Geneva, 22 Sep 2017 – ACT Alliance joined with other NGOs today in presenting a statement at the UNHCR Standing Committee session.  The statement calls upon governments in the Global North to be more active in addressing the global refugee crisis and emphasizes the importance of civil society participation and inputs from the regions in the formulation of the Global Compact on Refugees.  The NGOs’ statement praises the progress in implementing the UNHCR’s Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Africa and Latin America.

The consultations for a Global Compact on Refugees are a direct outcome of last year’s summit on large movements of refugees and migrants at the UN General Assembly, which resulted in the New York Declaration.  This declaration committed states to develop a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. ACT Alliance, the largest protestant and orthodox network engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world, has been at the forefront of coordinating global advocacy from its members and faith-based allies, as well as ensuring representation of inputs from regional and national levels.

“The New York Declaration was a landmark for stepping up global efforts to protect refugees,” said Susan Muis, Regional Program Coordinator for Central Africa at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), an ACT Alliance member, who delivered the NGO statement. “We are using opportunities like the Standing Committee to remind states of the commitments they made last year, and to track progress in the implementation of practical measures. Currently, we are seeing a continued pattern of less developed countries of first asylum providing most of the desperately needed assistance to large numbers of displaced people, while others are looking on. This is a worrying trend which needs to be broken if we want to achieve meaningful responsibility sharing in next year’s Global Compact.”

ACT Alliance has a strong presence on the ground in Ethiopia, Somalia, Guatemala and other African and Latin American countries where pilot programmes are feeding into the CRRF process.  ACT fully endorses the NGO statement, which noted the pilot programmes’ contribution to legal reforms allowing refugees greater freedom of movement and access to education, work, and services, most notably in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. However, the statement also highlighted the “pronounced regional imbalance […] in the design and implementation of the CRRF framework, which continues to focus on less-developed countries of first asylum.”, and called upon developed states to assume greater responsibilities for refugee protection in order to ensure a truly comprehensive response.

The statement commends UNHCR’s efforts to include refugee voices in the process, and further indicates that “NGOs are willing to work alongside UNHCR to make sure [refugees’] voices are meaningfully heard, including by providing space and support for refugee leaders and refugee-led organizations to effectively contribute.”

The UNHCR Standing Committee meetings are convened in Geneva three times a year, examining thematic issues, as well as UNHCR’s activities and programmes regionally and globally. They are attended by member states and other stakeholders, including NGOs active in refugee protection around the world. The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), of which ACT Alliance is a member, is a network for increased collaboration and coordination between NGOs and other humanitarian actors. ICVA coordinates the drafting of statements through a wide consultation with NGOs. Those statements are delivered at UNHCR events such as the Standing and Executive Committee meetings and aim to reflect the diversity of views within the NGO community.

___________

CONTACT: Simon Chambers, Head of Communications, ACT Alliance – Simon.chambers@actalliance.org +1-647-939-5758

Hurricane Irma hit the shores of Cuba on September 7, a category 5 storm with sustained winds of 295kph.   For four days, Irma battered the north coast of Cuba. 2,000,000 people fled to shelters, churches, or the homes of relatives and neighbours.  9 metre waves swept inland, contaminating fresh water sources, destroying crops, homes and businesses.  Coastal dunes, forests, fruit trees, granaries, health centres, schools, markets, bridges and roads were all heavily damaged or destroyed.  Power and communications went down and remain down in many communities.  10 people lost their lives.

The ACT Cuba Forum is responding to the widespread humanitarian need, targeting 20 municipalities in 10 provinces in a $2.5 million USD appeal which will bring water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), food, shelter, livelihood recovery, and psychosocial support to 20,000 households, reaching 100,000 Cubans.

“Teams of volunteers and staff from the Cuban Council of Churches are on the ground now, conducting initial assessments and coordinating with local churches and governments,” said Carlos Rauda, ACT Alliance’s Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.  “They are already providing water and sanitation, especially to the elderly, and psychosocial support to children.  The Council of Churches has a presence throughout the country, and is ready to carry out the necessary relief work.”

