On December 18, 2018, 23 fresh advocacy officers graduated from the ACT Advocacy Academy Program. The program ran for five months and included trainings in political dialogue, campaigning and strategic media work. Participants were also able to follow one, or several of seven different thematic advocacy themes.

Wipawan Khoonthaweelapphol, from Diakonia in Thailand, appreciated the learning from the Academy. “The program taught me a lot. I learned techniques, for example how to engage in political dialogue.”

Mattias Söderberg, the Academy Manager, said, “It has been inspiring to follow the participants in their training, and to see how their advocacy efforts contributing to important debates about development, and justice for people living in poverty in vulnerable communities around the world.”

Participants came from ACT members in Australia to Peru, and South Africa to Canada. An important element of the Academy was the interaction and experience sharing by students from advocacy work in different parts of the world.

Coaching has been offered in English, Spanish and French, and there is a commitment to improve the access to the academy in different languages.

Students from around the world were inspired by the programme and learned new skills that they will apply in their work.  A participant from the Middle East said, “I learned so much about experiences from different countries and the success made there.”

Suzanne van Huijgevoort from Cambodia, agreed, “I got inspired to look into new directions through the coaching.”

Esther Kapel from Uganda said, “I have learnt that stakeholders are key inorder for you or the project to succeed in implementing an advocacy.”

The program has included a mix of training activities, including lectures, web-based training materials, as well as practical assignments and personal coaching with experienced advocacy officers.

A new program will run in 2019. Contact the ACT Advocacy Academy act.academy@actalliance.org for information about how to apply. 

This video has more information about the programme.

Santino Deng Lou is an Education Supervisor from Aweil Town West Payam, in South Sudan. He has been working with the Girl Education South Sudan (GESS) project for some time and has seen first hand the critical role that this project has played in improving the status of young women and girls in the community.

South Sudan faces significant challenges when it comes to education. Despite some progress, the fragile context and the widespread violence combined with cultural biases have restricted access to education. UNICEF estimates[1] that in 2017, over 1.8 million children were in need of education. Even where limited services were available, a lack of qualified teachers and irregular or non-payment of teacher salaries has severely affected learning. The situation is especially dire for girls. They are less likely to attend school, and compared to boys, they are more likely to drop out.

For a very long time, he reports, young women and girls have been denied the opportunity to attend school as many of them were destined to become girl brides, some from a very tender age.  Santino’s family was no exception. When he was a boy, he witnessed his sisters meeting the same fate. As he was really young he did not have the authority and the strength to oppose the oppressive cultural customs and his family’s bias. Today, Santino works to help other young women and girls.

“I was too young to fight for my sisters,” he says, “but now I can do for other girls what I could not do for my own siblings, stand up for their rights.”

The GESS project has been working closely with United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR). Through joint schools monitoring visits GESS officers have developed a new understanding of local education needs and challenges. It has also improved strategies on how best to empower teachers and promote quality educations for boys and girls.  The cooperation with UMCOR and their mentoring approach helped the Secretariat overcome logistical hurdles, as the education system in the country is not operating fully.

“This has been a great partnership and mentoring process that I am certain will go a long way in improving education in our state;” says Santino.

Given the fragile situation in the country and the unmet needs of so many young women and girls, Santino hopes that donors will continue to support them in delivering quality education for all.

“To change a community, you don’t need to have the whole community support you immediately, be patient and give them a reason to believe in your vision. It takes time to change a community, but once they understand the importance of what you do, they will want to be part of it and ensure its success.“

[1] https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/stories_new-lease-life-school-girls.html

In collaboration with UN Women, an art competition was held during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence in Jordan with the ACT Alliance by ACT members in Jordan on November 21^st to 28^th 2018.

 This competition was a great opportunity for refugees in both Zaatari and Azraq camps to learn, understand, raise their voices and stand against gender based violence.

This collaboration between ACT Alliance and UN Women Jordan is the first such collaboration on a national level.

