To: His Excellency Prak Sokhonn,
Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia

We, the undersigned international NGOs, recognise the Royal Government of Cambodia’s commitment to global agreements and frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We note that the quest for sustainable development is reflected in policy documents such as the 2014 – 2018 National Strategic Development Plan and the “Rectangular Strategy” of the Royal Government of Cambodia.

We share the commitment and belief that progress in achieving SDGs and other social, economic, environmental or political goals requires strong social systems through which citizens interact with each other and with their government.

Recent events, however, lead us to believe that a number of civil society organisations that promote accountability and transparency have been con­sidered by the government as a threat to the stability of Cambodia .

We believe these organisations make important contributions to human development, and a stable society ready for growth and prosperity. We believe that the international charters to which Cambodia is a signatory (such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) recognise democratic values including the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial. We also believe that the Constitution of Cambodia simi­larly provides a framework for protection and respect of rights.

While maintaining a spirit of partnership and cooperation, we appeal to the Royal Government of Cambodia to:

• Promote, protect, and respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of Cambodian people enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenants to which Cambodia is a party.
• Ensure Cambodian citizens are not arrested where their actions have not contravened law and where their actions are the expression of their rights.
• Ensure there is no judicial harassment against Cambodian citizens who are working to protect people’s rights.
• Ensure there is space for democratic participation, advancement of human rights and development processes.

This statement is endorsed by:

1. ACT Alliance
2. ActionAid International
3. Aide et Action Cambodia
4. Asian Legal Resource Center (AHRC -Asia)
5. Union Aid Abroad -APHEDA
6. Bread for the World
7. CAFOD
8. Christian Aid
9. Church World Service
10. CIVICUS
11. Cord
12. DanChurchAid
13. Dan mission
14. Diakonia
15. The Finish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM)
16. Fin Church Aid
17. Forum Asia
18. Forum Syd
19. Franciscans International
20. HEKS/EPER
21. Henrich Boll Foundation
22. ICCO Cooperation
23. International Relief and Development Cambodia
24. Johanniter International Assistance
25. Kepa
26. Mekong Plus Cambodia
27. Mennonite Central Committee
28. MISEREOR
29. Mission Alliance
30. MARYKNOLL
31. Norwegian People’s Aid
32. OT Watch Mongolia
33. Oxfam
34. Pact
35. People in Need
36. Southeast Asia Development Program
37. TROCAIRE
38. Welthungerhilfe
39. World Renew
40. WWF
41. Zo Indigenous Forum

PRESS RELEASE

Cecilia Richard, 33, harvests millet in Captain, a village in southern Malawi that has been hard hit by drought in recent years, leading to chronic food insecurity, especially during the “hunger season,” when farmers are waiting for the harvest. ACT Alliance has worked with farmers in this village to switch to alternative, drought-resistant crops, such as millet, as well as using irrigation and other improved techniques to increase agricultural yields. Photo: Paul Jeffrey

Much more focus is needed to tackle climate change and specifically workplace heat as people from emerging economies daily face the challenges of dealing with the impact of climate change at work, international humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance has said.

Speaking as the 105^th session of the International Labour Conference gets underway today in Geneva, ACT Alliance said that the Paris climate change agreement adopted last year and signed by a majority of governments sets a new momentum requiring governments to take more ambitious and urgent action to address climate change because of its devastating impacts on people’s lives.

ACT Alliance, an international faith-based network of 140 members working in over 100 countries and embedded in the communities they serve, has long been advocating for climate justice and more ambitious action by governments and other stakeholders at all levels.

The alliance contributed to a report released last month jointly with the Climate Vulnerable Forum, UNDP, ILO, IOM, the International Organization of Employers (IOE), UNI Global Union and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), titled “Climate Change and Labour: Impacts of Heat in the Workplace”, which found that by the mid-1990s heavily exposed countries had lost an estimated 1-3 percent of the entirety of available daylight work hours due to heat extremes – a trend which the report said is set to increase due to future climate change.