The ACT Appeal, will help 800 families to repair the roofs of their homes, provide household supplies to 3000 families, 4100 households will receive food, 5000 households will receive hygiene kits and awareness raising about good hygiene practices, 2250 households will have access to clean water through community water systems, 500 households will have support in restoring their livelihoods, and 20,000 households will receive psychosocial support in coping with the trauma of the experience of Hurricane Irma.

The ACT Forum will coordinate with community and church leadership, local governments, the national government as well as the UN Network (including national and international organisations responding to the emergency).

The full ACT Concept Note is available here.

ACT members in the Dominican Republic and Haiti are also responding to the damage caused by Irma in their countries, although both countries were spared a direct hit by the storm.

Prospéry Raymond, country manager for ACT member Christian Aid in Haiti and Dominican Republic said: “The people of Dominican Republic and Haiti are resilient and experience hurricanes every year. We were preparing for the worst possible scenario, but thankfully we escaped the eye of the storm and damage has not been as severe as we feared. If the rain continues, there are risks of landslides in the coming days in some of the areas affected…

“We are working with our partners to assess the needs of the most severely affected communities in the coming days and will then determine what support they need, but flooded roads mean getting aid to remote communities could be challenging.”

Both the Haiti and Dominican Republic Forums will be supported by the ACT Rapid Response Fund for their work in providing relief to those affected by Hurricane Irma.

In the months following the December 2013 political conflict, violence raged in some parts of South Sudan and not in others. In the northwestern city of Wau, for example, residents watched from afar, seemingly unconcerned that the politically-manipulated ethnic violence could spread there. And then it did. The victims ran for the city’s churches.

“It wasn’t safe anywhere, but people said that if they were going to be killed, they preferred to be killed in the church because this is the place that Jesus is present. They wanted to die in the church rather than die in their homes,” said Father Germano Bernardo, a Catholic priest in Wau.

Although tensions had been building for months, intense fighting broke out in June 2016 between soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, who are mostly members of the dominant Dinka tribe, and a mixture of local opposition groups and members of other ethnic communities. Civilians rushed to the city’s churches and a nearby United Nations base.

More than 400 people were killed and over 120,000 displaced in the initial phase, leaving churches, aid groups and United Nations agencies scrambling to respond. The churches got help from the ACT Alliance and other groups.

ACT members in South Sudan continue to provide food, water, household items, livelihood support and more to tens of thousands of displaced people in South Sudan.

Sporadic fighting around the city continued into this year, pushing more civilians out of their homes. In January, for example, a group of government-affiliated cattle keepers attacked local farmers they believe are aligned with anti-government rebels, and thousands fled neighbouring villages for the safety of Wau’s churches.

In April, after two high-ranking army officers were killed in an ambush nearby, SPLA soldiers and Dinka militia members rampaged through Wau, murdering and robbing non-Dinkas. The United Nations said at least 16 people were killed; other local sources reported double that number. Another 8,000 people were displaced.

Wau has long been a centre of tension between pastoralists and farmers. Violence between the two groups led to the displacement of thousands in 1996, but most returned home within a few days. Yet the current crisis, like many local conflicts in the world’s newest nation, has been exacerbated by the broader political crisis centred in Juba, the nation’s capital.

Catholic leaders played a key role in mediating the 1996 crisis in Wau, led by Bishop Rudolf Deng Majak. Yet Bishop Deng, who died in Germany in March, had been sick for some time and living outside the country. The bishop kept in touch by phone throughout the crisis with Father Bernardo, yet Anne Masterson, the country representative of Norwegian Church Aid, an ACT Alliance member, says things might have been different had he been present.

“He had been the priest of some of these military commanders and knew everyone. So perhaps people felt a bit lost without him. His absence may have allowed some of the clan divisions to be manipulated for political purposes, something the bishop had worked all his life to prevent,” she said.

In Bishop Deng’s absence, the South Sudan Council of Churches mounted a local peace initiative, with strong support from Norwegian Church Aid.

The church council pushed for face-to-face meetings between all parties, finally pulling together a three-day workshop of civil society leaders with government and military officials in December. Those in power made promises, which church leaders say they either didn’t keep, or local officials were replaced by the central government with people who had no interest in honouring the commitments of their predecessors.

