ACT member Community World Service Asia is organizing Consultations for the Sphere Handbook revision process in collaboration with the ACT Alliance, ICVA and UNOCHA in Bangkok, Thailand.The purpose is to engage Sphere partners and practitioners in the on-going Sphere handbook revision process. In these consultations, we have the pleasure of hosting the Sphere Executive Director, Ms. Christine Knudsen.

Sphere Invitation Card Bangkok

Sphere Invitation Card Afghanistan

Sphere Invitation Card Pakistan[3]

From 18-21 April, six European ecumenical agencies will start a new journey in our cooperation model in Guatemala.

Christian Aid, ICCO, Bread for the World, Norwegian Church Aid, Church of Sweden and LWF launch the joint programme ‘ACTing Together/JOTAY’ in Guatemala. Jotay is a Mayan kaqchikel word that means ‘sprout’.

The joint programme will focus on gender justice, sustainable management of natural resources and Rule of Law. All of them are fundamental in the Guatemalan context as injustice and violence affect millions of indigenous people.

The launch includes meeting with the embassies of UK, Germany and Sweden, church leaders and government institutions, and a public debate on new strategies for the accompaniment to civil society in Guatemala.

ACTing Together/JOTAY is an important part of the Christian Aid Global Partnership perspective.

For more information, contact Moises Gonzalez in Central America at: mgonzalez@christian-aid.org

ACT member Community World Service Asia is holding a four day training  to strengthen organisations and individual’s capacity to:

• Enable organisations to develop their own briefing and training
  material to suit their needs
• Widen the pool of potential trainers at regional level
• Enhance understanding on CHS application in the organization
  including the challenges of implementation

The training will be conducted in English.

Who Should Attend?
Trainers, MEAL personnel, Project / Program Managers with facilitation/training experience.

Registration fee: 
US$ 1,100

For more information and to apply click here

A regional CHS training will take place in Amman, Jordan on 29 August.

For more information, contact georgeabuemil[at]gmail.com

ACT Alliance has been a co-chair in the Civil Society Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) since its establishment in 2010, and its major concepts lies within the Faith Based Organization Sector (FBO) where organizations from diverse faiths assemble together for the commitment of accountable and impactful transformational sustainable development.

This year, ACT Alliance will host the first Asia and The Pacific CPDE conference in Bangkok where policy and practice experts, faith leaders, and both regional and national FBOs from over 10 countries in Asia and the Pacific region will meet and collaborate with each other to discuss about the commitments to the Istanbul Principles for Development Effectiveness.

Additionally, the FBO Sector consists of the Training of Trainers (ToT) – a workshop where participants will have the opportunity to gain knowledge of the CPDE, Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) aid, and development effectiveness agenda. Likewise, they will also get to participate the plan of action for the Nairobi HLM2 of the GPEDC.

On the third day, there is going to be a public forum on the contributions to the FBO’s realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals  (SDGs) which set up in 2000 by world leaders who adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The purpose of the forum is to create awareness on the global agenda of the SDGs; review the faith based engagement in the Sustainable Development Agenda; examine how the faith based community could advocate on SDGs locally, regionally, and globally; and last but not least, to seek for collaboration with each other.

Click here to read more: CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness

A Global Skype Meeting: A new way of working COP DRR-CCA: membership and learning platform on 7th July 2017 at 15.00 CET

Objectives of CoP DRR/CCA;

1. The ACT Alliance is implementing a significant number of projects related to DRR and, CCA
2. The quality of such projects comply with international standards and state-of-the-art technologies
3. ACT Alliance is known for its competence related to such types of projects

As a rule the CoP is open & flexible in nature. As many people can join as participants as possible. Only requirement is that participants work for an ACT Alliance organization.

Proposal for future functioning of the CoP, serving more as a learning platform:

• We have 1 global CoP DRR/CCA, 1 global mail list as well.
• In addition, we propose to create sub –regional or regional CoP DRR-CCA that link to the global CoP.
• Proposed regional structures are 3 to start with:
  • regions Asia
  • region Africa
  • region Latin America
• Membership of a regional structure open & flexible in nature, like for the global CoP. It is expected that no separate EU/USA regional structure is needed, rather that people from these regions will join in the above suggested structures.
• Each regional structure has a ‘facilitator in the region’ appointed by the members in the region. This facilitator has the following tasks:
  • Act as a representative to the global CoP DRR/CCA
  • Organizing skype/online meetings in the region to discuss on topics relevant to the context of the region. Also to bring in global issues in this group (although these are communicated by mail through the global list as well).
  • Facilitate where feasible face-to-face interactions and exchanges in the region, e.g. linked to international events
• Purpose is for 1. learning and 2. increased communication, including increased possibilities for face-to-face meetings.

To discuss the above topic, we are calling for a global Skype meeting of CoP –DRR-CCA on 7^th  July at 15:00 CET

Meeting Agenda:

• ACT  COP-DRR-CCA  in regions:
• Drought Asia/Africa – role of CoP DRR-CCA

For more information about the event and interested in joining the discussion, please feel free to contact;

Chair: ICCO Cooperation, Jeroen Jurriens, jeroen.jurriens@icco-cooperation.org

Co-chair: Christian Aid, Jessica Dator Bercilla, JBercilla@christian-aid.org

ACT Alliance Secretarial Focal Point: ACT Alliance, Phichet Munpa (James), jmu@actalliance.org

Click here for  the programme

The training will be facilitated by James Davis, ACT Alliance Safety and Security Coordinator and member of the ACT Alliance Safety and Security Community of Practice.

The training will be hosted by the Amman based Jordan, Syria, Lebanon Forum.

A driver’s safety training course will also take place on 4 June for members in Jordan.

Kindly express your willingness to attend and the proposed number of participants from your organisation by Friday 18 March.

The course fees are as follows:

• International ACT member – USD250 per participant ( 5 day training)
• National ACT member – USD100 per participant (5 day training)
• First Aid only – USD50 per participant
• Gender security only – no cost

Please note: Travel and accommodation is at the expense of the participant organisation. Lunches and teas will be provided within the course fees.

For further details kindly get in touch with Felomain Nassar, ACT Alliance Regional Programme Officer for the Middle East at: Felomain.Nassar[at]actalliance.org

For more information contact anne.wachira[at]svenskakyrkan.se