by Julia Jawtusch, Bread for all

In the first day of the COP23 a group of development, church-based organisations (Caritas France, CIDSE and Bread for the World, Bread for all, both members of ACT Alliance) joined forces with the global peasant movement “La Via Campesina” for two side-events on the topic of agroecology.

We decided to organize these events because we strongly believe that the global food and agriculture system needs to change fundamentally if we want to combat climate change, and at the same time adapt to it. We believe that the industrial food system is a dead-end and that we need to have a deep transformation of the way we produce, process, trade and transport food. Our side-events showed that peasant agroecology offers a promising pathway for the future to achieve this. Peasant agro-ecology is not a one-fits-all solution but refers to locally adapted, knowledge-intense, sophisticated and innovative ways of autonomous peasant farmers to grow food, and bring the food to local consumers.

The panellists of our side-events really contrasted the “usual crowd”, because we invited peasant farmers and a representative of peasant fishermen and fisherwomen from all continents. They all gave their testimonies of agroecology from their different regions and daily realities. It was important for us to give the voice to those who are the primary victims of climate change, and who at the same time provide the solution to reduce greenhouse gases related to the global food system as well as provide healthy soils that can act as a carbon storage.

A lot of issues being discussed at COP23 indirectly address land and agriculture. We organized these side-events to emphasize how important it is to bring the global food system into the centre of attention and debate. At the same time, there is a big fear that big multinational companies that profit from the predominant agroindustrial systems might dominate such debates with their false business solutions. We, therefore, need strong advocates and young leaders, such as our panellists, who oppose this, and who tell their stories about the real solutions on the ground.

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[COP23 Side event] Agro-ecology challenges due to Climate Change by ACT Alliance on Exposure

Growing up, we had happy memories of rain. You dance and sing under it, play games with your friends, and register happy memories in your brain when rainfall hits grass and soil, releasing nature’s scents. It is a bit disturbing when one sees children shiver at the sound heavy rainfall, run for cover at the grumble of thunderstorms while their elders take deep breaths and hide their fears amid rising rivers. Once, I received an SMS at 2am from a community partner who had to deal with a series of floods that engulfed homes in his community.  His message read, “when is this going to stop? I do not think we have enough energy to keep battling these rains and floods”.  We call him Ka Noli and he comes from a community that prides itself of their disaster risk management.

Ka Noli’s story is not unique. We saw the escalating challenge of monsoon rains in South and Souteast Asia this year. These are people from regions who have learned to live with floods across centuries but whose coping and adaptive capacities are no match to the wrath of heavy monsoon rains accompanying the warming of the climate. And we have not yet mentioned how much worse this can get when the rains come with tropical cyclones. Vital assets such as potable water are contaminated while homes, livelihood assets, family members, ecosystem services from vital natural resources, and intangible assets like cultural and intergenerational artifacts like pieces of art, photos, heirlooms can be swept away by torrential rains, flashfloods and debris flow.

Unfortunately, for many of the communities, there is no time to adapt and, thus, losses and damage will be the consequences.  What little time other communities have, they must use to enable resilient households, ecosystems, infrastructure, local economies, and social capital in the most efficient way and with innovations that are calibrated according to the power of projected climate change hazards. Sadly, many of these communities do not have access to scientific information on the hazards that they can understand. Neither do they have access to technology nor finances to enhance the indigenous knowledge they possess so they can better protect themselves — and ensure their right to life, livelihoods, social capital, history and culture and ecosystems and their accompanying services.

It would be the height of inhumanity to allow these people and communities to perish and suffer damages while governments argue about who pays more, who acts first. These communities must be given a fair chance at life by allowing them access to vital climate information and science they can understand, access to climate finance and technology that will enhance their existing capacities at survival.  This is breathing life into the value of compassion.  Action in 2020 or 2030 will be too late for many of these communities.  We must act now.

There is an old saying that goes, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Let this not be the story of our fight for climate justice.

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Jessica Dator Bercilla works as Senior Advocacy and Policy Officer for Asia and the Middle East for ACT member Christian Aid. She is a Fellow/Science-Policy Research Specialist of Manila Observatory and Fellow/Faculty of the Ateneo School of Government working on resilience, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction with various stakeholders in the region.

