted that a decade since the outset of the conflict, living conditions for many Syrians are worse than ever.
The statement reads:
“Monday March 15th will mark 10 years since the onset of the crisis in Syria. A decade of conflict in Syria risks creating further irreversible impact to millions of displaced civilians and on the region unless world powers use all their influence to stop the crisis. There continues to be violence and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Inside Syria over 80% of people are living in poverty and food insecurity levels are at a record high. Over 12.4 million people are food insecure and a further 1.8 million are at risk. 12.2 million Syrians lack regular access to clean water and 2.4 million children are currently out of school. The COVID-19 global pandemic has only exacerbated the human suffering. Vital infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, markets, homes and roads have been damaged or destroyed throughout the conflict. Many that are still standing have become shelters for those displaced by the conflict. Syrians are also facing rising inflation as a result of the declining value of the Syrian Pound, widespread unemployment, and increasingly common fuel shortages. Basic goods are no longer affordable for many, forcing families to reduce the amount of meals they put on the table or trade what little food they do have for medicine.
The protracted displacement crisis as a result of the Syrian conflict is the worst since the Second World War. 5.6 million Syrians remain displaced in neighbouring countries, of which 2.5 million are children. 6.2 million remain internally displaced across different parts of Syria.
In the neighbouring countries, 5.5 million Syrian refugees and 4.8 million impacted host community members are in need of humanitarian assistance, with COVID-19 increasing poverty and risk of sexual-gender based violence. Most have little legal protections and few livelihood opportunities. Nearly 580,000 Syrian refugees are in need of resettlement, less than 2% have had their cases submitted last year and far more than the resettlement spaces available. The UN is warning that there are record low levels of resettlement.
We call on the international community to step up its aid to Syrians across the country and in refugee-hosting countries and recognise its responsibility to support refugees. Cross-border access into Syria must be maintained, and humanitarian access within the country must also be strengthened. The EU-hosted Brussels V March ministerial conference on March 29th-30th is the best opportunity for the world to show it has not forgotten about Syria and to act to end the growing suffering. We also call on governments with influence over the warring parties to use their pressure to seek an end to this brutal conflict and spare millions more Syrians from the violence. It is essential that we invest both in urgent humanitarian needs and long-term development to help build resilience well into the future. We must allow Syrians to live a better life where income-generating opportunities, repaired homes, functioning public infrastructure, clean water, basic services, and hope for the future are existent and accessible to all – otherwise the impact of a decade of conflict will be irreversible”.
Signed by:
ACT Alliance
Action Against Hunger
Basmeh & Zeitooneh Relief & Development
Cadus e.V.
CAFOD
CARE International
Caritas Germany
Center for Civil Society and Democracy
Christian Aid
Diakonie Katasrophenhilfe
Dorcas
Hurras Network
Humanity & Inclusion
humedica international aid
International Medical Corps
International Rescue Committee
Médecins du Monde
MercyCorps
Orange Organization
Norwegian People’s Aid
Norwegian Refugee Council
Peace Winds Japan
People In Need
Right To Play
Save The Children
SAMS
Solidarités International
Syria Relief
Syria Relief & Development
Terre des Hommes
Terre des Hommes Italia
Trócaire
WeWorld-GVC
War Child
World Vision
Photo: Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
Publication: Climate-Resilient, Sustainable, and Low-Emission Livelihoods.
In a period of climate emergency, a more efficient means to secure survival and sustainable development is to find co-beneficial means to address climate-related issues with efficiency. Efficiency is needed because of the deep concern of the impact of the fast-evolving climate hazards on peoples, ecosystems, assets, and overall development. In the past, adaptation options have resulted in trade-offs or maladaptations that had adverse impacts, such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing gender and social inequality, undermining health conditions, and encroaching on natural ecosystems. Mitigation efforts may also create trade-offs with adaptation objectives, such as when priorities over bioenergy crops and forest regeneration compete with land needs for agricultural adaptation. This may undermine food security, livelihoods, and ecosystem functions and services.
This series of case studies explores community-based and other livelihood initiatives undertaken by ACT Alliance members.
Tigray conflict: ACT forums respond cohesively and creatively
On 4th November 2020, hostilities broke out again between the Ethiopia Federal government and the northern regional state of Tigray. Military action resulted in general insecurity, internal and external displacements, and a disruption of livelihoods in the region. At least 1.3 million persons are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, including residents, internally displaced persons, returnees, and over 96,000 Eritrean refugees. ACT Alliance launched a joint appeal on 23rd December 2020 for the response in Ethiopia. ACT-member Lutheran World Federation gave an update on the highly difficult situation in February 2021.
