Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, has experienced heavy rains that have flooded 452 municipalities. As of May 15, 2024, these floods have affected over 2 million people, resulting in 538,126 displaced, 76,588 in shelters, approximately 806 injured, 149 confirmed deaths, and 108 missing persons (Civil Defense Bulletin of the State of Rio Grande do Sul).

In early May, continuous heavy rains in Porto Alegre, the Metropolitan Region, and the Vale do Rio Pardo led to the declaration of a state of public calamity on May 2. Porto Alegre, with 1.3 million inhabitants, has 157,000 affected people. Approximately 1.2 million people in Rio Grande do Sul are without electricity. Among the 149 deceased, 103 have been identified, including 37 from the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region, encompassing various age groups from children to the elderly.

Initial estimates suggest an economic impact of at least USD 2.5 billion, which is expected to grow as more storms are forecasted. The agriculture sector is significantly affected, with soybean prices rising due to harvest reduction fears, and potential impacts on rice, beans, pork, and poultry production. The floods have destroyed homes, workplaces, roads, bridges, and essential infrastructure and services such as drinking water, power supply, and communication.

The situation worsened on May 13 with renewed rains and rising river levels, causing further evacuations of many residents who had previously returned home. This flood is the largest in the history of Rio Grande do Sul. By Monday, May 13, rainfall in Porto Alegre reached 341.7 millimeters for the month, far exceeding the average May rainfall of 113 millimeters (National Institute of Meteorology Inmet).

Civil Defense has issued alerts for most of the state’s river basins, projecting water levels to exceed flood thresholds. The Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFGRS) warns of further rises in water levels due to rainfall and wind effects, with the Guaíba River’s levels expected to exceed 5 meters.

According to a needs assessment conducted by the Fundação Luterana de Diaconia (FLD), the most urgent humanitarian needs are identified in the sectors of food assistance, WASH, and Community-Based Psychosocial Support (CBPS). This action, to be implemented by the FLD, aims to assist 556 families affected by the floods, directly benefiting over 2,780 people. These beneficiaries include women involved in the solidarity economy, waste collectors, indigenous Guarani and Kaingang communities, quilombola communities, and agroecological family farmers in the three most affected regions of the state: the Metropolitan Region, Vale dos Sinos, and Vale do Rio Pardo, over a three-month period.

RRF 03 2024 Brazil floods

The Philippines is currently facing a catastrophic drought, one of the slow-onset effects of climate change, along with other climate impact drivers such as rising sea levels, increased precipitation, stronger wind patterns, and typhoons. This catastrophic drought is driven by the 2023-24 El Niño, which is, according to the United Nations weather agency, one of the five strongest on record.

Climate Change Commission defines Drought as a decrease of 21 to 60 percent in rain occurrences for five consecutive months, or below normal rainfall conditions for three consecutive months. Additionally, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported on March 25 that 37 provinces have experienced drought conditions (3 consecutive months of way below normal rainfall conditions/more than 60% reduction from rainfall average), 22 provinces with dry spell (3 consecutive months of below normal rainfall condition/21%-60% reduction from rainfall average) and 12 provinces with dry condition (2 consecutive months of below normal rainfall condition).

Five (5) provinces declared a state of calamities due to the worst effects of drought in their area, namely Occidental Mindoro (IV-B), Negros Occidental (VI), Sultan Kudarat (XII), and Maguinadanao Del Norte, Maguindanao Del Sur (BARMM). Besides these provinces, 34 local government units also declared a state of calamity.

According to the data released by the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC), as of 24 April 2024, there were 531,114 families or 2,283,636 persons affected in 3,053 villages in 11 Regions.

Food and other livelihood support is the main need of the time. It is expected that the need for food and livelihood support in the affected areas is going to increase.

ACT Alliance member National Counsel of Churches in Philippines (NCCP)  with the support from RRF mechanism addressing the urgent needs by providing food packs to 2,400 households, distribution of multi-purpose cash assistance to 300 households and Construction of 2 water pumps/deep wells for 2 communities. link to the detailed proposal attached below.

NCCP_ACT-RRF-Proposal-El Nino Drought

The Global Rapid Response Fund (GRRF) is an annual funding appeal administered by the ACT Alliance secretariat. The fund prioritises ACT local and national members in line with our localisation commitments and in recognition of the distinct advantage these members have in providing timely, high quality, locally led emergency response interventions. Funds for the RRF are provided by ACT Alliance members and non-members.

The total request for funding this year is USD 2,529,167 with a total budget of USD3,250,000, and with last year’s balance carried over of USD 720,833.07. This request will provide assistance in communities impacted by humanitarian crises up to 20 local contexts with a maximum funding ceiling of USD$150,000 per local member. GRRF proposals are assessed based on the ACT Scale up criteria which includes a requirement for requesting members to include a needs assessment and updated EPRP as part of their application for funding. RRF funding projects are normally between a minimum two and maximum six-month duration. Anticipatory action will be piloted this year where an additional allocation of USD 250,000 will be earmarked.

GRRF24 Appeal

February 2024 marks two years since the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Heavy fighting and attacks continue to impact 3.7 million internally displaced people, with 111,500 people residing in collective sites and 6.5 million refugees seeking safety, mostly across Europe.

The Appeal has been revised using updated needs assessments of ACT members (AIDRom, Christian Aid, Church World Service, HEKS/EPER, Hungarian Interchurch Aid and Lutheran World Federation) and findings and recommendations from the external evaluation conducted in December 2023 – January 2024.