According to the Rev Bang Akuei, the regional director for the South Sudan Council of Churches, government officials did try to mitigate the violence by mounting a campaign for civilians to turn in weapons. Yet the same day it convinced a group of cattle keepers to hand over their assault rifles, a large number of cattle were stolen from them. In the wake of the cattle raid, few listened to the government’s appeal to disarm.

And so the displaced wait.

“I’m a university graduate but I’ve been sitting in this camp for almost a year,” said William George, a resident of the cathedral camp. “This morning I didn’t eat anything. Nor did my children. If I had $100, I’d leave for Egypt or somewhere else, anywhere other than here. My house was burned and all my things were taken. There’s no future here because there’s no accountability. They can kill someone and there’s no response, no judgment.”

____

Written by Paul Jeffrey

Not everything happens for good reason. The devastating floods triggered by unceasing rains in the second week of August 2017 spelled a disaster in the life of Bale Nepali, a resident of Bhajani municipality in Kailali. The flood not only destroyed his house and peanut farm but also swept away cattle and chickens, rendering his six-member family starving and homeless.

“The floods came early in the morning and it changed our normal life to a tragedy,” says Nepali, who lives near the Pathariya River. “While we were trying to escape, the flood water came in through the door of my house,” he says.

Nepali was one of the recipients of ACT member LWF Nepal’s relief package in Bharthaha village of Bhajani Municipality. LWF provided relief to 123 flood-affected families in the village. They were given beaten rice, instant noodle, water, rice and pulse.  The people had been starved for more than 3 days.

As of August 22, 2017, LWF Nepal has provided immediate relief to a total of 574 flood-affected families in Morang, Jhapa and Kailali districts. LWF Nepal has reached 258 flood-affected families in Jhapa and 210 households in Kailali and 106 families in Morang districts with relief packages that included food, kitchen utensil sets, blankets and urgent clothing items. LWF Nepal and its implementing partner in coordination with District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) provided the relief materials.

ACT Members’ Response

Members of ACT Alliance Nepal Forum have been responding to the humanitarian crisis in different districts. Dan Church Aid (DCA) has been providing relief package that include food, tarpaulins and mosquito nets to flood-hit people in Saptari and Bardiya districts. Most importantly, DCA deployed its staff in Saptari immediately after the flood and partnered with local radio to produce and broadcast information on the flood.

Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has provided food items to 2,376 families in Bardiya and Nawalparasi districts while Christian Aid has been distributing non-food items to flood victims in Bardiya, Banke and Dang. Similarly, ICCO Cooperation has been providing food items to 600 families in Rautahat district.

Quick and Timely Response

Members of ACT Alliance in Nepal have responded to the emergency immediately. People in Jhapa Rural Municipality (RM) in Jhapa district responded that LWF Nepal was the first organization to reach to their village with relief materials. “LWF Nepal and its implementing partners, which have been working on Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihood promotion in the village, reached first,” says Jaya Narayan Shah, chairperson of the RM.

Similarly, DCA reached to flood affected area in Saptari immediately and it partnered with a local radio to produce and broadcast information on the flood. The radio program was effective to disseminate the information to the affected communities and to collaborate with other agencies working in the district,” says Cecial Adhikari, Program Manager-Recovery Program in DCA. 

ACT Members Plan Joint Response

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the flood has killed 143 people and injured 43 and 30 have gone missing. There has been a huge loss of property particularly the stock food grains, standing crops, seeds, livestock, poultry and fish whose accurate data is yet to come.

According to the MoHA, as of Tuesday, around 80,000 houses have been completely destroyed and 144,444 partially damaged. As per the initial reports received from the affected districts, 75 schools in Banke, 58 in Bardiya, 2 in Dang, 20 in Saptari, 178 in Parsa, 37 schools and 5 madrasas in Dhanusha, and 8 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers in Chitwan have been damaged.

ACT Alliance Nepal forum is developing a joint plan to respond to the humanitarian crisis. “Considering the devastation in 18 affected districts in the southern part of Nepal, ACT Alliance is devising a joint plan to support affected population,” says Dr Prabin Manandhar, Country Director of LWF Nepal and Convener of ACT Alliance Nepal Forum.