Despite the competition being short due to having permits from the government, there were a good number of participants in Azraq camp and four completed works from Zaatari.

One of the most interesting artworks in Zaatari camp was a coal drawing on a piece of fabric titled ‘’I am safe’’ and it shows a young girl with a sharp look in her eyes that shows power and strength.

Another piece was presented by a 14 year old girl, who created it in just three hours according to UN Women’s person in the camp and it was the very last artwork submitted to the competition before the deadline. It is a realistic piece, presenting facts about harassment in the camp and showing the mentality of harassers and the way people deal with it there.

In Azraq camp, two of the winning pieces were discussing the verbal and cyber harassment to school girls and people under 18 years old, and the fear and discomfort these girls are facing during their walk to and from school.

People in Azraq camp were eager to know the winners and to receive the prizes.

During the final ceremony of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence on November 28^th 2018, ACT members in both camps organized two festivals to thank participants and Award the top 5 artworks for Azraq and the 4 participants from Zaatari.

The contribution of ACT members was really appreciated as both LWF and FCA have presented interesting shows during the festival and exerted a massive effort to make this event a great success.  In Azraq camp, IOCC and FCA held the work of the competition professionally during the whole period of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.

The just concluded COP 24 confirms the vast disconnect between ambition, urgency for action on climate change, and the political will of key governments.  As ACT Alliance, we strongly believe that this divide can and must be bridged.

“COP24 failed to deliver the best possible outcome to the most vulnerable people in the world,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of the ACT Alliance.  “We are pleased to see that loss and damage is included in the document to guide the implementation of the Paris Agreement.  Including loss and damage helps to acknowledge the threat to vulnerable communities who are most affected by climate change.  Climate finance needed a much more ambitious push to move the world beyond the commitments that have already been made and to help us to meet the goal of capping global temperature rise at 1.5C.”

The IPCC report issued earlier this year lays out the likely effects of global temperature rise at different points, clearly demonstrating that increased ambition is required to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C. 

ACT Alliance’s own study, that was released at COP24, concludes that without addressing climate change, it will be impossible for the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.

“We are disappointed that the COP did not put more focus on the scientific findings of the IPCC, and that climate skeptics have moved the debate backwards, casting doubt on the scientific work of the IPCC, which makes it clear that we need to increase our ambition,” de Faria continued.

“We expected stronger provisions in the Paris Rulebook to protect human rights and gender equality,” said Joycia Thorat, co-chair of the ACT Alliance Global Advocacy Advisory Group.  “We urge governments to ambitiously increase their climate commitments in the revision of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), making sure to include human rights and gender in the implementation of both mitigation and adaptation measures.”

ACT calls on churches, faith groups, civil society, and governments to continue to increase ambition to combat climate change, and to keep the needs of the most vulnerable at the forefront of the negotiations and action. But we must act now for climate justice.

“It is important not to lose hope and to continue the struggle for climate justice, for all people and for the planet. Together we can still reverse the course, and we can do it with justice for all,” concluded Thorat.

For more information, please contact:
Martin Vogel, Co-Chair ACT Climate Change Group martin.vogel@svenskakyrkan.se, +46 768 513 328
Håkon Grindheim, Climate Advisor, Norwegian Church Aid/ Kirkens Nødhjelp, Hakon.Grindheim@nca.no, +47 467 91 493 

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Over 28,000 people from around the world are gathered in Katowice, Poland for the international climate conference known as COP24.  This event is key to negotiations on how to implement the Paris Agreement that was reached in 2015.  The Paris Agreement set the ambition for the world to keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C.  What is needed now is the rulebook to detail how the ambition will be achieved.

The ACT delegation at COP24 is very active in following the negotiations, raising awareness, and advocating for the needs of the most vulnerable people and communities in the world, who are often the ones already experiencing the brunt of climate-induced impacts including droughts and floods, and rising sea level that is swallowing Pacific islands.

ACT co-sponsored a side event at COP24 with ACT member Bread for the World (BftW), Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and ActionAid called Policy Responses to Avoid, Minimise and Address Climate Induced Migration.