The report states: “Even if the current commitments of the world governments to combat climate change are realized, losses by the end of this century to most vulnerable economies of all available daylight work hours will double or triple.”

ACT Alliance General Secretary John Nduna said: “We are pleased to see the commitment of so many world leaders to combatting the impacts of climate change, and we hope that the ambition shown in the 2015 Paris agreement will be even further strengthened as it is implemented in countries across the world.”

“As an alliance we work with communities that are daily facing the impacts of climate change,” Nduna continued. “In Central America alone, for example, the drought is one of the most severe in the region’s history with more than 2 million people in need of immediate food assistance, health care, nutritional support and recovery of livelihoods, reaching levels of humanitarian crisis and highlighting the extreme vulnerability of subsistence farmers, labourers and low-income families to the impacts of climate change.”

ACT Alliance members are on the ground working with communities to combat the many impacts of climate change, and has released an appeal to respond to the food crisis in Central America caused by the El Niño drought, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/24wqjMM

ENDS

Notes to the editor:

1. “Climate Change and Labour: Impacts of Heat in the Workplace” made with the 43-nation Climate Vulnerable Forum, ACT Alliance, International Labour Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Organization of Employers (IOE), UNI Global Union, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). The report can be fund here: https://actalliance.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/05/Climate-and-Labour-Issue-Paper_28-April-2016_v1_lowres.pdf
2. For more information contact Estelle Marais, Head of Communications at Estelle.marais@actalliance.org tel: +41 79 358 3171 or visit www.actalliance.org

PRESS RELEASE

A volunteer for ACT Alliance member DanChurchAid explains to neighbours their options for constructing houses to replace the homes they lost in the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Photo Credit: ACT/Paul Jeffrey

The World Humanitarian Summit has identified key opportunities that exist for more effective collaboration among diverse stakeholders but clear implementation strategies are now needed if we are to better deliver to affected populations in crises, ACT Alliance has said.

The alliance, an international faith-based humanitarian and development network of 140 members working in over 100 countries, had a strong delegation of attendees at the Summit which took place on 23-24 May in Istanbul.

ACT Alliance General Secretary John Nduna, welcomed the many statements from member states, fellow NGOs and other stakeholders and at the Summit echoing the commitments the alliance has made towards improved humanitarian response, particularly those relating to increasing the involvement of local and national responders in crises.

“We are pleased that the WHS has seen such support and leadership particularly around the Grand Bargain which saw commitment to increasing funding to local and national responders as directly as possible, and a real understanding of the importance of cash based systems in meeting people’s needs,” said Nduna. “Local and national responders are the parties that have the closest access to communities, and as ACT Alliance we have also committed to significantly increasing the proportion of our members’ humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national members and their partners, for both humanitarian response and emergency preparedness.”

“The Summit has highlighted the opportunities for collaboration among actors for a more effective humanitarian response, and now we as an international community must transform the discussions at this event beyond words into action, in the form of clear implementation and monitoring strategies.”

ACT Alliance, which through its global membership responds to around 25 emergency situations around the world each year from natural disasters to conflict-related crises, also welcomed views across stakeholders at the Summit supporting the preservation of humanitarian principles and International Humanitarian Law, with Nduna saying: “The WHS has highlighted the importance of maintaining humanitarian action and recognising the uniqueness of humanitarian action in and of itself.”

1. For more information contact Estelle Marais, Head of Communications at Estelle.marais@actalliance.org tel: +41 79 358 3171

PRESS RELEASE

23 May 2016 – Moving from delivering aid to ending need requires more participation of local and national organisations in policy and decision-making processes, international faith-based humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance has said.

Speaking at the World Humanitarian Summit’s High Level Leaders Round Table on ‘Changing People’s Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need’ this morning, ACT Alliance General Secretary John Nduna echoed NGO calls that only a humanitarian system that ensures stronger participation of local and national organisations in relevant policy and decision-making fora, would bring the much needed ecosystem of diverse local, national and international organisations necessary to end need.

