“The government helped save many girls  abducted by Boko Haram, but it doesn’t protect them from physical abuses by government armed forces. In one village I have visited eight girls below 17 who said they had been raped by government soldiers”,  says Nubwa, who works in a local organisation that cooperates with NCA on GBV.

Borno State in North East Nigeria has experienced nine years of Armed Organized Group (AOG) insurgency and counter military operations. As of October 2018, approximately 2.3 million of internally displaced people have been registered, around 300 000 of them live in over-congested camps.

The displacement and continued movement of IDPs creates major protection concerns, causing arbitrary detentions, family separations and increased gender-based violence. The situation caught international headlines when in April 2014 Boko Haram attacked a boarding school in the town named Chibok in North East Nigeria. 276 young were taken away, most of them Christians.

Reports on sexual abuse and exploitation reflect an increase of rapes of women and girls by Nigerian security forces and Armed Organized Groups. According to a UNFPA report, six out of ten women have experienced one or more forms of GBV. Traditional cultural beliefs and practices further exacerbate  protection and GBV issues.

There is a pressing necessity to continue providing assistance to prevent and mitigate gender-based violence towards women and girls, and to provide specialised GBV response services to those affected. 

NCA has actively responded to GBV in Borno, North East Nigeria, since early 2017. 

Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) are at the core of NCA’s GBV prevention and response services.  So far NCA has established 7 WGSSs in the country. These are entry points for psychosocial support,  livelihood skills teaching and livelihood support, distribution of hygiene kits, including kits for menstrual hygiene.  Survivors are referred to health clinics where available, and health personnel are trained on Clinical Management of Rape.

About the girls who were abducted by Boko Haram, Nubwa says: “The girls that have been released returned to empty houses. Men in the community will not marry them, as many girls in reality were sex slaves, being forced to sell their body to survive in exchange for food and protection.”  

Nubwa works for an organisation which belongs to the same church as the Chibok girls.  She is responsible for the GBV program in cooperation with NCA. Fighting stigma and awareness raising on GBV targeting both men and women is part of the work Nubwa carries out.

Nubwa says that child marriage has become more common than before. Many parents wants their young daughters to be married, in the hope that they will be less exposed to kidnapping by Boko Haram. 

“It’s about survival”, Nubwa says. “It is quite common that 15 years old girls are married to  50 years old men . The man who offers most dowry is easily accepted by the parents of the girl.”

Notwithstanding the GBV crisis in North East Nigeria, Nubwa  believes there is hope – and that girls who have experienced severe GBV can be re-integrated. “More women than before now dare to raise their voice, both about abuse and the lack of rights”, she says.  Nubwa also told us how important is for those working on GBV and women’s and girls’ rights having continued international support and attention. 

This article was written by Anders Tunold, Senior Humanitarian Coordinator from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) https://www.kirkensnodhjelp.no/en/ 

“Financing for Development is not a magic bullet. There are many dimensions to it which we must harness to ensure that these investments are transparent and effective”, said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of ACT Alliance, during a session of the 5th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs, at the United Nations (UN) headquarters, in New York, on 29 January.

“Among these dimensions is the added value and leverage that faith-based communities bring to the spirit of the 2030 Agenda. A value system that puts the wholeness of the human being at the center”, added de Faria.

The fifth edition of the Annual Symposium focused on the theme “Financing for Sustainable Development: Towards an Economy of Life” and was co-organized by ACT Alliance, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, Islamic Relief USA, the United Religions Initiative and the World Council of Churches, in partnership with the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development and the NGO Committee on Financing for Development Conference of NGOs.

The Financing for Developmentprocess is centered around promoting a comprehensive and integrated approach to ensure the policies and resources, both national and multilateral, needed for sustainable development. This includes the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2017 the World Bank estimated the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at roughly $80 trillion in nominal terms. The world’s top 10 economies together combine a huge two-thirds of global GDP. 

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will take between US$5 to $7 trillion, with an investment gap in developing countries of about $2.5 trillion per year. Based on these data, we can see who can drive the implementation of the SDG agenda and the future of humanity.

“Governments and the public sector will continue to play a key financing role, particularly in the delivery of essential public services. However, there is an evident need and scope for the private sector to engage in financing the SDGs to help close the gap”, said de Faria.