The ACT Ethiopia Forum from the beginning stood in solidarity with the people affected. It called for a peaceful resolution and an immediate stop to the fighting as well as for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to allow relief operations and the protection of all civilians and humanitarian aid workers.
To achieve the desired outcomes of the Ethiopian response, two of the meanwhile four implementing ACT members (Ethiopia Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus Development and Social Services Commission (EECMY – DASSC), Ethiopia Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC), and Lutheran World Federation Ethiopia (LWF-ETH)) are working in close cooperation with the refugee and host communities as well as with the targeted population at all levels. After the recent revision of the appeal ETH201, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is planning to work through these national forum members as soon as possible. The existing structures (Refugee Council Committees (RCCs), Women’s Association, Youth Association, elders, and religious leaders) were consulted during project planning as their active involvement is paramount in realizing the projects’ goal and objectives during the project implementation.
Coordination and collaboration required
The third implementing member LWF is a direct implementer. The organization has been active in the Amhara region between Addis Ababa and Tigray for years and its regional coordination office (RCO) in Lalibela is equipped with the required staffing and resources to provide overall management and administrative support to the project. LWF coordinates all the activities closely with the government and other humanitarian actors as well as with various clusters at regional and national levels.
Additionally, for peaceful co-existence interventions, the Ethiopia Inter-Religious Council is engaged. After the withdrawal, it will continue to conduct peacebuilding programs at the local level with existing faith communities.
ACT Ethiopia Forum 2019
Committing the forum fee for the Tigray response
In January 2021, the ACT Ethiopia Forum’s eleven national and international ACT-members decided to contribute their annual fees to the Tigray appeal. We asked the Forum Convenor Christoph Schneider-Yattara (PADD-Bread for the World) and the Forum Coordinator Dawit Beza about the background of this decision.
Christoph and Dawit, who had the idea to contribute the Ehtiopia Forum’s annual fees 2021 to the Tigray appeal?
The Convener brought this to the forum leadership team. We proposed it at the January monthly Forum meeting, and the members accepted it unanimously. In addition, we also re-designated a consultancy fee received from Act for Peace (AfP), Australia, to the appeal. We had received it for a monitoring and evaluation activity carried out on their behalf. AfP consented with our suggestion.
Why did you think it was important to commit the forum fees to the appeal?
It is to be recalled that the forum in November 2020 had issued a statement regarding the Tigray crisis which called members to mobilize resources – programmatic, financial, in-kind, and spiritual – to provide an appropriate humanitarian response as soon as access is secured. Committing the forum fees to the appeal can be considered a follow of action to the forum statement. We are grateful for the funding commitment so far from ACT members all over the world but looking at the dire situation in Tigray, our contribution is like a drop in the ocean.
The forum members authorized the forum leadership together with the implementing partners to designate all un-earmarked funds. You decided to evenly (50-50) split all those funds between DASSC and DICAC. What is the background of this decision?
All undesignated funds will be split between DASSC and DICAC until they reach the funding level received by LWF, then we will reassess.
What are the most urgent needs of people in Tigray?
Food, water, medical supplies are the most urgent needs at this moment. The requesting forum members are now closely working with the regional interim government finance and economic development bureau. The bureau has already signed an agreement and granted go ahead, and the actual implementation such as beneficiary targeting has already been started.
How does the COVID-pandemic affect the situation?
While the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to millions of Ethiopians’ immediate health and socioeconomic well-being, the impact deepens for those already in need of humanitarian assistance, especially displaced persons. IDPs, who have been forced to flee their homes to due conflict and disaster, are at higher risk to suffer from immediate and longer-term health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a series of factors, including poor nutrition, insufficient water, overcrowded living conditions, fragmented social networks, and overstretched coping mechanisms. There is a looming disaster to happen in Tigray. No one except those arriving from Addis is wearing masks at all. People said that before the conflict this was very much in force but now, there is total complacency.
What does the Tigray conflict mean to you personally?
Every war is a human tragedy as it not only destroys lives but the social fabric of society. It will take decades to heal and overcome.
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
Additional ACT responses
Meanwhile, the ACT Sudan Forum has ramped up efforts to support the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in Tigray, launching an appeal targeting vulnerable refugees in the Tunaydbah camp.