Based on this revision and the funds received, the new budget requested is 25,612,489  USD.

UKR221 Appeal Extension Final

UKR221 Results Framework Extension

After nearly 13 years of conflict, Syria remains a complex humanitarian and protection emergency characterized by ongoing hostilities and their long-term consequences, including widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, economic collapse, explosive ordnance contamination, Covid 19, and one of the largest numbers of internally displaced people in the world.

Compounding this situation, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8, with at least 1,200 aftershocks have been reported (occurred at Central Turkey near the city of Gaziantep), followed by a second earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on February 6, 2023.  Striking communities during winter, these earthquakes left hundreds of thousands of people, including vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly, without access to essential resources like shelter, food, water, heat, and medical care in freezing temperatures. The disaster severely affected at least 15.73 million people in Turkey and Syria, resulting in a tragic loss of over 55,000 lives and nearly 130,000 injuries. The earthquakes led to the displacement of millions from their homes.

In Syria, close to 9 million people were impacted, with the most significant damage concentrated in the north-western regions, particularly Aleppo and Idlib. In these areas, more than 7,400 buildings were either completely or partially destroyed, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in the region.

As the situation is moving from emergency to recovery, Syria is experiencing further despair either in its political instability or economic downfall, the situation is ever-changing and even more dire. ACT Syria Forum members and HIA are responding together to deliver life-saving and early recovery support to a targeted 1.5 million beneficiaries.

This 4^th revision is based upon the updated needs assessments of ACT members in the appeal (CA, GOPA-DERD, HEKS/EPER, the LWF, MECC and HIA in Türkiye ). This includes an update of the results framework, budgets and the integration a Survivor & Community Led Response (SCLR) approach by of Christian Aid through their local partners.   Based on this revision and funds received, the new budget requested is 3,520,892 USD.

SYR231 – Syria Turkey Response Revision 4

Results-Framework SYR231- Revision 4

Links to the previous versions:

Syria and Türkiye: Syria Protracted Crisis – Developing the Resilience of Affected People and Emergency Response for Affected Communities of Syria-Türkiye Earthquake – SYR231- Revision 3 – ACT Alliance

Syria and Türkiye: Syria Protracted Crisis – Developing the Resilience of Affected People and Emergency Response for Affected Communities – SYR231- Revision 2 | ACT Alliance

Syria: Syria Protracted Crisis – Developing the Resilience of Affected People and Emergency Response for Affected Communities of Syria-Türkiye Earthquake- SYR231- Revision 1 | ACT Alliance

SYRIA: Syria Protracted Crisis – Developing the Resilience of Affected People – SYR231 | ACT Alliance

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant groups launched a major attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The attack included rocket barrages and vehicle-transported attacks across the border on Israeli communities and forces. In response, the government of Israel declared a state of emergency and war; The Israeli military retaliated by conducting a counteroffensive and an extensive aerial bombardment campaign on Gaza followed by an invasion.

This conflict created a short-term crisis for families from Gaza Strip, as many of the Gazans who were visiting Jordan, families and students, were severely affected and got stuck due to the borders closure into Gaza and were not able to return. Thus, forcing them to stay in Jordan with no source of income and having to cover their own survival needs in Jordan such as paying rent, securing their basic daily needs (food, non-food, medications), and students who are already studying at the Jordanian universities lost all financial support to continue their studies Adding to this, the context created a negative impact on psychological wellbeing of these people who were stuck in Jordan resulting a sense of helplessness, stress, and insecurity.

There is no ceasefire in sight and therefore the situation of Gaza families and students is expected to continue at least for three from the time a ceasefire is reached.

ACT Jordan Forum member DSPR is planning to support around 1,230 most vulnerable people directly affected by the current conflict  with MPCA, shelter and MHPSS.

RRF15-2023 Jordan

Kenya and Tanzania are witnessing widespread flooding attributed to the El Nino phenomenon, leading to the loss of lives, livelihoods and causing displacement.

According to the Government of Kenya nearly 950,000 people across the country are affected, close to 89,000 households (534,000 people) are displaced and 160 people have lost their lives.

According to the latest information from UNOCHA the death toll due to flooding and mudslides in Tanzania has risen to 88 persons, with 139 injured and 5,600 people affected according to the Tanzania government official report on 11^th December 2023.

Members of ACT Kenya Forum (NCCK, KELC, CWS) and members of ACT Tanzania Forum (ELCT, TCRS, CCT) are planning to response to the floods through a regional appeal.

EAR 231 Floods Response

Consolidated Results Framework-Kenya Tanzania

Since 2019 Lebanon has been experiencing a series of disasters ranging from the beginning of an economic crisis, the outbreak of COVID-19, and the devastating 2020 Beirut Blast. Combined with the political deadlock in the country and the inability to reach a common understanding of how the country should proceed, the economic crisis only worsened to extreme lengths. As a result, the Lebanese currency continued to depreciate while inflation increased. More people fell into poverty and those already classified as vulnerable are now in a much more difficult position, large numbers of people can no longer afford to pay for basic needs. This made them unable to afford healthcare and education as money is very scarce and only covers necessities of food. Assessments among the affected population highlighted the need for food, cash assistance, rehabilitation and psychosocial support.

The extension for additional 12 months of the appeal is based upon the needs assessments of ACT members in the appeal DSPR and MECC, and  arises from the high humanitarian needs on ground to respond to the current crises in Lebanon as the appeal was underfunded.

LEB211 Appeal – Extension