“The SDGs offer a common framework to harness the unique assets, networks, and value-system of faith-based communities. The financial contribution of Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) to the SDGs is remarkable, not only because of the impressive financial contribution we could reach, but also because of FBOs’ approach to sustainable development, which can multiply the impact of the financial investments”, he added.

Faith based organisations, including the ACT Alliance, contribute billions of dollars of work each iear to the achievement of the SDGs.  In addition, their presence in communities and the social and societal role places FBOs in a unique position to leverage their work for even greater gains.  Local faith leaders play a key role in achieving gains towards many of the SDGs, including goal 5 (Gender Justice), 13 (Climate Action), and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

Financing for Developmentis a challenge that will require the full engagement of a wide range of stakeholders, each pursuing the same ultimate objectives albeit in different ways. 

The annual symposium has become a regular fixture on the international calendar, and an expression of the increasing synergy between religious communities, faith-based organizations and the UN.

Gabey Mayow Kalmoy, 33 years old, is a resident of Busle village, a small community of 2000 people in the the Gedo region of the Jubaland State in Somalia.  She is married and a proud mother of 5 children. She gives an account of how her life has changed tremendously since the implementation of the Busle Water Project through ACT member Norwegian Church Aid’s (NCA) Drought Response and Recovery Program. 

Life was very tough due to the prolonged periods of drought which made finding access to clean water a nightmare. The only shallow well in the area was destroyed by flash floods, leaving the river almost 3km away from her house as the only remaining source of water  

“You don’t know the value of water until your only source is dirty water from the river.”  Gabey recounts how she and her children used to walk for long distances just to fetch water, which was not safe for human consumption , but she had no other choice but to use the same water for her family and the livestock. Water safety was not the only concern she had.  Fetching water was also extremely dangerous, especially for women and girls. “We used to walk for almost 3km to fetch water. Some of us were pregnant while some carried babies on their back. Children were also sick on a daily basis with acute watery diarrhea. Life was really hard,” said Gabey.

According to her, the life of her family changed immensely after the water kiosk was built in May,2018.  

 “I had not imagined I would get access to such clean and sweet water before in my life. I felt like my prayers had all been answered” Gabey tells us with a big smile on her face. “Nowadays, I don’t have to worry about how we will get water for drinking and other household chores because it is available all the time.” 

 “I have not only gotten access to clean water, but I have learnt about proper hygiene for myself and my family. The hospital will not be seeing me for acute watery diarrhea cases any time soon.”

Gabey is very grateful to those who made this possible.  NCA and its implementing partner, NAPAD have helped her and the community with something extremely valuable. 

Although they still need to buy water, it comes at the very cheap price of $3 per month for a single household. Gabey says the system is sustainable and now she is able to focus on other priorities. She urged NAPAD and  NCA to continue implementing similar projects to ensure that other villages have access to sufficient, good quality and sustainable water.

Through the ACT Appeal SOM171 Drought Response, NCA and NAPAD were also able to build a solar powered water pumping system, a twin latrine at the village primary school, build  a connection of piped water to the Busle health center.  The also trained 30 school children health club members, 20 hygiene promoters,  and organized hygiene demonstrations and awareness campaigns for two villages. 

Download the story booklet here

text and pictures: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance

Mosul, Iraq – Most days in Mosul, Younis Ghanim wears a yellow vest and rubber boots, grabs a shovel and sets off to pick up garbage. It’s a small task in the massive reconstruction effort of this northern Iraqi city that for three years formed the capital of the Islamic State caliphate and was liberated by Iraqi soldiers in 2017. But it’s the kind of job that will determine the livability and the future of the city.

“I want my neighborhood and city to be clean and beautiful again,” said Ghanim, who before IS earned a living selling clothing from a rack he pushed through the streets. That stopped under the jihadis because people had little money to spend. Now he earns 25,000 Iraqi dinars a day, just over $20, picking up garbage in a cash-for-work project sponsored by the ACT Alliance. He spends most of his salary on food for his expanding family – his second child was born in November – and diabetes medicine for his mother. Their home in west Mosul was completely looted during the fighting, and the walls lean perilously in the wake of the repeated air strikes on the neighborhood. But it’s home.