Yesterday, thousands gathered at Münsterplatz in Bonn to express their commitment to achieving ambitious climate action. The climate march brought together people from across the globe, with different backgrounds, experiences, climate realities and sets of demands. However, amidst the various organizational and individual priorities and agendas was a clear and unifying demand for climate justice.

The climate march seems to have been strategically placed before the official launch of COP23, perhaps as a way to urge the German government in particular to end its use of coal. Especially interesting was the opportunity of the march to call out the location of this COP. Bonn is located near the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, known as the Rhineland lignite-mining region[1]. This makes this COP a particularly controversial one for me personally, as it will be presided over by Fiji, a member of the negotiating bloc of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which is home to some of the world’s most climate vulnerable people.

What struck me most from the march was the energy. Through the chants, posters and conversations with those marching, there was an interesting mix of energy in the atmosphere. Some expressed distress, anger and concern, while others expressed optimism, hope and positivity. This march felt a little different for me, as I think about the stake of these negotiations, not just the COP23 negotiations, but the negotiations from here and onwards. We have a lot at stake as a global community, as we have entire ecosystems, livelihoods and essentially survival at risk. We also have a lot of responsibility. Responsibility to defend and protect our communities from being further locked into worsening climatic conditions. We have a responsibility to ensure that gender equality is respected and promoted, that human rights are not threatened further particularly in climate sensitive communities, and that in the long run equity will prevail. We all have a responsibility to ACT Now for Climate Justice.

While this seems a great task to shoulder, one of the most incredible feelings after the climate march was the reminder that we are surrounded by allies and climate warriors who have dedicated themselves to achieving climate justice.

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Joanna Patouris works for ACT Alliance as a Climate Change Communications Coordinator. Joanna works on the global climate change projects of the Alliance and is assisting with the implementation of the global advocacy strategy in the context of climate change.”

PRESS RELEASE

(Bonn, Germany) It is now one year since the since the Paris Agreement entered into force.  On the eve of COP23, the ACT Alliance urges the full, ambitious, and transparent implementation of the Paris Agreement.

ACT Alliance, a network of 146 faith based organizations and churches based in 125 countries around the world has called for an implementation pathway of the Paris Agreement that adheres to the key principles of human rights, gender justice and equity.

COP23 will be the first COP presided over by the Pacific Island of Fiji, a climate vulnerable country that understands all too well the impacts of climate change. As COP23 kicks off on Monday, ACT Alliance has stressed the importance of its outcome for securing adequate provisions to facilitate climate resilience for the most vulnerable in adapting to and addressing climate change.

“Climate change is a devastating reality for our members who are rooted in communities that have been made vulnerable by climate change. As climate change threatens communities, ecosystems, human rights and essentially survival, it is evident in our work that it places a disproportionate burden on the poor, who have little capacity to adapt. For us as an Alliance, climate change is very much an issue of justice,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of the ACT Alliance.

He continued, “This COP presents us with an opportunity to further our solidarity with climate vulnerable people and communities. We call for adequate provisions on climate finance for addressing adaptation and loss and damage, while recognizing the stark reality of non-economic losses and damages”.

COP23, will set the stage for various technical and policy components of the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“COP23 is essential to building on the progress made since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. COP23 has the potential to enhance climate action through an ambitious foundation of the ‘Paris rulebook’” said Dinesh.

He continued, “A spirit of collaboration, such as that evident in Paris will be important here in Bonn to build the conditions necessary for enhanced 2020 ambition.”

ENDS

For further information, contact: Joanna Patouris: Joanna.patouris@actalliance.org , +1 647-971-5360

PRESS RELEASE

The World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and Lutheran World Federation – together representing more than half a billion Christians worldwide – are issuing a united call for action on climate justice, the largest call of its kind in history.

In a joint video message released on 5 November, leaders of the three organizations called upon the decision makers at COP23 to follow up on the Paris Agreement to enable accountable and ambitious action.

“We must act together for climate justice”, said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, general secretary of ACT Alliance. “Experts from many of our members will be advocating at COP to ensure that the outcomes reflect the needs and the rights of the most vulnerable”.

Climate change is a reality that needs to be addressed, agreed Rev. Dr Martin Junge, LWF general secretary. “We hear the stories. We hear the pain, we hear the struggle”, he said.