People who are forcibly displaced by climate effects are made very vulnerable.  Sabine Minninger of BftW spoke about the links between the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the negotiations happening at COP24.  The GCM in particular contains specific articles relating to climate induced migration. 

“The risk [to people forced to migrate due to climate change] is so huge.  We know from the IPCC report that climate change could increase, and therefore the impacts and loss and damage will increase and that it will put more people at risk to migrate or to flee,” Minninger said. 

“It is so important that people have the chance to do a planned resettlement or migration.  I interviewed school girls from Tuvalu who said that they will never be refugees. That means they are stateless, homeless.  So they are not leaving Tuvalu.  The world community should ensure that they keep global warming at a low level so that the people of Tuvalu can remain on their island state.  If worst comes to worst, it has to be planned so that they do not become second class citizens- they do not want to live in a ghetto of Pacific islanders behind the airport in Aukland, New Zealand.”  It was clear that these girls did not want to flee their homes.

Martin Vogel, co-chair of the ACT Climate Change Group, spoke about ACT’s new report that warns of the profound impacts of climate change on communities if global temperature rise goes above 1.5°C.  “Without effectively aligning 1.5°C-consistent national mitigation and adaptation action with Sustainable Development Goals and disaster risk reduction goals, sustainable development will remain an illusion, leaving behind millions of people,” Vogel said.

The ACT report examines a variety of countries around the world, and notes that Africa and Asia are projected to experience 75 per cent of the global risks associated with increased temperatures, putting a tremendous burden on governments to achieve the SDGs.

By sharing concrete experiences and best practices, as well as research into the impacts of climate change on migration, the panel and participants explored ways forward in addressing the increasingly difficult problem of climate induced migration.

Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) in India works with poor and marginalized communities across the country and most of these are also vulnerable to climate change impacts though they are least responsible for this phenomenon. Most of these communities are not even aware of this crisis and its consequences on their lives.

CASA is engaged with many climate change adaptation interventions through its development as well as DRR programmes as climate change is a long-term phenomenon and requires developing the adaptive capacities of the communities, ensuring sustainability. CASA’s work is spread over almost all of India’s major eco-zones that are already facing a severe crisis of depleting resources as well as climate change.   

CASA works with a large network of Civil Society Organizations and capacitates its partners and allies on climate change related issues along with developing its staff capacity. Further, CASA has also focused on its networking with like-minded organizations that are active on climate change issues at national, sub-national, regional and global level.

The climate change crisis has multiple impacts across India and CASA has focused its climate change interventions keeping in mind livelihood, environment, food and water security as main thematic areas:

Livelihood, with a focus on agriculture: Unpredictable rainfall patterns, loss of soil fertility, and lack of alternate livelihoods results in a decrease of agricultural productivity. Deprivation of food and livelihood resources often forces vulnerable communities into migration and poor living standards.  

Environment: Immediate effects of climate change like fast melting and receding of glaciers in the Himalayas, changes in rainfall patterns and intensity, increase in average temperature, changes in forest composition, cropping patterns and shifting of seasons in different ecozones. While the frequency of disastrous cloudbursts and flash floods has increased, the duration of winter has been drastically reduced in different ecozones. The depth of snowfall cover has gone down from about 1 ft to only 1-2 inches. Reduction in soil moisture content is giving rise to a demand for irrigation facilities but is difficult to meet because of drying up of water sources.  

Food and water security: Climate change can drastically change the life of a community which can hamper the community’s access to food and water resources. In coastal areas, sudden storms and cyclones not only result in a huge loss of property and lives but also prevent the fishing community from going out to sea, leading to less food availability. Soil erosion and desertification in western India, and loss of forest cover in central and northern India has affected forest dwelling communities immensely. Availability of fresh and clean water has become a problem in areas where water sources such as rivers, wells and ponds are depleting or drying up months before the arrival of monsoons.