______

Story written by Umesh Pokharel/LWF Nepal

Mary Kuol carries water home from a well dug by the ACT Alliance in Yang Kuel, a village in South Sudan’s Lol State – Credit: Paul Jeffrey

Mary Kuol carries water home from a well dug by the ACT Alliance in Yang Kuel, a village in Lol State, South Sudan where the persistent drought has destroyed crops and forced people to eat wild leaves to survive. Kuol is seven months pregnant with her third child.

The well was drilled in 2016 by a local partner of ACT member Christian Aid. The organization has also distributed food vouchers to hungry families in the region.

“We came here a year ago because, as bad as things are here, they were worse in our village. At least we have safe water now, so my children are much healthier, even though most of the time all I have to feed them are wild leaves and fruits,” Kuol said.

Atouc Dut lives in neighboring Malek Miir, where drought has also wrought hunger. She spends much of each day collecting wild leaves to feed her four children, while her husband cuts skinny trees in the bush to sell as poles. With that small income and a cash voucher from Christian Aid, the family can buy some sorghum and soap. She says they’re not going anywhere, though she wishes there was a school in the village for her children.

“We have food most every day. It’s not much, but there’s nowhere we can go where it would be any better,” she said.

___________

Story by Paul Jeffrey

Nidier Atak cooks wild leaves in Rumading, a village in South Sudan’s Lol State where more than 5,000 people, displaced by drought and conflict, remain in limbo. Credit: Paul Jeffrey

In South Sudan’s Lol State, Nidier Atak sought to flee from the violence that swept through her village of Wanalel, where people already suffered from serial crop failures due to a persistent drought. Her husband had left the parched village in 2016 to look for work, but he didn’t return. “He used to be a farmer, but for several years there has been no rain when we needed it. So he went looking elsewhere for work, but we haven’t heard from him. He finds it painful to return home empty-handed,” she said.

In January, Atak and her five children started walking to neighbouring Sudan, hoping that as refugees there they could obtain international assistance. After several days of walking, they got as far as Rumading, where they met other drought victims returning from the border with reports that it was closed to the passage of refugees. So she and her children camped out under trees, eating wild leaves as the rainy season approached. She says her husband doesn’t know where they are.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. Back home there was nothing to keep us alive. Going north is now out of reach. So we stay here and wait, though I don’t know what we’re waiting for,” she said.

Within weeks a spontaneous settlement of more than 5,000 people materialized, all displaced people denied entry to Sudan. They drew water from a muddy pond and walked farther and farther into the bush every day to harvest wild leaves.

“There’s nothing other than leaves to eat. My kids are malnourished, but there are no alternatives,” Atak said.

In early April, ACT member Norwegian Church Aid,  began drilling a well in the informal settlement and distributed sorghum, beans and cooking oil to the most vulnerable families. It carried out the emergency response in coordination with government officials and the local Catholic parish.

“People were there for three months, hidden in the bush before we became aware of them,” said Father Paul Ariath, whose rambling Awiel-based parish includes the displaced. “There was too much hunger and people were dying. When I learned about them I talked with NCA, and they came and saw for themselves. They brought in some food, but it wasn’t enough, and they brought in a big machine to start drilling for water.”

Ariath says some of the displacement is due to conflict. He notes there are few men in Rumading.

“Many of the men have been killed fighting, or they are off on operations. There are too many militias in our land, and so there is a lot of fighting,” he said. “Families flee from one place because of the war, leaving all their belongings behind as they escape with just their lives. And then the fighting soon finds them in the new place, and they have to flee once again.”

The changing climate has been causing problems for years, the priest reports. “The rain doesn’t fall easily like it did before. There’s no flooding like we used to have. As the rivers dried up, the people slowly sold off their cows and goats in order to survive. But now they have nothing left, so they are forced to move,” he said.

Ariath says when he speaks with the displaced, he encourages them not to lose hope. “I tell them to keep praying for help. That’s why the ACT Alliance and the church are there. We come in response to the prayers of the people,” he said.