“Let us take this opportunity again in COP23 to make decisions that lead us in the right way. It is about who is affected today, who is living in livelihoods that are threatened by what is happening”, said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary.

COP23 is the climate change conference which will be held in Bonn, Germany from November 6-17, and will be presided over by the Republic of Fiji.

With special support for the people of Fiji, the three ecumenical leaders expressed their commitment to continue walking together with their churches and people as they address urgent questions and challenges on climate change in that region and to advocate that climate finance is secured to enable developing countries to adapt, mitigate and address loss and damage.

ENDS

For media inquiries, please contact:
Joanna Patouris, ACT Alliance, Climate Change Communications Coordinator
Email: joanna.patouris@actalliance.org

Earlier this year, the Canadian government launched its Feminist International Assistance Policy.  This October, several ACT members, along with staff from other civil society organisations, and university faculty and students, gathered at an event organised by ACT member The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund at Wycliffe College in Toronto, Canada for an event entitled Gender and Poverty: When will we get it right?

Four panelists presented over the course of the afternoon- two from PWRDF implementing partners in Rwanda and Tanzania, one from ACT member World Renew’s Kenya office, and one from York University.  Each had their own focus on the role of gender equality in poverty alleviation.

Jolin Joseph, a PhD candidate from York University, spoke about Engendering Migration Research and Praxis.  “Poverty is more acutely felt by women and women-headed households,” she told the audience as she began to talk about her research into gender and migration in India.  An example of this is that more women are in the work force, but there has been no economic gain for their presence.  The prevalence of deskilled, low-paying, informal work for women has led to more time being spent on paid employment for the same economic gain.

The Rev. Geoffrey Monjesa from the Anglican Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania, one of PWRDF’s implementing partners, talked about systemic sexism.  “Gender inequality is built into the organisation of marriage and families, work and the economy, politics, religions, the arts and other cultural productions, and the language we speak,” he said.  Rev. Monjesa spoke of one woman in their food security programme who, in the span of five years, had gone from being a vulnerable divorced mother to running a farm that employs 20 labourers working on 25 acres of land, and to being elected as a district councillor, reflecting the value that the community places on the skills she has developed through the programme and her willingness to share them with her neighbours and community.

Jenninah Kabiswa from World Renew’s Kenya office spoke about the link between peace, gender and development, drawing on a variety of conflicts in Kenya including border issues, resources, politics and inter- and intra-tribal conflict.  “Women play a key role in peace,” she said.  Their communities place high expectations on women, so World Renew and other agencies keep building their capacity.  “Women are central, to the SDGs, to Canada’s feminist international assistance agenda, and to peace.”

Finally, Dr. Evrard Nahimana of PWRDF partner Partners in Health in Rwanda spoke about the Rwandan experience of gender equality, pointing out that 64% of Rwandan parliamentarians are women, the highest percentage in the world.  He also spoke about how a focus on maternal, newborn and child health had helped to drastically decrease the maternal mortality rate in the country between 1990 and 2015 thanks to improved care at medical facilities and removed barriers of access.  He then talked about the benefits of women moving “from patient to producer” and how food security- the provision of training and livestock and seeds helps women to increase their income and overall health.  “Invest in women and the whole family will benefit,” he said.The conversation at the event helped to contribute to the continuing dialogue in Canada about the new Feminist International Assistance Policy, as well as to how these agencies and programmes contribute to SDG 5: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013, it was the most powerful storm to ever make landfall in the Pacific.  It was also the acid test for the ACT Philippines Forum, which had only been created 3 months earlier.

The forum has just released an evaluation of the Haiyan response which highlights the accomplishments and the lessons learned from this massive relief effort.  Acting Together, Building Stronger highlights the importance of partnership throughout the response.  “This learning document tells the story of the collaboration of churches, agencies and organizations worldwide as they prayed for the people of central Philippines, gave material and financial donations and rendered help until the survivors were back on their feet,” wrote the Rev. Rex RB Reyes, Jr, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines in the foreword.

