ACT Japan Forum Update
Emergency Response to Typhoon Hagibis in Japan

After Typhoon Faxai that majorly struck the Kanto Region on September 9th 2019, Boso Peninsula have got devastating damage due to Typhoon Hagibis that made a landfall to Japan on October 12th. Typhoon Hagibis has torn off plastic sheets with which the Self-Defense Forces officers and firefighters attempted to repair roofs of the affected people’s houses as emergency response to Typhoon Faxai. Torrential rainfall that subsequently hit the area on October 25th 2019 caused rain leaking through the roofs.  Tateyama City in Chiba Prefecture, where ACT Japan Forum’s assistance was focused, had to face these series of disasters in such a short period.

However, Social Welfare Council in Tateyama City decided to close their volunteer center while many of the affected houses had been left unrestored. The temporary disaster waste dumping site was closed by the city government subsequently.  As a consequent, a number of the affected people, particularly the vulnerable people including the elderly, had been left behind before they rebuild their lives. The Japan Forum started to lead the response through the Social Welfare Council in Tateyama City in which the majority was heavily affected in order to provide the vulnerable people with supports since the end of October in cooperation with a faith-based international NGO, Operation Blessing Japan. Those targeted people whom Japan Forum has worked for are mostly the elderly who are not be able to remove fallen trees and clean mold spreading in their houses due to constant exposure to rain.

During the response, in total 107 affected households were supported by 179 volunteers who came to Tateyama City through the Japan Forum. One of the achievements in the response is that local CSOs and church took over the supports for the affected people after Japan Forum withdrew.

In order to prepare for another disaster in the future, ACT Japan Forum is building a network in Japan and a new program in collaboration with partners for the vulnerable people who are hard to be reached in disasters based on their lessons learnt from the response to the disaster in this time.

• By end of January, NCCP had completed its emergency response to the Mindanao earthquakes which happened in the months of October and December last year. Through the ACT Alliance Rapid Response Fund, NCCP provided food packs to 2,035 affected families in the provinces of Cotabato and Davao del Sur. Medical mission and psychosocial support activities were also undertaken by NCCP member churches belonging to the Cotabato Regional Ecumenical Council (COREC).
• NCCP and World Renew raised an appeal in February to respond to the multiple disasters in the Philippines in the last quarter of 2019, affecting about 5.8 million people across eight out of the Philippines’ 17 administrative regions.
• As part of their advocacy for COVID-19, NCCP strongly urged the Philippine government to enhance its (whole-of-society) coordination mechanisms to involve civil society groups and engage the communities in responding to this emergency rather than a whole-of-government and military approach. NCCP also pushed for more efforts in educating the public for community quarantine and increase the support for frontliners, particularly medical staff, and mass testing.

Find here the statement from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines: https://www.facebook.com/nationalcouncilofchurchesinthephilippines/posts/2213705968938177

Community World Service Asia Booklet Q&A for PCM – January 2020

ACT Alliance is the largest Protestant/Orthodox alliance in the world that engages in humanitarian, sustainable development and advocacy work, with over 155 members present and working in over 127 countries around the world.

Together, we strive for a world where all may live with dignity, justice, peace and full respect for human rights and the environment. The 2018 Annual Report is available for download below.

Annual Report 2018 English

Annual Report 2018 Spanish

Annual Report 2019 French

ACT Alliance Statutes EN

ACT Alliance Statutes SP

ACT Alliance Statutes FR

The ACT Alliance governance has agreed that the following elements will comprise the funding base for the ACT forums and secretariat:

• A Forum fee that is paid by all members and observers into the forum where their headquarter is located.
• An Income-Based Fee (IBF) that is paid by all organizations whose annual income is over USD 5 million. The income related fee is based on a percentage of the total income of the organization (see definition below) as set by the Governing Board.
• An International Coordination Fee (ICF), which is levied on appeals issued by the ACT Secretariat.
• Voluntary contributions over and above the fees will be sought for specific programmes in order to ensure the adequate funding of the core budget.

Procedure for Funding the ACT Alliance Forums and Secretariat

ACT Alliance Submitted a Statement to the UN Commission on Population and Development. ACT members and partners have been engaged in various events at the 51st Session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD51).

“As a coalition of over 140 churches and faith based organizations working in humanitarian
response and human rights-based development in over 100 countries, ACT Alliance affirms our
commitment to the Programme of the International Conference on Population and Development,
urges its full implementation and calls for a joint resolution at the 51st session of the Commission
on Population and Development. ACT Alliance is committed to ensure gender equality as a
common value and believes that gender equality and access to sexual and reproductive health and
rights is a prerequisite for ensuring the enjoyment of other rights and for poverty reduction.

We welcome the theme of the Commission “Sustainable cities, human mobility, and
international migration” as the needs and rights of some of the most marginalized in the world,
particularly migrant women and girls, requires urgent resolution. Substantive progress is
desperately needed in view of the grave human rights infringements and consequences for
population policies by growing numbers of refugees, migrants, and displaced people in the world
today.”

The full Statement is available here.