“As an alliance committed to the accompaniment of local and national actors, more than 70 percent of our membership are local and national responders rooted in communities before, during, and after crises,” Nduna said. “We are part of the communities we seek to assist, and are emboldened to see commitments which aspire to reinforce local systems, increase genuine community engagement, and enhance complementarity among local, national and international responders.”

ACT Alliance represents 140 churches and faith-based organisations engaging in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in more than 100 countries. It responds to around 25 emergency situations around the world each year, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the ongoing drought in Ethiopia, providing lifesaving relief to populations in crisis.

As part of the alliance’s contributions to furthering the Agenda for Humanity, it has committed to revising and reforming its humanitarian response mechanisms in line with the direction set out in the UN Secretary General’s Agenda for Humanity, and to supporting empowerment of people impacted by emergencies in addressing their self-determined needs.

“We aim to strengthen local capacities by reforming our ACT Rapid Response Fund so that it is targeted exclusively for national and local members because we believe the empowerment of local actors, who are often first responders, must include efforts to improve local and national NGOs’ access to funding opportunities,” Nduna said. “We will incentivise greater investment in emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction and resilience. We will work with communities to prepare for crises and not just react.”

Notes to Editors:

1. For more information contact Estelle Marais, Head of Communications at Estelle.marais@actalliance.org, tel: +41 79 358 3171 or visit www.actalliance.org

Let’s no forget: locally-led response & Preventing and Mitigating Risks are REQUIRED for a Safer World

At the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai last year, ACT Alliance committed:

To raise DRR awareness at the grassroots level by influencing local leadership and educating community members

ACT Alliance has a strong track record on enabling community resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). To reduce future risks, here are examples from ACT partners around the world

This is how we reduce future risks:

1) LIVELIHOODS: Diversification of income sources and livelihood options

Mohammed Assen (40 years old), smallholder, living in Dereba, Ethiopia:

“A few years ago, I’d nearly given up hope. We’d lost everything in the drought. ACT member EECMY (Mekane Yesus Church) helped us to create the vegetable garden and the shallow well. They gave us seeds and saplings and showed us how to make compost. My wife found work in the tree nursery. And I was able to do a course in masonry. Not so long ago, we nearly starved to death. But now we have a future again!”

2) DRR EDUCATION: Ensuring that DRR education reaches to the most hard-to-reach areas and communities-at-risk

In Pakistan, Act Member CWSA is using a Mobile Knowledge Resource Center equipped in a truck to bring DRR education to remote, hazard-prone communities and help community members, teachers and school children to prepare for the event of a natural disaster.

3) EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS: Saving lives and livelihoods through early warnings

In Ethiopia, indigenous early warning knowledge and practices are documented, shared and combined with modern technology to strengthen and promote decentralized early warning and response systems by ACT member ICCO. This improves early warnings and increases the trust of communities in the information. Communities are taking action to avoid or reduce disaster risks.

4) LOCAL DECISION MAKING: Empowering community members on the ground to lead risk identification and take mitigation measures

In Myanmar, Village DDR Committees mobilise community and government resources to strengthen village infrastructure with support from ACT Member Diakonia.

5) INNOVATION: Collaborating with academia and other stakeholders

Diganjeng, West-Java, Indonesia:

In Indonesia, we invented a climate field school run by an ACT partner BfW, which demonstrates growing rice on bamboo rafts floating on the water, an innovation developed by the community. The 2 x 5 meter rafts can be made within half an hour, usually from bamboo trunks held together with netting. The cost of 3.80 euros is moderate and over a three year period, the rafts save a lot of money.

“What’s so remarkable about our village,” explains Tahmo Cahyono, the village chief, “is that during the rainy season, the fields are completely flooded. In the dry season, though, they are unbelievably dry.”

“Initially, we were ridiculed for thinking this up”, Feri Rianto, co-ordinator at the climate field school says. “But by the end of the season, the results we achieved were persuasive.”