CASA’s Climate change interventions are focused at four levels- community, state/national, regional, and global Level.  At the community level, climate change related interventions are focused on awareness building and taking up adaptation-related activities through soil and water conservation related interventions in agriculture, commons along with promoting convergence through government programmes like MNREGA etc. CASA has promoted a Climate Farmer School in Tipli village of Uttrakhand, where farmers are using data related to weather for agricultural adaptation through active linkages with metrological and other line departments of the government. CASA has also been engaged in discussions related to National Action Plans and State Action Plans on climate change in some states with like-minded organizations and networks. CASA already has a strong partnership with leading development and relief agencies in South Asia called RIAP that is also used for regional dialogues, promoting pilot projects on adaptation and campaigning on Climate-related issues. For last few years, CASA has been very active in different COPs under the partnership with like-minded organizations.  

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Dinesh Chandra Vyas is a Senior Programme Coordinator for CASA working on issues related to the empowerment of poor and marginalized communities in India. He has engaged in various Rural Development interventions of CASA in India integrating Gender, climate change and DRR perspectives. Mr Vyas is also the Co-Chair of ACT’s Climate Change Group (CCG).

Ongoing UN Climate talks in Katowice, Poland are at a critical stage. Negotiations have moved into bilateral talks between ministers and in the final days of the summit. These talks must deliver result.

“We are concerned about the slow progress and we call on all delegates to acknowledge the urgency, and the need for scaled up ambition,” said Mattias Söderberg, the head of the ACT Alliance delegation.  “This meeting is critical for billions of people around the world, and governments should not let them down.”

One issue that has proved very difficult and on which parties stand far apart is climate finance.  Söderberg commented, “We should always remember that talks about climate finance are talks about climate action. With no support, poor and vulnerable countries will have difficulties to take the action needed.

“All parties agree that there is a need to scale up the ambition, but this will only be possible if there also is a scale up of support. Climate finance must therefore be new and additional,” he continued. “It seems like developed countries have difficulties in delivering the new and additional support they have promised. Therefore they try to create flexible rules which make it possible to include a number of existing financial flows in their reporting.”

Current climate finance includes a large amount of loans, which have to be repaid with interest. “Loans may play an important role for many investments, but when we talk about climate finance it is worrying that developed countries want to include money which in fact will be repaid,” Söderberg said. “Repayment and interest may lead to a situation where developing countries end up with the bill, where climate finance flows which were agreed as a support to developing countries, turn into a back flow of funds to rich countries. That is not fair!”

COP24 is expected to deliver a rulebook, which will create a framework for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Rules for how to report and account climate finance will be part of the rulebook.  According to Söderberg, “We need robust and fair rules, with an aim to promote concrete action on the ground, leading to support for poor and vulnerable communities. We should never forget that climate change already has critical effects on people around the world, and they are in urgent need of support.”

A recent analysis by DanChurchAid, a member of the ACT Alliance, shows how rules for climate finance may have a big effect on the amount of support developing countries will receive in the coming years. You can find the analysis here.

Contact:
Mattias Söderberg, head of ACT Alliance delegation. msd@dca.dk
Joanna Patouris, ACT Climate Change Communications Coordinator. joanna.patouris@actalliance.org

Now that the reality of accelerated climate disruption is pushing either the throttle – or the panic button, people are looking for a way around or a way out of the existential threat facing the entire world. But what does salvation from such an unprecedented nightmare look like? What action must it entail? What rules must be agreed to and what behaviour brought into line to switch the dial to a more manageable trajectory? We have the vision and plan in the Paris Agreement, to be sure, but now we need the Rulebook to set it in motion – hopefully in time.

When Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Rulebook for his time and his people’s salvation he was given not just ten articles on a tablet, but a whole system change with social, political, environmental and economic provisions and rules. It was a new comprehensive way of living and accorded with God’s laws of justice and right relations.

But while he was formulating it the people grew restless and unfaithful and made sacrifices to the idol of the Golden Calf, partying and revelling as if there were no tomorrow. When he came down from the mountain he broke the tablets, calling for God’s wrath and judgement to punish their wickedness. Eventually, these stiff-necked people repented, promised to change their ways, and God relented, entering a covenant with them which would lead to prosperity and peace.