In other parts of the world, ACT members are engaging in advocacy with their own governments. ACT members in Canada came together and wrote a letter to the Canadian Foreign Minister calling for “unhindered, immediate, sustained and full access to the entire Tigray region for the delivery of humanitarian aid to all civilians affected by the fighting in the region, including Eritrean refugees”, as well as a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of troops.
“Climate change is global, resilience is local”: Climate Dialogue in Asia & the Pacific
“Climate change is global, resilience is local.” Climate Dialogue in Asia & the Pacific Region takes place
The first session of the Regional Multi-stakeholder Dialogues for Asia and the Pacific took place online on Tuesday 23rd February. The session titled, “Updates on the Science of Climate Change”, is one of a series of dialogues bringing together scientists, faith based organizations, ACT Alliance members and government representatives in the region together to explore climate change issues.
The event was organized by ACT Alliance, the Asia Climate Change Consortium (ACCC) and in partnership with Christian Aid.
“Climate scientists have a role to play in the climate change discussion”, said Prof. Fredolin Tangang, Professor of Climatology and Physical Oceanography at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group on the 5th Assessment Report. “The information needs to be downscaled and refined to the local level”, he stated while sharing his findings on climate downscaling, scenarios and projections in South-East Asia. The scientist warned of more droughts and floods to come in the future, even in years without the “El Nino” phenomenon. Prof. Tangang called for stronger collaboration between scientists, civil society and decision-makers to make the shift towards green economies.
Concrete steps to take
Dr Rosa Perez, Research Fellow at the Manila Observatory, and a climate scientist specializing in hydro-meteorology, disaster risk reduction and adaptation policies on climate change, spoke about vulnerability impacts and the evolving adaptation approach. Dr Perez summarized the findings of the 6th IPCC assessment report, highlighting relevant data concerning climate change and also showing how socio-economic factors might change in the years to come. Dr Perez highlighted the importance of climate finance for vulnerable countries and communities and noted the significance of integrating climate risks into policy. Dr. Perez also called for the need to ensure that budget decisions and investments are made towards locally led adaptation. “Climate change is global, but resilience is local,” she stated.
Local solutions to global problems
Ms Debora Dian Ulami of ACT member YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU), winner of the 2019 ACT Alliance Resilience Award, shared YEU’s experiences building resilience in the Yogyakarta Province and confirmed Dr. Perez’ conclusion that resilience was local.
YEU’s project provided resources and support to strengthen grassroots women’s capacities by providing training, disaster simulation, peer-learning and dialogue with decision-makers and positioned women as experts in vulnerability mapping, empowering them to take the lead in determining resilient and sustainable practices. Community-based organizations were also presented with an opportunity for peer learning exchange and the chance to get involved in public forums at the national and global level.
This dialogue has been made possible through the support of ACT member, Brot für die Welt (BftW), through ACT’s Climate Justice project, “Faith actors enhancing inclusive, ambitious and sustainable climate policy and action in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”
(LWI) – From everyday life into chaos: For the people affected by the recent conflict in Ethiopia, life as they knew it ended abruptly with the military offensive in the Tigray region. Even before, many had felt tensions between different factions.
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) through its humanitarian arm LWF World Service, has been present in Ethiopia for 50 years. Its member church, the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), also has a diaconal agency, the Development and Social Services Commission (DASSC), which is working with LWF World Service in supporting people in need.
Together, they assessed the needs of the internally displaced people (IDP) in Tigray in order to better support them. They met people affected by the conflict. Below, LWF Ethiopia country representative Sophia Gebreyes, shares the stories of four families.
After long delays due to lack of humanitarian access, LWF World Service and EECMY-DASSC started their response in Southern Tigray and Mekelle in early February. LWF will provide water and sanitation (WASH), and other relief items, as well as livelihood support, protection, and peacebuilding services. They will work through the local infrastructure of EECMY-DASSC.
Hawultie school, Mekelle
Amanuel Yemane in Hawultie School, Mekelle, Tigray, Photos: LWF/ S. Gebreyes, February 2021
Amanuel Yemane*, 66, was born in in Hayk Mehsel. Following the famine in the mid 80s, he was forcibly resettled in the mid-eighties to Humera where he became a farmer.
After years of working on the fields, he bought land in Tirkani where he began to grow sesame and sorghum. He made good money as Humera sesame seeds are renowned worldwide for making tahini. Hadish was able to provide well for his seven children.