“The biggest problem we face now is finding work. I looked and looked until I found this job, and I feel proud I can now earn money to buy milk and diapers to take home,” Ghanim said.

The garbage collection project is part of a larger sanitation and community health program managed by Rehabilitation, Education & Community Health (REACH), an Iraqi NGO supported by Hungarian Interchurch Aid and ICCO Cooperation, both members of the ACT Alliance.

“The people of Mosul are struggling to survive, and often don’t have time to clean the streets and communal spaces. Garbage is everywhere,” said Brwa Abdul Rahman, REACH’s acting program manager.

“We’re working to increase the capacity of the municipality and help the community become more aware of the need to keep the communal spaces clean.”

REACH is helping the municipality fix its garbage trucks and acquire more collection bins and tools. It also carries out door-to-door needs assessment, yielding information it will share with city officials.

Rahman says the cash-for-work element of the program is just as important as encouraging hygiene.

“Most people still don’t have jobs or money. When we go door-to-door, although we ask questions about garbage, everyone asks us for jobs. They say assistance will eventually run out. But if we can get people jobs, they say, it will be more sustainable for their families,” he said.

“I love to work”

RNVDO is another Iraqi NGO supported by Lutheran World Relief, DanChurchAid and other ACT members. It helps Iraqi women with their sewing skills.

Ekhlas Mohammad is one of them. She and her family survived the three years of IS occupation, though they were often hungry. One of her sons sold cigarettes to earn cash, but the jihadis caught him and beat him. During the final stages of the war they fled the city, living in a camp for displaced families for six months. When they returned home, their house was intact but empty, though she says there wasn’t much to steal in the first place. What they left behind was her old broken sewing machine.

“I heard from my neighbor about the sewing classes, and I signed up with enthusiasm. I knew little about sewing, just enough to sew pillow cases. In class I learned how to sew blouses and pants, and I began to take orders from neighbors. They bring me the cloth, and I sew what they want. I only charge about 3,000 dinars (about $2.50) for a dress. I’m keeping my costs down to attract more customers,” she says proudly.

“The little I earn goes to food and education of my children. I don’t want my sons to work. I want them to study.”

A neighbor who’s a tailor helps her keep her old sewing machine functioning. Her new business has earned her new respect.

“I love to work, and I feel proud to do so. Men respect us women more when we earn money for the family. And now I want to expand my business,” she said.

According to Omar Amer, a project assistant at RNVDO, helping women to earn an income is an important step in Mosul’s economic reconstruction.

“On the west side of Mosul, it was just the men who worked before IS. A few women had jobs but not many. Now women have a new opportunity. We just need to give them a chance, and for them, working, it is a matter of pride,” he said.

“There’s nothing impossible for them. They realize they can work and make money, they can open a workshop, they can work alongside men. They have nothing to lose anymore because they lost everything to IS during the war. They lost their sons and husbands, and now they aren’t afraid.”

Countering a legacy of violence

The recovery of Mosul is neighborhood-specific. On the wealthier east side of the Tigris River, recovery has been swift. Restaurants are packed and businesses flourish. But in the western portion of Mosul, particularly the old city, block after block of rubble hide decomposing bodies and unexploded ordnance, the legacy of months of heavy fighting and air strikes as IS fighters made their last stand, often using residents as human shields.

“They called it our liberation, but it was really our destruction,” said Hussain Ahmed, an Islamic teacher in the old city who has returned to live in the remnants of his heavily-damaged house.
It’s also becoming clear that the so-called liberation is not over. Iraqi security forces continue to arrest IS fighters who have tried to blend back into the civilian population. The army has renewed air strikes against IS fighters who hide in caves and tunnels in the nearby mountains. The car-bombing of a Mosul restaurant in November served as a graphic reminder that IS isn’t totally defeated.

“Daesh isn’t gone,” said Father Amanuel Adel Kloo, referring to IS by its local name. He’s a Catholic priest who has returned to Mosul to rebuild one of many damaged churches. “There are sleeper cells and fighters who have merely shaved off their beards. But the bigger problem is that 70 percent of the people in Mosul still support the ideology of Daesh. They may not have a weapon in their hands, but they have the mentality of Daesh.”