___________

ACT Alliance is fully committed to reducing disaster risks in addition to responding to humanitarian crises through our presence deeply rooted in the societies in over 100 countries. We enable local capabilities for ‘Preventing and Mitigating Disaster Risks’ before, during and after disasters.

Hari Maya Bhujel hugs her grandson, 5-year old Utsab, in Majhitar, a village in the Dhading District of Nepal where Dan Church Aid, a member of the ACT Alliance, has provided a variety of support to local villagers in the wake of a devastating 2015 earthquake. Photo: Paul Jeffrey

The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit is only days away, after years of preparation, thousands of hours of input from across the globe, significant financial resources, numerous reports, and now, hundreds of commitments. And today, as I wrap up the final preparations to head out to Istanbul, I find myself already thinking about what happens next.

As I reflect on the Agenda for Humanity, I am pleased to see commitments towards inclusivity, recognizing the role that local and national responders play next to international counterparts in humanitarian contexts. I am hopeful when I hear terms such as “humanitarian ecosystem” becoming the norm in WHS discussions, knowing that it is intended to recognize what NGOs have known all along – we all bring diverse strengths in order to achieve the same goal: saving lives, maintaining dignity, and supporting people in need.

But I am doubtful too. Because I wonder, and I know I am not alone, what the tangible benefits will be to the people we serve. How do we ensure that the populations affected by crisis are adequately engaged, not just now, but after? How do we ensure that the core of what we do – delivering quality aid, quickly, to as many people in need as possible – does not get lost in all of these words?

At ACT Alliance, we spent months going over the commitments we wanted to take forward to the WHS. We spent hours in meetings and on email amongst the membership discussing, understanding, proposing and agreeing, reflecting on what we have heard from affected populations. For us, the ACT commitments are not about the WHS, but about who we want to be as we serve populations in need. They are about the changes we think are important, and have been advocating for, also outside the WHS process. They are about using the WHS as an opportunity to look at ourselves and commit to being reflective of a system that we want. They are about leading the way in how we respond to humanitarian situations – whether they make the headlines or not.

The ACT Alliance represents more than 140 churches and faith-based organizations, engaging in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in more than 100 countries around the world. More than 70% of our membership are local and national responders, and, alongside other first responders from across the sector, are often the first to respond to populations in crisis. Our diversity is one of our core qualities, and the challenge of finding a common vision that engages local and national responders who are embedded in communities before, during and after crises, alongside international responders who are committed to strengthening and accompanying members from around the world, while challenging, makes us stronger.

For us, the WHS itself is really only the beginning. Because what happens afterwards, as we develop our implementation plans to put our commitments in action, is where the tough work begins. We will continue to work with, and for, affected populations the world over. We will remain accountable to them, because we believe that in the end, our commitments will be measured against the improvements we make in saving lives and maintaining the dignity of people affected by crisis as we engage in effective, quality responses. And so, as part of the ACT Alliance delegation going to Istanbul, this is the thought that I will carry with me: humanitarian action is first and foremost about humanity.

__________

Reshma Adatia has been working in the international aid sector both in Canada and abroad for more than 15 years. She is currently the Global Humanitarian Coordinator for the ACT Alliance, based in Geneva, Switzerland since January 2015. The ACT Alliance is a network of 140 church and faith-based organization, working in more than 100 countries. In her role, she is responsible for global humanitarian advocacy and policy positioning, as well as overall responsible for the ACT Alliance Emergency Response Mechanism, which prioritises direct funding to local and national responders in emergencies.

Reshma is currently a member of the ICVA Board, and is Chair of the ICVA Policy Committee, as well as a principal of the IASC Emergency Directors Group. She holds degrees in International Development and International Politics from the University of Calgary.

PRESS RELEASE

20 May 2016 – Renewed action and investment in humanity is needed at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul next week if we are to move from delivering aid to ending need, international faith-based humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance has said.

In the eleven new commitments ACT Alliance as a network has made towards the World Humanitarian Summit, it has focused on the core responsibilities highlighted in the UN Secretary General’s report to the Summit, in terms of meeting people’s essential needs and developing solutions with and for those impacted; investing in local capacities, and putting people at the centre of the response through local and national empowerment and building community resilience.