The Tigray conflict broke out in the middle of harvest time. Yemane had already harvested his sesame, but the traders in town refused to buy it and told him to leave instead. The sorghum, which was still in his field, was looted by militia. Yemane believes he was targeted because of his ethnicity.
Yemane lost a good harvest because of the conflict, which would have earned him more than a yearly farmer’s income. He also lost several oxen, 25 goats and his home. All the money the family owned had been invested on the fields and in the stables.
The war separated his family. Three of his older children were living in Mai Kadra, where militia committed a massacre on 12 November. They managed to flee to Sudan before it happened.
Amanuel Yemane with his grandson L, his daughter and son R in Hawultie School, Mekelle. Photos: LWF/ S. Gebreyes, February 2021
Yemane and his four younger children walked 560 kilometers to the provincial capital Mekelle. The journey took 18 days. They now live in the Hawultie School in Mekelle, an IDP site for people from Western Tigray. Here they depend on the generosity of the local people, who share what little they have. For weeks, humanitarian organizations were not allowed to enter the Tigray region. The refugees have received very little humanitarian assistance.
Yemane wonders what will happen to the displaced people who have been housed in eight schools in and around Mekelle, when those school open again for regular classes. The schools have been closed because of COVID-19, but were scheduled to open again in February. Nobody knows of arrangements, and the IDPs fear that they will have to leave again, adding anxiety to an already traumatic situation.
Ethio-China Friendship School, Mekelle
Saron Abraha with her youngest child Senait, 2, at Ethio-China Friendship School now an IDP temporary collective centre, Mekelle. Photos: LWF/ S. Gebreyes, February 2021
Saron Abraha*, 30, fled from Axum, the cradle of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and revered as the holiest site in Ethiopia. She and her husband Kiflom* have five children and the sixth is on the way. They fled Axum when they heard the first explosions two and a half months ago. Since then, they have been living at a refugee center which was set up in the Ethio-China Friendship School, Mekelle. The center is overcrowded, and lacks basic sanitation facilities and services.
Abraha fled from Axum, carrying her two-year old toddler on her back. Her husband carried the five-year-old. The remaining children, aged 7, 13 and 17, had to walk the 225 km journey on foot. Saron said the trek was difficult and there was no food and water to be had along the way. Sometimes they would come across soldiers who would take pity on them and share their rations with the children.
Abraha’s family lived with her mother and brother in-law in Axum, but was separated from them. “I don’t even know where they are, if they are dead or alive, or if our house is still standing. We have absolutely no news,” Abraha said: “We were lucky that we fled in the early days of the conflict. I thank God that we did not see bodies on the highway and witness heavy fighting.”
Gebre Michael Seyoum, displaced person from Endaga Arbi, near Adwa, Ethio-China Friendship School, Mekelle, Photo: LWF/ S. Gebreyes
Gebre Michael Seyoum* 28, is a newly-married man. He lived with his wife Asqual Tewolde, 24, his younger brother and his parents in Endaga Arbi, near Adwa, a town with an old and proud history. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Science but worked as a truck driver as there were no other jobs in his town.
When the war broke out, his elderly parents could not flee with him, so he made the difficult decision to seek safety with his wife and his younger brother. During the chaos, he was separated from his wife and his brother. Recently he received the news that his brother was shot but still has no news whether he survived his injuries. He also has no news about his wife’s whereabouts and whether or not his parents are safe.
Seyoum was visibly distressed when he recounted their ordeal. He recalled that he left Adwa in a group of 20 people. Only eight of them made it to Mekelle. They trekked for four days, sleeping in trees, hiding from wild animals and armed groups. On his way to Mekelle, Siye saw many dead people.
Once in Mekelle, they were received in the Kesanet School collective center. When the center became crowded, he was moved to Ethio-China Friendship School, where the government had set up a center for people displaced from Central Tigray.
Seyoum arrived in the school about two and a half months ago. The refugee accommodation in the school is well organized, but there are immense gaps: lack of mattresses, beddings, linens, water and relief goods. There is not enough space. More than 1,606 IDPs live in eight rooms, sharing four wash basins. More people arrive every day.
Refugees for a second time
Meeting with Eritrean refugees currently living in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus , Mekelle. Photo: LWF/ C. Masanga
Kidusan Tekle*, 32 and her husband Mebratu Haile* left Eritrea to seek asylum in Ethiopia six years ago. Since their arrival they have been living in Hitsas Refugee Camp where their children Surab 5, Berhane, 5, and Mariam 3 months old were born.