So will the leaders at COP24 find the moral courage to create a new Rulebook, that is comprehensive, equitable, sustainable and leads the way towards a just transition? Will they adopt a framework of action to avert the worst of climate impacts and rapidly increase ambition? Will they hold each other accountable and truly measure the implementation of their good intentions? Will they enter into a new covenant for survival?

And will the people agree to stop worshipping the idol Money and learn to share the resources of this wondrous gift of Creation and preserve its beauty and fecundity for the good of themselves, their descendants, and all creatures? Or will our stubborn selfishness bring about the doom prophesied by science? What are we prepared to sacrifice today for the right to and the possibility of a less hazardous future?

We now stand on a precipice unlike any other and can decide what our mutual salvation must be. We know now how much has already been damaged and lost, with more to come. We understand that the current economic system will not sustain and must be radically changed to be more equitable and just. We are aware that old institutional arrangements based on power and greed require systemic change if we as a species are to survive past this century. At this moment in history, we still have the possibility to create an ecological civilization. We have the power to turn towards a better way of living, an ancient way of being community known to Indigenous peoples and our ancestors. We can choose between life and death.

Choose life.

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Joy Kennedy is a committed activist on issues related to ecojustice, poverty, wealth and climate change, most recently at the Canadian Council of Churches, the United Church of Canada and Kairos Canada. She is a long-standing member of the World Council of Churches Climate Change Working Group, participates in the United Nations Climate Change processes and several multi-stakeholder and interfaith dialogues, and chairs the board of Climate Action Network (CAN-Rac) Canada, an organization of 116 member organizations. She is a grandmother working for the vision of a just and sustainable future for all life on this planet.
 

There are 65.6 million forcibly displaced persons including over 22.5 million refugees in the world today. The number of refugees is growing while the national laws and attitudes towards refugees and migrants are becoming more stringent. To address the legal gap over burden-sharing of refugees and migrants over 180 UN member states gathered in Marrakech, Morocco on December 10, 2018 to adopt the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM)  as foreseen by the 2016 New York Declaration. 

The GCM is one of two compacts being adopted this year by the international community that relate to people on the move.  The other, the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR), is expected to be adopted this month as well.

ACT has been involved in advocacy around both compacts, and has currently been in Marrakech for Migration Week – consisting of the annual the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and the International Conference to adopt the Global Compact to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).  During the weekend tying together both occasions, ACT co-hosted, with the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), a side-event which brought together representatives from governments and civil society to discuss the issue of protection of people on the move in the context of the two Compacts.

“The migration Compact is a proactively rights-based document, which covers a broad range of issues including forced displacement and climate,” said Christian Wolff, ACT’s Programme Manager for Migration and Displacement.  The goal was for the GCM to complement the GCR, which is designed to be a more technical and non-political instrument, and looks at the amount of humanitarian financing that is available, especially for countries that host large numbers of refugees. 

The conversation about the two Compacts has now come to focus on how to implement them.  “We now have two non-binding instruments to help governments to implement better protection for people on the move.  What are some of the issues that are common between the compacts and where it would behoove governments that are looking at implementation to say ‘can we do a planning and matrix over these documents to see where it makes sense for our ministries to work together?’”

Following remarks by the Holy See about the protective aspect of service provision for people on the move, representatives from the governments of El Salvador and Sri Lanka  spoke about their concrete work regarding the planning of implementation. 

Yessenia Lozano, representative of the government of El Salvador, underscored that implementing the GCM is a priority for El Salvador.  “We like to be a couple of steps ahead, never behind,” she said.  “The GCM is just a package.  It is not legally binding, but it is politically binding.  Something good is possible to do when you have the political will.  In El Salvador, the migration topic is very crucial- almost 30% of our population is living abroad.”  The topic of Citizens Abroad is a cross-cutting issue throughout the Salvadoran government. 