_____

Written by Paul Jeffrey

Adhieu Deng Ngewei and other women work together on April 12, 2017, in a community vegetable garden in Dong Boma, a Dinka village in South Sudan’s Jonglei State.  Credit: Paul Jeffrey

Dong Boma, South Sudan – When the war reached her village in early 2014, Adhieu Deng and her husband grabbed their seven children and headed for several islands in the middle of the White Nile River. The treacherous currents and featureless swamps around the islands have long provided cover for displaced families hiding from men with guns. And Deng and her husband knew how to get there. After being displaced by another war in 1991, they hid in the islands until returning home in 2003.

When political conflict once again broke out, beginning in Juba in December 2013, it quickly spread to several other parts of South Sudan. As the violence closed in on her village in Jonglei State, Deng knew where to go.

“When the fighting moved near to us, the roads were closed and the food supply was cut off. People were getting hungry and the rebels were passing close by. If we didn’t want to die of hunger or bullets, we had to leave. Some of my neighbours left for Kenya or Uganda, but I know the islands better than other countries, so we headed for the river,” she said.

Life on the islands was hard. “We survived on fish and wild foods. If you didn’t catch any fish, you usually spent the entire day without food. The children sometimes went to sleep without food. It wasn’t easy hiding there, but no one could reach there to kill us. We had no mosquito nets nor shelters, so we slept in the open and the children were sick a lot. There were no medicines or doctors. No NGOs came to the islands,” she said.

“After a while, the fishing nets were so torn they wouldn’t work. Without any food, we either had to return home or die there. We decided to come back home. It was the right choice because the ACT Alliance has helped us rebuild our community.”

Since the family returned to Dong Boma in 2016 to find their house in ashes, Deng has had to construct a new home. She’s done that with help from the Lutheran World Federation, one of the several members of the ACT Alliance working in South Sudan.

According to United Nations officials, more than 3.5 million South Sudanese are internally displaced or have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees in response to the current conflict.

Yet in some locations, as fighting has ebbed and flowed into other areas, a few of the displaced, like Deng, have cautiously returned home. In Dong Boma, the ACT Alliance has helped the returnees rebuild houses, drill wells, patch holes in a dike that keeps the village dry during seasonal floods and support a group of women–including Deng–who organised a giant community garden.

As the community rebuilds, Deng hopes she won’t have to flee again. “Over the years we’ve had too many wars, too many cattle raids. There’s always some kind of fighting going on. I’d love to live in peace,” she said.

___

Written by Paul Jeffrey

Romania was one of the countries hit hardest by the cold snap which began around Europe in late January, associated with heavy snowfalls and a deep freeze. Thousands of people were trapped during January for long days in the Southern and Eastern parts of the country.  Many elderly people died from hypothermia after temperatures dropped consecutively to -25 degrees Celsius for more than a week. More than 40,000 people were affected from 250 villages in 17 counties of Romania.

Read the ACT Rapid Response Fund HERE

ACT Alliance Response

Within the first days of the disaster, a needs assessment was immediately undertaken by the Field Work Team of ACT member AIDRom Emergency Unit. There was high demand for fresh drinking water, bread, and canned food, as the provisions of the people were seriously depleted.

AIDRom Emergency Unit, together with the local community leaders paid special attention to promote solidarity within the communities between those severely affected and those less affected by the severe winter.

Thanks to the swift reaction of the ACT Alliance to the application of AIDRom for the Rapid Response Fund, AIDRom Emergency Unit, a shipment of 400 consistent and quality family food and mineral water parcels as well as 200 family hygiene kits were brought and distributed in the affected, isolated rural communities from the targeted areas.

Outcomes

The assistance provided by AIDRom through the Rapid Response Fund met the most urgent needs of the victims in terms of nutrition and hygiene.

Food Security & Drinking Water: 400 households received food parcels, assisting 1.164 persons. 98% of them reported that the food received met their needs fully and alleviated their suffering. The exceptions were families with infants who needed additional specialized food.

Sanitation and Hygiene: 200 households received hygiene kits, which benefitted 587 persons. 96% stated that hygiene kits received met their needs fully. Again, the exceptions were families with infants who would have also needed diapers or elderly who were lacking incontinence diapers.

Non-Food Items: 400 households received clothing of all sorts according to the composition of the family (men, women, and children) and reached 1.285 individuals. 80% of the people stated that clothes received met their needs. In some cases, the sizes of the clothing were not correct, but this was solved many times by people exchanging some of the items between them within the village (coats, trousers, pullovers).