During the Tigray conflict, the refugee camps in Hitsas and Shimelba were shot at with grenades. Those who did not die, fled the camps, becoming refugees for a second time. The continuous shelling, seeing dead bodies and losing 12 of their friends is a trauma that they still live with today.
After escaping from the camp, they first went to the UNHCR office in Shire where they had to sleep on the ground, in the open with no support whatsoever. The family decided to continue to Mekelle on foot, some 245 km. On arrival in Mekelle they were welcomed by EECMY-DASSC, which has been hosting the family in a church until now.
The family has neither been registered with UNHCR nor the Ethiopian refugee administration ARRA, and they depend entirely on the support they receive from the church. Kidusan said that they are so traumatized by what they saw and lived through that they do not want to return to a refugee camp as some refugees have. If they can they would like to continue and live in Addis Ababa.
The church had taken in a total of 11 Eritrean refugee families and 19 people without family, but all have left apart from the Kidusans family. Some went on to make a life in Addis Ababa, others relocated to the Mai Aïyni refugee camp, and some have disappeared. The refugees have no reliable sources for news. Kidusan estimates that thousands fled the camps when the conflict started.
Water, sanitation and peacebuilding
LWF has started to provide WASH and other relief items, as well as livelihood support, protection, and peacebuilding services. Part of the LWF response is coordinated through the ACT Alliance Ethiopia Forum, in strong partnership with other faith-based and ecumenical partners.
Together, all partners aim to support over 250,000 people affected by the conflict in Tigray and the surrounding provinces of Amhara, Afar, and Konso. The response will last for a year.
LWF/ S. Gebreyes. Edited by LWF/ C. Kästner
*All Names have been changed to protect the people concerned
Symposium shows gender equality will require a “transformative faith approach” in 2021 and beyond
Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
In the 7th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs, which drew several hundred online participants on 26 January, a lively discussion centered around “2021: A Defining Year for Accelerating Gender Equality, Equity and Justice.”
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of ACT Alliance, spoke in the first session on how the toxic interpretation of sacred texts, combined with harmful cultural and traditional practices, undermines the essence of gender equality and subjugates humanity. “It is crucial to work with religious leaders and actors to promote a transformative faith approach which reshapes structures and organizations to push back the pushback on gender justice,” he said. “It is the responsibility of faith leaders to reflect and de-construct theological narratives, connecting them with lived experiences of women and marginalized groups.”
The pursuit of gender justice is far beyond and far deeper than inspiring words, noted Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women. “I just think of the amount of grief that is out there in society,” she said. “I look at our religious leaders and pastors in the community. I’m just thinking of human-to-human needs within families, within communities as people are trying to cope. We are going need each other for these coming years, as we have many orphans, many widows, many broken families.”
Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic altered the processes of advancing the cause of gender justice, even as sexual and gender-based violence accelerated.
“Among the many other consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year we saw the postponement of major events and the disruption of key processes that we had expected to advance the cause of gender justice, while sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of gender injustice accelerated under the conditions imposed by the pandemic,” said Prove. “This year’s symposium, convened for the first time online, has provided an opportunity for representatives of faith-based organizations and faith communities together with UN partners to pick up the threads of those postponed events and disrupted processes, to arrest the negative impact of the pandemic in exacerbating sexual and gender-based violence, and to commit to working together to accelerate the realization of gender equality, equity and justice.”
And when people are “broken” at a local level, that makes situations ripe for atrocities in which women and children bear the brunt, pointed out Alice Nderitu, UN special advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. “The challenge—the very big challenge remains—of transferring the influence women have at local levels into national levels,” she said. “We need to understand extreme gender inequality as an enabling condition for atrocity crimes.”
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of ACT Alliance, spoke on how the toxic interpretation of sacred texts, combined with harmful cultural and traditional practices, undermines the essence of gender equality and subjugates humanity. “It is crucial to work with religious leaders and actors to promote a transformative faith approach which reshapes structures and organizations to push back the pushback on gender justice,” he said. “It is the responsibility of faith leaders to reflect and de-construct theological narratives, connecting them with lived experiences of women and marginalized groups.”
Ib Petersen, Deputy Executive Director for Management of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), talked about the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls, reversing decades of hard-fought gains for gender equality. He also underlined the importance of sustaining the accessibility of services for sexual and reproductive health, integrating gender-based violence risk mitigation into all aspects of the epidemic response, and addressing the root causes of many discriminatory and violent behavior. Faith-based organizations and faith and traditional leaders, he said, are key allies in this battle.