“Every day our members in the field doing humanitarian work are the witnesses of the hard realities that face people affected by natural disasters, diseases and epidemics, and conflicts,” said John Nduna, ACT Alliance General Secretary. “It is imperative that these communities are part of an inclusive system that empowers them. It is time to create a paradigm shift within the humanitarian system, and our expectation is that this first Summit should be a significant milestone toward real change in the sector, in which local and national organisations are more empowered to respond to their community’s needs.”

The 140 members of ACT Alliance who together work in over 100 countries around the world, work directly with communities facing emergency situations and respond to around 25 emergency situations around the world per year, including the recent earthquake in Ecuador and the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The alliance shares the majority of findings in the UN Secretary General’s report towards the World Humanitarian Summit. It has also endorsed the new Charter for Change initiative, which makes concrete commitments to shift power and resources to national and local actors.

As part of its work to support the World Humanitarian Summit process the alliance has committed to significantly increasing the proportion of ACT members’ humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national members and their partners for humanitarian response and emergency preparedness by 2018.

“The commitments ACT has made in the run up to the WHS are about the changes we have identified as important and which we have been advocating for, both within and outside the WHS process,” said Reshma Adatia, ACT Alliance Global Humanitarian Coordinator. “We have used the WHS as an opportunity to commit to being reflective of a system that we want. Our commitments are about leading the way in how we respond to humanitarian situations.”

“Like other humanitarian workers we do our best to help people overcome emergency situations, and there are no miracle results,” said Nduna. “We must embrace the issues together at all levels and work in partnerships with equal recognition, from grassroot communities including faith based organisations to national and regional leaders and international bodies. This is the most effective way to help change the lives of people in crisis situations and uphold the norms that safeguard humanity.”

** For more information contact Estelle Marais, Head of Communications at Estelle.marais[at]actalliance.org tel: +41 79 358 3171.

The Philippines is the fourth most disaster-prone country in the world having 274 disasters in ten years, from 1995 to 2015 . It is a country where extreme events – protracted, recurrent and sudden – can wipe out gains built over years, even decades.

“A typhoon can be especially devastating to farmers. Without their harvests, it is easy for them to go into a cycle of debt,” said Hazel Tanchuling of Rice Watch and Action Network (RWAN). A third of the country’s workforce is employed in the agriculture sector, but it is a job that is increasingly defined by risk and low returns. In a year, up to 20 typhoons may visit the country.

As part of the overall rehabilitation efforts after Typhoon Haiyan, RWAN and the Panay Rural Development Center, Inc. (PRDCI) are working to increase the capacities of farming communities in managing the risks they face. Both RWAN and PRDCI are partners of Christian Aid in the Philippines.

Through the Climate Resiliency Field Schools (CRFS), they seek to sustainably improve the ability of farmers to adapt to climate change and their livelihoods to thrive despite a disaster-prone environment. Weather stations are set up in partner municipalities for localized weather information that farmers and fishers can regularly access. Farmers’ field schools are also held to introduce adoptive and sustainable farming technologies and practices, such as System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

At present, RWAN has partnered with LGUs and PAGASA in implementing CRFS in 32 municipalities.  These institutions are mandated and responsible to provide services to communities.

Rebecca and Janny Panolin were one of the CRFS participants in Batad, Iloilo province.

“We were able to help and support one another better in managing our farm. We both learned about the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) technology,” said Rebecca.

At the end of the cropping period, 135 kgs or 3.2 cavans of palay was harvested from the Panolins’ 100 square-meter farm, said Chito Tionko, PRDCI Executive Director. This translates to about 13.5 tons per hectare, more than what they have ever harvested from their plot of land.

But what made this a truly stunning achievement was the use of less water, less seeds, less fertilizer, and no agrochemical crop protection. The SRI technology leads to better yields by improving the soil ecology and increasing beneficial soil organisms, said Tionko.