Highlighting both successes and challenges, the report discusses, the coordination, localization, convergence, and quality and accountability of the ACT response. The strength of the forum’s work was in its collaboration and partnership.  From the establishment of the ACT Coordination Centre immediately after the storm to the Joint Monitoring Visit to the work of ACT members in a well-planned and synchronized set of projects in Salvacion on Jinamoc Island, partnership was the key.  “Central to this success is the partnership between and among the [Forum] members and their partners.”

Many of the lessons learned were about the complexities of working together, about the need to balance the competing agendas of donors and head offices with those of the communities being served, and about the need to build capacity in local responders.  “The Philippines has a vibrant and experienced civil society, and yet, collaboration and coordination were not key facets of the response at a large scale.  In this respect, the emphasis that ACT Alliance put on partnership and its vision to take partnership to scale at the very beginning of the response is something that is quite exceptional.”

The report shows the focus that ACT members brought to a variety of issues that are key to ACT’s work globally: a focus on gender and people with disabilities, a rights-based approach, disaster risk reduction, and adherence to international standards including Sphere and the Core Humanitarian Standard.  Specific stories of these issues include the success of a campaign to allow thousands of families access to housing despite their lack of land claims, a programme initiated and operated by women in one community to become income earners, and the creation of a federation of people with disabilities.

Thanks to the work of the ACT Philippines Forum, the lessons they have learned and the best practices they have developed are available for anyone to read and share in Acting Together, Building Stronger, which can be read in its entirety here.

Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti on October 4, 2016.  In the year since the storm destroyed homes, crops and communities, and killed upwards of 1600 people, ACT members have been working with communities to bring humanitarian assistance and to rebuild.  In addition to helping families to repair and rebuild their damaged and destroyed homes, ACT members have worked with communities to rebuild community infrastructure.

In the community of Porrier, for example, ACT member Church World Service is rebuilding an elementary school.

“The storm took away the roof and left all our educational materials ruined. We’ve managed to continue classes in crowded, temporary spaces, but attendance remains down,” said the school’s director, Jean Asseker. “The children were traumatized, and their learning abilities were negatively affected. Their families lost their school books and uniforms. So it’s been a difficult year, but soon we’ll have a new roof thanks to CWS, and we expect that attendance will come back to where it was before. Our students will be proud of their new school.”

Lutheran World Relief, another member of the ACT Alliance, also works in several Northwest communities that suffered from Matthew. In Bassin Hady, a community where Matthew killed seven people, LWR helped villagers build a series of earthen dikes that hold back runoff during heavy storms, reducing erosion and improving soil fertility. It’s been hard work to move massive amounts of dirt and rocks, but Lucienne Tanasie says it was worth it.

“We’ll have more water and better soil, even though we have to wait a while for the dikes to do all that. We’ll be able to harvest more of our crops, thus earning money to pay the school fees of our children,” she said.

On the island of La Gonave, another ACT Alliance member, Service Chrétien d’Haïti, is supporting villagers as they rebuild the island’s deteriorated roads. Once a week, people turn out with shovels, picks, and their bare hands to remake the narrow arteries that wind through the rocky hills. “We do this to make our community beautiful. A better road makes it easier for motorcycles and cars to get in and out of here. That means we can more easily sell our harvest, and it will be easier when someone needs to go to the clinic, like a pregnant woman,” said participant Jacques Hirlaire Garisson.

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Story by Paul Jeffrey

Port-au-Prince, October 4, 2017 – When Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti one year ago today, it destroyed crops and houses and killed as many as 1600 people throughout the Caribbean island nation. Yet for survivors in communities where the ACT Alliance partners with local groups to support reconstruction, the anguish of the storm is slowing giving way to a more resilient future.

“I feel safe at home now,” said Christiana Herard, a 69-year old woman in Djondgon, a village near Jean-Rabel in northwestern Haiti. “When the hurricane hit here last year our mud walls just shook and then finally crumbled. We fled to the church, and we ended up living there for three months. Then we moved into a temporary shelter under a tarp, but at the end of April we moved into our new house. It has cement walls, so if another storm comes I’m not scared of what will happen.”

Herard’s home was built with support from Church World Service, one of several members of the ACT Alliance that works in Haiti. For years CWS has supported local efforts in the drought-plagued Northwest to help farmers improve soil fertility and crop yields while producing a healthier variety of foods. It’s a long term commitment in a region where poverty and environmental degradation have left communities extremely vulnerable to disasters.