“Gender equality underpins UNFPA’s three transformative goals of zero unmet need for family planning, zero preventable maternal mortality, and zero violence against women and girls, including harmful practices,” said Petersen. “As we saw, the overwhelming support and encouragement of faith-based civil society actors in the Nairobi Summit on ICPD+25 (the 25th anniversary of International Conference on Population and Development), we will continue to work closely with faith actors in key intergovernmental processes and their follow up such as the Beijing Program of Action and the Nairobi Commitments to ensure the implementation and progress.”
Shahin Ashraf, head Of Global Advocacy for Islamic Relief, said that interrogation of our histories is a fundamental starting point for understanding and engaging, with the ways in which human relations can be forged. “A vision is in sight, let’s embrace it, and let’s forge friends with people of faith, with those we are comfortable and those we are not,” said Ashraf. “Intersectionality demands that we all think transnationally and find ways to have debates in which we are respectful of our differences, and find ways to learn from them in today’s world.”
Dr Ganoune Diop, secretary general of the International Religious Liberty Association, stressed the importance of addressing gender inequality on all levels. “Women disproportionately suffer the tragedies of human existence,” he said. “In the workplace, women disproportionately earn less and are denied higher positions.”
Coalition building
Speakers agreed to continue to work together in ways that build rapport between faith communities, civil organizations and grassroots efforts.
“We need to redirect negative religious energies into positive religious energies,” urged Victor Ochen, founder of the African Youth Initiative Network. “Under the current circumstances, we have to come up with a like-minded coalition.”
Nika Saeedi, a UN team leader for Prevention of Violent Extremism in Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Responsive Institutions, said that hate speech has been surging online during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have to accept that we have a long way to go,” she said. “Let’s identify where to put the energy.”
Dr Ibrahim Salama, chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, emphasized that re-narrativization is exactly the crux of the matter—pointing to the UN, the member states, and religious bodies doing the same.
Salama made clear the tie between religion and the pursuit of human rights. “One of the weakest links in the chain of religion and human rights is the intersectionality,” he said. “The general perception has always been that these two disciplines do not mix. There is nothing further from the truth than this.”
Dr Junaid Ahmad, director of the Center for Islam and Decoloniality, responded that it really is not re-narrativization but “decolonizing received knowledge” that perpetuate intersecting inequalities, and he said this is where a “transformative faith approach” greatly lies.
Ahmad also said that pursuing gender justice ties back to serving a transcendent being. “I think that this is the starting point for someone like me and a core concept for particularly myself and within the Islamic tradition—and I think all faith-affirming traditions—is some type of divinity God, or you may call it something else but the transcendent as the one that one surrenders to,” he said. “That is a core perception that has inspired me and many others in what we call the ‘gender jihad’—the gender justice movement.”
OPINION: It’s time to shift to locally-led climate change adaptation
Photo by Hilina Abebe
This opinion piece was originally published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and is available here.
Communities on the frontlines of global warming impacts rarely have a say in decisions made to protect them. This must change.
Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen is moderator of the ACT Alliance and general secretary of DanChurchAid; Reverend Ssekasiko Wilberforce is a local faith leader in Uganda, and Wanjira Mathai is vice president and regional director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.
The past year brought unprecedented suffering from COVID-19. On top of the pandemic, climate change continued to batter already vulnerable communities, disproportionately hurting those with the least resources to respond.
Yet despite these impacts, those same communities on the frontlines rarely have a say in the decisions made to protect themselves from climate impacts. This must change.
We must shift power and resources to local actors so they can choose the solutions that work for their communities. Doing so is vital to creating a more equitable, resilient society.
The choice is clear: Governments and donors can return to business as usual, providing funding with short time-horizons and arduous, top-down processes to access it. Or they can shift to a world where local actors, including poor and marginalized populations, have the power to shape their own future.
This pathway toward “business unusual” offers several obvious benefits. To start, investing in locally led adaptation can create more effective, context-specific solutions. Local communities know how COVID-19 and climate change affect their communities. They are often the first responders during crises.
By ensuring local actors have agency in building resilience to climate impacts, we can ensure these decisions are grounded in local knowledge and experiences. Combined with scientific information, this can lead to more effective and sustained resilience — and, in turn, more lives saved, less hunger, and more opportunities.