“When we are not in the farm tending the crops, you can see the two of us together preparing the organic inputs we need,” said Rebecca.

To further improve productivity and food security, the couple also learned about farm diversification so that if one crop fails, there would still be a back-up. They also learned to use weather information in their decision making and farm planning. The principles of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) were developed to increase yield and improve the rice production through improving the soil environment and tapping plants’ growth ability with less reliance on inorganic nutrient inputs and varietal change.

Efforts like these are supportive of Core Responsibility Four which commits to a decisive shift from delivering aid to ending need. The project starts at the local level, which is where any intervention that seeks to address people’s vulnerabilities must begin. Its goals are resilience, capacity-building, self-reliance and, consequently, less dependence on foreign aid and external assistance.

Local leadership is supported and local government staff are also engaged. The collaborative approach brought together the expertise of government and two of Christian Aid’s partners – RWAN and its climate risk management, and PRDCI and livelihood resilience – resulting in outcomes better than could have been achieved by any organization acting alone.

At the core of Christian Aid’s strategy in the Philippines is linking humanitarian response to long-term goals. In the context of the Philippines, this is crucial in addressing the root causes of vulnerability of communities, such as poverty, conflict and threats to land rights.

In line with the direction set out by the UN Secretary General’s Agenda for Humanity, Christian Aid in the Philippines renews its commitment for a decisive shift in the humanitarian system: from delivering aid and individual projects, to ending need and addressing the roots causes of people’s vulnerabilities.

___________

*With reports from Rovel Espaňol, PRDCI Volunteer Agriculture Technician; Chito Tionko, PRDCI Executive Director; and Hazel Tanchuling, Rice Watch Action Network (RWAN).

Josephine Matriano is the Programme Manager for Haiyan at Christian Aid. Prior to her current post, she was the focal person in the Philippines for the DFID-funded resilience projects in indigenous peoples and mining-affected communities and urban poor communities. Her expertise include community-based DRR, advocacy, and Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods (EFSL).

The Grand Bargain sherpas from the 15 largest donors and 15 largest agencies, pictured at their first meeting in Amsterdam on February 29. Photo: Christian Aid

On February 29 in Amsterdam, a handful of the world’s biggest donors and largest humanitarian agencies started to negotiate a ‘’Grand Bargain’’ to help give the rhetoric around the World Humanitarian Summit some teeth. Ban Ki Moon  is urging major players to bring concrete pledges to Istanbul to turn his reform agenda into reality. The idea of the GB is that donors will commit to more flexible, multi-year funding, with less burdensome reporting requirements, in exchange for major agencies committing to greater transparency and collaboration and reduced management costs. The stated ambition is to deliver a collective roadmap for stretching available money to meet more people in need; and a political statement during the WHS that is as concrete as possible

One of the focus areas being progressed in the GB is the commitment to a significant increase in the use of cash. This aligns very well with ACT’s own commitment that:

We will support the agency of people by substantially increasing the proportion of our humanitarian investment that goes to cash transfer programming. Before providing in-kind inputs, we will ask ourselves whether cash would work in this context.

Whereas Ban Ki Moon’s report to the Summit rightly calls for more funding for humanitarian crisis, he proposes a key vehicle for this to be a massive increase in the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF all goes to UN agencies, which already control more than half all humanitarian funding.  Channelling more funding to the UN through the CERF does not speak well to the need to better fund local actors. In the Grand Bargain negotiations, NGOs are calling upon donors to rather channel additional funds through mechanisms that better cohere with the localisation agenda. 

If  the benefits of the Grand Bargain are to be achieved, NGOs are demanding that UN agencies  pass the greater flexibility in donor funding to NGOs who they contract to deliver assistance. ACT’s WHS commitment, related to the GB is that:

ACT Alliance commits to streamline and harmonize reporting requirements for members, in line with the expected outcomes of the GB. This specifically includes a commitment to not ask more from local and national members than what donors ask of funding members.