Lozano underscored the human element of migration as well.  “When you see a migrant, you have to see it as a family- as a family who is behind [at home], and a family who may be started in the destination.”  Remembering the humanity of the 3 million Salvadorans who live outside the borders of their country helps to underscore the importance of protection for migrants.

Samantha Jayasuriya, from the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, talked about joint regional work around protecting the rights of migrants and refugees in Asia through bodies including the Colombo Process, which brings together 13 countries in South Asia to discuss protection issues for migrant workers.  The Colombo Process has also worked with the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, bringing together 7 destination countries in the Middle East and 13 sending countries in Asia on these issues. Key elements of this work are are ensuring that migrants are informed before they take jobs, that returns and reintegration are considered, that recruitment is ethical, that skills are matched between employers and workers, and that technology is used to ensure a more transparent recruitment process.

A number of civil society members also spoke, including Refugees International (on the need to utilise the GCM for implementing initiatives that protect people displaced by the effects of  climate change), Caritas Internationalis (on civil society and faith-based initiatives to enable access to services), and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) (on mixed migration challenges in Central America).  Kati Garrison of MCC underscored the importance of implementing the GCM in collaboration with civil society on the ground.  “We’ve talked a lot about local level development initiatives, especially in terms of economic and livelihood projects to prevent migration. But no matter how fantastic our small-scale economic development initiatives are, we need to look at also addressing the higher-level government infrastructures and support,” she said.

The event provided a chance for governments and civil society to come together, to share ideas and best practices, and to explore what the GCM will mean as it gets implemented in the years to come. An important goal was to bring home the importance of improving migrants and refugees themselves in national planning initiatives, and this message was well received by governments present.

Jayasuriya summed it up nicely: “The GCM is blowing some fresh lease of life to ailing multilateralism.  At the same time, adoption of GCM is not the end.  It is the beginning.”

As I set out on my journey to Katowice, Poland, I reflected on Gender Day at the climate change negotiations.  The images of numerous women, children and farmers facing life threatening catastrophes, chilling climate experiences, adverse climatic conditions and acute shortage of food and water due to climate change are in my mind and in my heart.

As a grass root worker and a feminist activist, I am a close witness to their everyday struggle for survival & livelihood, quality & dignity of life. This makes me ponder several questions as part of my preparation to join the second week of deliberations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – COP24. The top most question on my mind is: how many more years will we take and how many more lives will we lose before we save our planet from permanent damage. Year after year, at COP, and between COPs, representatives of governments meet to discuss and negotiate.  And more people are impacted.

On one side, we see the vulnerable bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change.  And a large number of the most vulnerable are women. On the other side, the negotiations progress at their own slow pace. Vulnerable women do not have the luxury of time, money and energy to wait endlessly each year hoping that world leaders will bring in change. Though highly valuable in a democratic society, processes and dialogues can feel too slow in the wake of the urgency of issues like climate change.  I could feel like most of you, the agreements should have been completed yesterday to stop today’s catastrophe. 

Is rewriting the agreement and rulebook what we should be doing, instead of urgently pushing our nation states to complete the commitment and reach the targets that we need them to reach?  This year the COP24’s high priority agenda is to finalise the Paris Agreement’s Rulebook for to enable the world to reach the climate change targets agreed to in Paris in time. Scientists, activists and those at the peak of vulnerability are shouting loudly to please hear us: 1.5 degree Celsius should be achieved at any cost if we want to save the planet.

Too often, vulnerable women are the ones who pay the price for any delay.   

A key part of implementing the Paris agreement is to engage women leadership at all levels, from the grass roots to the international. Women must be part of all aspects of negotiations and implementation of the Agreement. 

Have all parties have made space for women negotiators? Women are needed to be engaged for quick and lasting solutions. Let’s give women a chance and ensure reforms in the climate change negotiations and a chance for humanity.

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 Dr. Joycia Thorat is the Co-Chair of Advisory Group on Advocacy of ACT Alliance. She is the project and policy officer of Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), India.