In Kanoni village, in Uganda’s Gomba District, for example, climate change drives frequent droughts that dwindle the water supply, leading to food shortages and low pasture for the animals.
To proactively address this problem, which is a daily hindrance, the people of the Kanoni village started planting indigenous trees to retain water, improve the soil, and create shadows to prevent the soil from baking in the sun.
Locally led adaptation can also address underlying inequities by giving agency to local actors on the frontlines of climate change, including women, youth, disabled, displaced and marginalized ethnic groups.
Locally led adaptation efforts must be intentional about integrating gender-based, economic, and political inequalities that are root causes of vulnerability.
In the face of severe drought, a group of women farmers in India’s Maharashtra state bucked the trend of growing only a few cash crops, which kept failing in their water-scarce region.
Working with a local grassroots women-led organization, they grew a diverse mix of water-efficient crops that farmers can both sell and feed their families with. This agricultural transformation has boosted yields, improved livelihoods and has since been expanded to hundreds of other farms in the region.
Ensuring local actors have agency is both the right and smart thing to do. Yet, to scale up and develop climate adaptation solutions, local communities still need more support and easier access to funding.
While not all adaptation needs to be locally owned or led, governments, development banks and donors must commit to putting more resources into local hands for local adaptation priorities. Communities need accessible funding that supports long-term development of local governance processes, capacity, and institutions to build resilience, without expecting them to shoulder the burden of adaptation.
The Global Commission on Adaptation’s Adapt Now report strongly calls for expanding financial resources available to local actors and creating structures that give local groups greater influence on decision-making.
In Kenya, climate change and intensified land-use changes have caused Lake Baringo to rise by over 46 inches (116 cm) since May, affecting jobs, education and health services.
To support the local communities that rely on this lake, the United Kingdom launched the Community Resilience in the Kerio River Ecosystem (CORKE) program, which helps shift agency to community members who can identify hazards and vulnerabilities when developing climate change actions and priorities.
Local communities — whether they are farmers in Uganda, grassroots women in India or villages dependant on Lake Baringo in Kenya — need capacity and resources to help make and implement decisions that affect them.
This week, the online Climate Adaptation Summit, hosted by the Netherlands, will bring together heads of state and other global leaders to raise global ambition on creating a climate-resilient future, focusing on vulnerable communities. At the summit, dozens of organizations will come together to highlight their commitments to empower local actors to adapt.
A growing movement of countries, international institutions and local groups recognize the need to put more resources into local hands for climate adaptation. But make no mistake: It will take hard work and serious changes in current practices to enact this shift.
As governments and international institutions look to recover from COVID-19, they have a chance to write a new social contract — one in which people at the local level have power and resources to make decisions that affect them. It’s time to chart a more equitable, resilient path, led by communities on the frontlines.
[Media advisory] 7th Symposium on the role of religion and faith-based organizations in international affairs
7th Annual Symposium
on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizationsin International Affairs
January 26 2021, 8:00 am –12:30 pm EST
Symposium to examine role of religion and the UN in working for gender equality in 2021
January 19, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
TEXT: Senior UN staff, representatives from faith groups and members of civil society will be presenting at the 7th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs on January 26, 2021. This year’s event will focus on “2021: A defining year for accelerating gender equality, equity and justice,” with a series of presentations and discussions on issues including multi-stakeholder collaboration to accelerate gender equality, equity and justice, the urgency for achieving it, women advancing peace and security, and multilateralism and the intersection of religion and human rights.
The Symposium will examine these issues in light of the major issue facing the world today, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the broader gender justice landscape including the Commission on the Status of Women, Generation Equality Forum, and others. “Pre-existing social inequalities including gender inequalities have been highlighted and new ones created, which will continue to exacerbate these crises unless resolved,” the organizers state in the event concept note. “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold suffering and economic hardship, all the more so as it connected to the raging crises of gender inequality, racism, structural economic injustices and climate change.”