Studies by DanChurchAid and Church of Sweden’s ‘’Local to Global Protection’’ initiative  have exposed that only 0.2% of humanitarian funding goes directly to local and national NGOs.

Yet local presence enables local actors to be first responders – getting to affected people days before assessment teams from external agencies arrive. Local organizations are able to shape programmes in a contextually appropriate, culturally sensitive way, based on a community’s own understanding of its needs. Local partners, closer to and more trusted by communities, are better-positioned to ensure accountability to affected populations, and respect long-term perspectives.

The ACT Alliance’s WHS position paper in January 2015 ‘Putting People at the Centre’ called for 20% of humanitarian funding to go directly to national actors by 2020.

CAFOD, ADESO, DCA and Christian Aid took up this baton when we launched the Charter for Change (C4C) in advance of the 2015 WHS Global Consultation in Geneva. C4C makes 8 reform pledges to shift the balance of power in the humanitarian system toward the Global South. These include a pledge by signatories to pass at least 20% of their humanitarian funding to Southern NGOs by May 2018.  C4C has been signed by 23 INGOs and endorsed by well over 100 Southern NGO partners.

One of the 10 themes of the GB is more support for frontline national responders.

During the GB negotiations, one of the largest UN humanitarian agencies pledged to step up to the plate and honour ACT’s call to raise their level of direct support to national front line responders to 20% by 2020. (We will not name them here lest they wish to gain credit for this when they announce it at Istanbul). This is a huge step forward for the localisation agenda, and we hope it creates a domino effect where other huge UN and INGO agencies, inspired by this bold leadership, follow suit.

Our ACT commitments to the WHS include that:

By May 2018, we will significantly increase the proportion of ACT Alliance members’ humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national members and their partners for humanitarian response and emergency preparedness.

Whilst the final outcomes remain to be negotiated, the latest text of the GB calls on aid organisations to ‘aim to give by 2020 at least 25% of humanitarian funding to local and national responders as directly as possible’’.  It is encouraging that the advocacy of ACT and its allies seems to have  infiltrated the thought processes of the big donors and agencies who are determining what commitments to bring to Istanbul through this Grand Bargain.

___________

Michael Mosselmans is Head of Humanitarian Policy Practice Advocacy and Programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean at Christian Aid. He is co-chair of the ACT Humanitarian Policy and Practice Advisory Group. Michael has also worked in WFP, OCHA and DFID.

Humanitarian advocacy

1. We will use our influence to promote stability, community reconciliation and social cohesion. We will amplify voices that promote human rights and international humanitarian law and speak out against injustice.

Actions required:

• Do No Harm and conflict analysis obligatory for all ACT humanitarian interventions. Separate section in Appeal format
• Mainstream ACT’s advocacy strategy in all members’ advocacy work, strongly focusing on human rights and IHL, while addressing root causes of conflicts.
• Mainstream participation in all of ACT’s humanitarian interventions.
• Mainstream complaint mechanisms in the humanitarian mechanism.
• Include explicit reference to the role of and needs in host communities where ACT humanitarian interventions take place.
• ACT members to develop a strategy and mechanism to collectively speak out with and for our partners and communities within 48 hours of a rapid onset emergency.    In doing so, we will promote community resilience and cash-based response, accountability and the role of faith-based frontline responders

Humanitarian principles

2. We will highlight the role of faith-based responders in access to communities in need – and reinforce respect for the humanitarian principles. We will engage Southern members in awareness raising and capacity building on the practical application of the humanitarian principles and ensure their integration into ACT humanitarian responses

Actions required:

• Integrate a stronger reflection on humanitarian principles in ACT appeal planning and reporting.
• Improve relevant training material.
• Create an exchange community online to offer discussion and reflection on specific issues.
• An opinion paper on faith-based organizations and humanitarian principles

Cash Transfer Programming (CtP)

3. We will substantially increase the proportion of our humanitarian investment that goes to cash transfer programming. Before providing in-kind inputs, we will ask ourselves whether cash would work in this context. We will share learning across the ACT network on best practice in cash approaches, & increase capacity-building on cash for Southern members.