Technical Assistance: 52 households were assisted with temporary loans of winter sleeping bags, appliances for home heating, dehumidifying equipment, and power generators, assisting in this way a total number of 148 persons, who showed 100% satisfaction for the opportunity.

We feel and believe that this program had a major weight in improving lives of many affected people. In the name of hundreds of people helped through this program, we would like to thank you in their names for the splendid way in which the ACT Alliance and its coordinating office helped to care about them and to express the most sincere and deepest appreciation for the fine spirit and hearty contribution. (Rev. Miklós Ménessy, Emergency Unit Coordinator)

Source: Ecumenical Association of Churches in Romania – RRF Final Report

“We are being hurt,” says Ustad Alimondas Laut, holding back tears.

Sad stories aren’t the usual markers for the end of Ramadan in the Philippines. For Filipino Muslims, festivities generally denote the end of Ramadan. The government declares this day, which falls on June 26 this year, a nonworking holiday across the country.

But, here sits Laut on June 27, before peace advocates and media workers, admitting Eid’l Fitr was crestfallen. “We are getting hurt – the children and all Muslims.”

“What should have been a peaceful Ramadan, a holy month of fasting, became a painful nightmare for us,” explains the resident of Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur and the country’s “Islamic City.”

On May 24, just a few days before the beginning of Ramadan and a few hours after Mindanao was placed under martial law, the military and the mayor ordered residents of the besieged city to evacuate.

Laut, who was in downtown Marawi then, immediately called his family to prepare for the move. Residents were given a six-hour window and a threat of reprisal if they didn’t leave.

Later, his entire family and some neighbors were crammed into a small jeepney, headed for nearby Iligan City.

Laut and his family are now in a relative’s house in the Lanao del Norte capital. He says he’s far luckier than many other evacuees, or internally displaced people (IDPs). He is right.

Humanitarian crisis

The humanitarian crisis has displaced over 300,000 individuals, sending them to Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur. The demographic includes Christians and Moros (a name used by Filipino Muslims from some indigenous peoples – including the Maranao of the Lanao area.)

Some 7 percent of the IDPs are in government-designated evacuation centers. These locations are now crammed and untidy. People are getting sick; infants are reported to have died. Explosions in Marawi could be heard.

The other 93 percent are staying in unregistered locations, like other people’s homes. These individuals are a hidden humanitarian crisis. Home-based evacuees are an unaccounted number of unserved or underserved IDPs. Most relief assistance is distributed at evacuation sites.

A city in ruins

“What used to be a beautiful city has now become a war zone. Marawi City is now unrecognizable.” says Laut, himself a Marano. “The city is in shambles; corpses litter the streets. We knew some of the casualties.”

Homes, businesses, and other buildings have been damaged or entirely levelled. Some were Moro and Christian historical and cultural treasures. Many residents didn’t make it out on time and are now caught in the crossfire, alerting those outside the battle grounds only through text messaging. Since hostilities broke out in late May, only the eight-hour Eid’l Fitr ceasefire wasa  respite.

Martial law is not helping, Laut shares. “Civilians are still affected; we are not protected. They raid houses, and leave them open. The government insists that they have the situation under control, but they are reporting on only four of 96 barangays (the smallest administrative division in the Philippines) in Marawi City.”

A continued call

“We are pleading to our beloved President: Please stop bombarding our community,” an impassioned Laut pronounces at the press conference. “You yourself claim that you have Maranao blood in you. Your fellow Maranao are getting hit by the airstrikes.”

With Marawi still shrouded in unrest, meantime, displacement is foreseen to escalate. Government units and agencies are now exhausting their resources to deliver initial relief services to the evacuees, but the need is increasing by the day.

There is still a desperate call for food, drinking water, kitchen utensils, clothing, sleeping materials and temporary shelters. The IDPs also have unaddressed psychosocial and overall-health needs.

The conclusion of Ramadan signals greater demand – and opportunity – for aid.

ACT members are working to meet that demand by providing immediate assistance such as food, water, sanitation & hygiene kits & facilities, non-food essentials, and unconditional cash grants, while, looking toward post-crisis interventions through livelihood support and shelter repair materials. Psychosocial support is also an identified need not only for children but for all the members of the IDP families staying in homes or in evacuation centers near Marawi City.