RNVDO is working to undo the ideological legacy of IS by sponsoring after-school classes to help children catch up to their grade level.

“During IS many schools were closed. Parents didn’t want to send their children to schools fearing IS. Many children were out of school for three years. When they went back they were automatically promoted from second grade to fifth grade, but they don’t know English, mathematics or how to write. All they know is the Islamic State,” he said.
“They watched the killings, the bombings. They saw Iraqi forces kill IS fighters. They witnessed the air strikes. Children learn from what they see. So today the kids know the names of the weapons, the names of IS and Iraqi army leaders. But they don’t know math. They don’t know the difference between right and wrong. Their families have been focused on survival, not education.”

Twelve-year old Mohamad Omar Ahmad is one of those kids. He signed up for the catch up class in English as soon as he could. He can already read in Arabic, but wants to learn English so one day he can be a teacher.
He’s glad the IS rule came to an end. “We couldn’t watch television or use a mobile phone, or play football. It was terrible. But now that’s over and we’ve got a lot to learn ,” he said.

Rebuilding trust

Some residents of Mosul are still unable to return home, either because their former homes were destroyed or they are worried about security. Some people commute back to the city every day, navigating through a maze of checkpoints ran by the police, the army, or the dreaded Hashed al-Shaabi militia where both Christians and members of the local Sunni majority are regularly harassed and threatened by the Shia militants.

Hind Saffa Jijji, a Catholic from Mosul who escaped to Erbil before the takeover, hasn’t even gone back to see what has happened in her city. When IS was driven out, rather than returning to Mosul, Jijji relocated to Qaraqosh, a largely Christian town on the Nineveh Plains.

“Our family still has a home in Mosul. IS families lived in it, but now it is empty. My father and mother went to see it. The house is still there but our furniture and all our things were stolen,” said Jijji, who manages livelihood projects for the Baghdad Women Association.

But more than her family’s furniture is missing. The trust that once wove different faiths together into one shared neighborhood vanished during the war, when many religious minorities felt betrayed by Muslims they had considered their friends.

“It’s hard to live alongside people and suddenly lose trust in them. All of a sudden you aren’t sure they won’t hurt you,” Jijji said. “I was attending university when IS came, and some of my fellow students started supporting them. They were my friends. How can I go back now to be with people who I thought were my friends but suddenly changed? How can I be sure they won’t change again?”

A pile of rubble

For Iraq’s Yazidis, a minority that suffered genocide under the Islamic State whose women and children were subjected to the worst atrocities, the war is far from over. They continue to wait for the day they can return home, in the Sinjar region. Many are living in cramped settlements with other displaced people.

One such camp is located next to the village of Dawodiya in the Dohuk province of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Initially a camp intended for Christians, Muslims and Yazidis, after the liberation of Mosul almost all the Christians and Muslims have left, leaving behind some 600 Yazidi families. Although IS was officially defeated in 2017, camp residents say it’s still not safe to return home, nor do they have the resources to rebuild their lives there.

Abbo Bobbi lives in the camp. Because he is a member of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish army, he recently visited Sinjar while on patrol. He pulls out his mobile phone to show a photo of his family’s house there. It’s a pile of rubble.

“It was destroyed by air strikes. The Iraqi government is pushing us to return there but there are no schools, no houses and no money to build anew. And there’s no security. It’s not safe for us to go back,” he said.
The Lutheran World Federation has contributed to building the camp. LWF hired camp residents to run a garbage collection service and maintain a functioning sewage system. LWF also drilled wells to ensure a supply of fresh water.
Through the “women-friendly spaces” run by LWF the Yazidi women are learning skills that will help them earn money. Like many of the programs in the camp, it’s also open to residents of the host village.

“Since we opened the camp in 2015, LWF has always been here, providing essential services and covering the gaps that the government couldn’t cover,” said Clara Gorial, the Dawodiya camp manager.
Bobbi’s mother, Adlane Saido is one of seven people crowded into a modular housing unit with her son’s family.

“I’d prefer to be home,” she said. “But since we can’t go home yet, life in the camp isn’t terrible. There are no jobs, so there’s little money but we are safe.”

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).