Actions required:

• Develop a 2016 ACT Appeals baseline (how much of our humanitarian work is CtP) to enable us to measure CtP increase in annual reporting
• Include a section in ACT Appeal format justifying if CtP has not been chosen as the primary modality
• One annual ACT publication on cash.
• ACT website and FB feeds reflect regular updates on CtP
• 90% of all relevant ACT Forums carry out at least one annual learning event on CtP

Reform of ACT mechanisms

4. By May 2018, we will reform the ACT Alliance humanitarian response mechanisms in line with the Agenda for Humanity, including strengthening local capacities by reforming the Rapid Response Fund so that it is exclusively for Southern members and it incentivizes investment in preparedness, risk reduction and resilience. We will streamline and harmonise requirements for partners, in line with the Grand Bargain. This includes a commitment to not ask more from Southern members than donors ask of funding members.

Actions required:

• Only national/local actors are eligible for rapid response funds within the new RRF policy.
• The policy indicates that Forums/members with up to date EPRPs are eligible for additional funding and projects can have longer lifespans.
• Both the new RRF template and process/protocol will be simplified to be more accessible to local/national and less time-consuming.
• Forums/members will receive training on RRF to ensure a higher quality of programming.
• The humanitarian response mechanism is currently under a revision process; one of the principal objectives is to develop standard tools which help partners to achieve transparency while reducing their workload with regards to reporting and compliance documents

Localisation

5. By May 2018, we will significantly increase the proportion of ACT Alliance members’ humanitarian funding that goes directly to Southern members and their partners for response and preparedness. We will transparently report on this amount as ACT Alliance, and encourage individual members to do the same. We will support initiatives that provide better access to resources for local and national frontline responders.

Actions required:

• Encourage more ACT Northern and Southern members to sign/endorse Charter for Change. Disseminate information about C4C in the ACT monthly newsletter.
• Encourage more ACT members to engage with Local2Global Protection’s new Supporting Locally-Led Responses to Crises (SLR) initiative
• Investigate how the ACT Secretariat system can best track funding flows and categories of local actors
• Investigate ways in which ACT Appeal evaluations can include evidence building on role of local actors

Principles of Partnership

6. We will demonstrate, learn from and identify best practice in local-national-international partnerships, in line with the Principles of Partnership. We will encourage direct partnerships between Southern members through national & regional ACT Forums, encouraging complementarity & equality.

Actions required:

• Ensure that revised humanitarian guidelines serve the need of ACT members on the ground.
• Proactively reach out to ACT in-country forums while preparing ACT global advocacy messages. Better mapping of who is doing what, with what capacity.
• Through the community of practice and advisory groups, proactively gather key lessons for global advocacy and for mutual learning by the membership.

Community resilience

7. We will increase the proportion of our humanitarian investment that goes to preparedness, prevention and resilience, with a target that over 10% of ACT Alliance programming should be invested in preparedness and risk reduction. We will use the extraordinary reach of our network of faith-based and church-based organizations to raise DRR awareness at grassroots level, including in hard-to-reach locations, by influencing local leadership and educating community members, including through the deployment of church volunteers, delivering over 30 examples of grassroots-level DRR awareness-raising activities by May 2018.

Actions required:

• Include a question on DRR/preparedness spend in the next ‘Mapping ACT’ survey in 2017.
• Factor this WHS commitment into the emerging new appeals guidance, asking Forums to bear in mind our ambition to include DRR/preparedness interventions in appeals, particularly in the later stages.
• Commission a review of ACT appeal spend in 2014 and 2015 to establish a baseline for DRR/preparedness funding
• Gather best practice inputs in run-up to the next ISDR Global Platform in May 2017 (including the ACT Award).
• Participate in regional preparatory events for the Global Platform
• Coordinate an energetic ACT presence at the Global Platform
• Develop positioning demonstrating ACT’s work in this area to publicise at the Global Platform