On June 28th and 29th 2017, members of the ecumenical family along with national and international organizations gathered at the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi, Kenya for the “Mobilisation of faith communities for overcoming hunger and sustaining justice and peace in the Horn of Africa”. The event brought together leaders from different faiths and denominations, as well as various Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) that are actively responding to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, as well as international organizations engaged in humanitarian coordination across the region.

The event, organised by the World Council of Churches (WCC), All Africa Conference of Churches, (AACC) ACT Alliance, World Vision International and the World Food Programme, encouraged further networking and collaboration opportunities between churches and other agencies, emphasizing the proactive role that churches and FBOs can play in influencing humanitarian, development, climate change and peace building agendas.

Participants focused on the root causes of the crisis, exploring durable solutions for conflict resolution and good governance. They worked towards strengthening their preparedness to respond to the famine crisis and identifying international advocacy strategies to increase available support for appeals in the region.

“We sang, we affirmed human dignity, stewarding the land, God’s Creation and caring for the most vulnerable,” said Will Postma, Executive Director of ACT Alliance member, The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF). “Together, we affirmed the importance of transparent governance, of responding to climate change, of speaking out against conflict, partnering more with local government, [engaging] strategically with the media and more intentionally, to reach out to youth.”

A ‘Call to Action’

Together, faith leaders developed a ‘Call to Action’ aimed at overcoming hunger, promoting peace and justice and mobilizing support for the current appeals in the region. The Call to Action emphasizes, “as faith communities we are on our ‘Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace’ and are striving for the establishment of peace and the resolution of conflicts as one of our core mandates. Conflict is an unacceptable common denominator across all countries currently facing the risk of famine.” In addition, it notes that “it is imperative to continue addressing climate change and to be the stewards of environmental protection and to bring our moral authority to safeguard the integrity of creation.”

The Call to Action affirms a commitment to “encourage faith communities to be part of developing, implementing and sharing early warning and early action strategies and in documenting climate change best practices and coping mechanisms.”

“The Call to Action has the potential to advocate for international and regional support and commitment for the ongoing interventions through humanitarian appeals and finding sustainable solutions to the underlying causes of drought, conflict and climate change,” says Arnold Ambundo, ACT Alliance Programme Officer of the Africa Region. “The Call to Action further enhances the potential for ecumenical cooperation and partnerships in addressing contemporary challenges facing humanity.”

Catherine Njuguna, ACT Alliance’s Advocacy Officer based in Nairobi noted that a key component of the Call to Action is to “encourage faith based organizations to partner more with grassroots government structures, as well as national and regional structures, to make a difference.”

ACT Alliance appeals

ACT Alliance through its members in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia has been following and responding to the crisis on the Horn of Africa. Together, the Alliance has conducted a joint needs assessment and has participated in various strategic coordination sessions led by governments to develop national appeals to respond to the specific needs of a variety of sectors.  The appeals in all four countries continue to need support.

In reference to the Somalia appeal, Reuben Chepkonga of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) said, “the Alliance has been mobilizing resources both within and outside the ACT Appeal, however, currently only about 30% of the Appeal has been funded. The risk of famine in Somalia still persists and there is need to sustain and scale up humanitarian response to stop the situation from deteriorating quickly.” More information on the ongoing response and appeals of the ACT Alliance in the Horn of Africa can be found here.

Potential of responding as an Alliance

“The event enabled us to highlight the work that we are doing as ACT members to respond to the situation and also shows the strength we have in terms of access and capacity to sustain, and upscale our current response,” said Reuben.

Arnold further emphasized the significance of strong partnerships within the Alliance, “Working together allows ACT members to positively influence the situation on the ground, and to reach people in the communities to end hunger and bring about sustainable peace in this period of crisis.”

Will Postma of PWRDF said, “Collectively, we can learn so much from each other. We need to hear each others’ voices and be encouraged by work that is already happening.” He continued, “Churches and faith based organizations are well grounded in Biblical principles of justice and mercy and well placed at community levels to be important, credible actors and voices for change.”