Who: Speakers include:
Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
Mr. Ib Petersen, Deputy Executive Director, Management, UN Population Fund
Ms. Alice Nderitu, UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide
Dr. Ibrahim Salama, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Mr. Anwar Khan, President, Islamic Relief USA
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klaus, former inaugural Senior Rabbi to the Movement for
Reform Judaism
Mr. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary, ACT Alliance
Sponsors: ACT Alliance, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, Islamic Relief, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Soka Gakkai International, United Religions Initiative, World Council of Churches and UN Women and UNFPA, for the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Religion and Development
Supporting survivor and community-led response: an emerging pathway for people affected by disaster contexts
This blog post was written by Rebecca Venuto, Development Policy and Practice Research Policy Intern at ACT Alliance EU
On 25th November 2020, ACT Alliance EU and VOICE engaged with EU-based civil society and global partners in a workshop to raise awareness on the scope, the scale and impacts of approaches supporting survivor and community-led response (SCLR), an autonomous collective self-help provided by and for populations in disaster contexts. Thanks to the insights of Local to Global Protection and Oxfam facilitators and practitioners worldwide, this was the occasion to dive into the development of these approaches from a theoretical and practical perspective and identify both opportunities and challenges.
Survivor and community-led crisis response seeks to support the existing capacities of first responders in crisis situations and provide financial and operational ownership. This approach intends to complement existing emergency response programming, but under a different narrative. It centres on enhancing immediate survival and recovery in a holistic and inclusive manner as well as strengthening the sense of dignity and empowerment of communities. Practitioners also argue SCLR helps to tackle the root causes of vulnerability to crises by shaping long-term processes and visions led by and for communities.
SCLR approach is characterised by some common elements. First, it is based on a participatory action learning (PAL): after a rapid evaluation of existing capacities and resources of communities, the process explores local systems of “do no harm” as a starting point to identify local power dynamics and mechanisms. Second, it counts on a funding mechanism based on micro-grants to allow scale, speed and accountability for collective action in response to a given crisis. Finally, it is grounded on demand-led skills upgrading and both horizontal and vertical coordination between local groups, NGOs and governments.
SCLR approaches in practice
The workshop provided us with insights into blended practices of SCLR approaches worldwide, whose benefits are multiple. In Sudan, for instance, the scale of community-led practices was extremely successful. In just six months, 5 NGOs provided support to 150 initiatives, a majority led by women and youth. In response to the natural disaster caused by the Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines in 2018, micro-grants awarded by ECOWEB allowed livelihood recovery through the implementation of water system and seedling production-related projects that were led by the affected communities.
Empowering women and other marginalised categories is another positive outcome of this practice. In northern Kenya, IREMO collaborated with VOICE to facilitate access to training, and ensured coordination with local groups and the government. This inclusive approach increased knowledge-sharing and solidarity. Similarly, in the Oicha region of the DRC, the COPI, a platform for local organisations dedicated to humanitarian response, empowered local groups to effectively deliver disaster risk reduction (DRR) early warning and protection mechanisms and contributed to the development of women’s fora that were crucial to providing legal and psychological support to victims of sexual violence.
Challenges facing locally-led responses
Despite the successes of community-led approaches, many difficulties still exist. One of the most pressing problems is the lack of adequate financial resources and the rigidity of funding systems, which shrink the availability and chances to transfer grants to local communities. Coordination with the formal humanitarian system and between agencies remains a significant challenge. Moreover, as emphasised in the case of Philippines, Sudan and northern Kenya, another pressing issue is the lack of adequate knowledge of SCLR approaches by local and global organisations and the recurring and sometimes firm opposition to transferring power to local groups.
Lessons for first responder approaches
This learning exchange stresses the need for rethinking the role given to first responders in the current humanitarian system and paves the way for a more comprehensive and inclusive approach. The challenge is to maximise understanding among the humanitarian community of the potential of this approach for delivering on “the triple nexus”, empowering local and national actors, and strengthening communal self-help. To ensure the success of this approach, coordinated and scaled up funding and capacity support are also required. Thanks to this approach, as emphasised by the words of the CEO of IREMO, Eva Darare, “people will be empowered to take their own response and shape the future with their hands”.
ACT Alliance EU members will continue raising awareness on survivor and community-led approach and reaching future and concrete EU engagement on these issues directly linked to the implementation of the triple nexus.
Find the summary of the webinar with the video interventions here
ACT joins Guatemala Forum in calling for freedom for arrested pastor
ACT joins with the ACT Guatemala Forum in affirming the good work of CEDEPCA and its staff, the Reverend Delia Leal Mollinedo, whose tireless work in promoting gender justice has been disrupted by her unjust arrest. We regret the action taken in arresting her, and hope justice will prevail and she will be immediately released. CEDEPCA is a champion of human rights, particularly for migrants. Read the full statement by the forum in English and Spanish.
ACT Alliance is proud to launch it’s newest publication 