Supporting community-based solutions is slow work, says Margot DeGreef, the country representative for CWS, but it yields better results in the long run. “Some NGOs come here after a storm and hand out roofing to thousands of families, and then claim they have helped a huge number of people,” she said. “We’re building 81 houses in the Northwest, but they are sturdy and resilient houses. The families that live in them won’t have any problems during the next hurricane.”

When Hurricane Matthew hit, life in Ganthier still wasn’t back to normal after being ravaged by the 2010 earthquake. Servicio Social de las Iglesias Dominicanas, another ACT Alliance member, has worked in several poor villages in the area since coming to Haiti from the neighboring Dominican Republic in the days after the quake. It is building over 350 houses for Matthew survivors, but a lot of its effort is devoted to disaster risk reduction–helping poor residents lower their vulnerability to the frequent natural hazards that torment the area.

SSID has trained 25 youth as first responders, equipping them with jackets, boots, tools, ropes, megaphones, shovels, lamps–everything they might need in a crisis. The group’s main focus is on prevention, including spreading the alarm that people need to evacuate from high-risk areas. During Hurricane Matthew they put their newly acquired skills to the test, pulling people from flooded houses and overflowing rivers.

Members of the ACT Haiti Forum including CWS and SSID continue to be present in Ganthier, Djondgon and many other communities, working with residents to rebuild, become more resilient, and improve their lives.

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Story by Paul Jeffrey

Nations and communities in the Caribbean are yet to come to terms with the actual losses, damages, and suffering that Hurricanes Irma, Maria and others have wrought. The increasing intensity and frequency of hurricanes in some areas of the region and droughts in others have increased the vulnerability of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hurricane Irma made landfall in Cuba as a category 5 storm, lashing the country for 72 hours, causing flooding in the north coast. As a result, the extent of the damage suffered by Cuba has been the worst experienced in 100 years.

The increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria, confirms that climate change is indeed occurring and that its impacts will continue to affect lives and livelihoods, disproportionately affecting the vulnerable. The losses and damages resulting from the changing climate are well beyond the capacities of vulnerable nations and communities to handle. Urgent and comprehensive measures must be put in place to support them.

The developing countries and small island states of the Caribbean have had very little responsibility for causing climate change, yet are faced with the most severe impacts of this global phenomenon. The same can be said of island states in the Pacific facing typhoons, or nations in the Horn of Africa facing drought.

The reality of a disproportionate burden posed by climate change makes it necessary to undertake a comprehensive approach to resilience, beginning with addressing Hurricanes Irma, and Maria to name the most current. Such an approach must combine climate change adaptation and mitigation, emergency preparedness and response, disaster risk reduction along with long term transformative development. Developed countries should contribute to the financing of these efforts in accordance with the principles and commitments of the Paris Agreement and the climate Convention.

ACT Alliance believes that a climate resilient approach, coupled with disaster risk reduction and sustainability, drawn from existing global frameworks including the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for DRR and Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development will help us to understand and be better equipped to face not only hurricanes, but the collective burden of climate change.

As a faith based network, we believe that a testimony of accompaniment to individuals and communities working together to protect the lives of people and the environment from a resilience approach must have at its core the restoration of the faith and hope in people and communities. Therefore, in ACT Alliance, we find it necessary to strengthen our prophetic voice in advocacy and actions to create greater awareness and understanding of climate resilient sustainable development in communities. We continue to encourage and accompany the advocacy efforts of our members, forums and communities as they hold policy holders and decision makers to account.

A key message in our advocacy efforts is for those most responsible for contributing to climate change, who also happen to have a greater capacity and access to resources to respond, to take the necessary measures to comply with the Paris Agreement, especially with regard to substantially financing climate action in vulnerable countries and particularly for adaptation measures and losses and damages. The upcoming UNFCCC COP23 must make significant steps towards this goal.

On our part as ACT Alliance, together with our partners in the ecumenical movement, we commit ourselves to reinforce our humanitarian, development and advocacy work and to promote innovative ways to enable multi-sectoral efforts to address climate change.

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Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance General Secretary

Read more about the ACT response to the Hurricane Irma here
Photo gallery of the response in Cuba here