Violence associated with the Anti-Balaka insurrection in the Central African Republic (CAR) led to a sharp increase in refugees fleeing to Cameroon in early 2014. Although the fighting is between two religious groups – the Christian AntiBalaka and the Muslim Séléka rebels – and is often presented as a religious conflict, the violence is underpinned […]
Microcredit unions have become part of the landscape of development projects since the Grameen Bank pioneered the use of micro-loans to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral in Bangladesh. In Mozambique, ACT member the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund microfinance project has gone one step further. The organisation has set up financial institutions […]
At the end of 2013, floods affected the Chocó region in the west of Colombia. The floods washed away standing crops, damaged and destroyed housing and other buildings, and destroyed food stores. Heavy rains from tropical storms caused damage in five municipalities within the region. According to the Disaster Risk Management Committee of Chocó, more […]
Venezuela is submerged in waves of orchestrated violence aimed at destabilising the country. In a letter to the Churches in Venezuela the General Secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches, CLAI, a member of the ACT Alliance, expresses condemnation of the illegal and anti-democratic intentions of the opposition in Venezuela to bring about regime […]
In 2010, 1.2 million people in Malawi had no access to food, according to a food insecurity report by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee. Responding, the 10 members of the Malawi ACT Forum with support from the Norwegian embassy launched a food security programme in the six districts of Karonga, Rumphi, Balaka, Thyolo, Nsanje and Chikhwawa. Working together the forum received funding of […]
Gunfire and shelling, in Juba, on 15 December 2013, signalled the beginning of a conflict that quickly spread to other parts of South Sudan, including Bor, Bentiu and Malakal. The violence was sparked by a power struggle between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his ex-deputy, Riek Machar, and continued for months into early 2014, generating […]
The Southern Africa Regional Forum (SARF) has as a group been a strong advocate for justice in the extractive industry and in governance since 2012. The issues are a shared priority, as the forum’s 44 members and one observer work with communities affected by multinational or large companies working in the region. Taking the viewpoint that as the business sector works globally, so […]
Food, fishing and a miracle plant – with these, ACT in Haiti is helping survivors of two hurricanes and a tropical storm get back on their economic feet. In the space of two years, tropical storm Tomas and hurricanes Isaac and Sandy crossed Haiti, a country still in the early stages of recovery from the […]
More than 11,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Armenia. Most are ethnic Armenians whose families originally fled the 1915-16 Armenian genocide in which more than 1 million Armenians were killed. One-third of the existing Armenian population already live in poverty and 18 per cent are unemployed. It is a situation that does not bode well […]
The 2007 general elections in Kenya erupted in ethnic violence. To prevent a repeat in 2013, the ACT Kenya Forum, made up of 13 members, carried out a campaign for peace. The campaign was planned as a partnership between youth and faith communities. Focusing on the areas of violence from 2007, the campaign reached 15,000 […]