ACT Alliance is a global

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

of more than 145 churches and related organisations from over 120 countries created to provide humanitarian aid for poor and

marginalized Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...

people. 76% of its member organisations are rooted on the global south, 22% in the global north and 2% have a global presence. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, a national citizen from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, is currently the General Secretary and Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen, General Secretary of DanChurchAid, is the current moderator of the organisation.

History

ACT Alliance was formed in 2010, merging two organisations: ACT International formed in 1995 to work on delivering

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

aid and ACT Development formed in 2007, towards a more coordinated approach to humanitarian assistance and development cooperation. ACT Alliance was formed with a starting membership of 130 organisations. The membership of the alliance is defined by a relation to the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

and the

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; ) is a global Communion (religion), communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish city of L ...

combined with a mandate to work on humanitarian assistance and/or development issues.

Thematic work areas

ACT Alliance provides humanitarian assistance when emergencies occur across the world and in 2015 responded to 43 emergencies worldwide. The alliance engages in advocacy in a number of thematic areas including the post-2015 process which in September 2015 generated the

Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

, issues of finance for development and development effectiveness, private sector accountability, migration, gender justice and

climate justice Climate justice is a type of environmental justice that focuses on the unequal impacts of climate change on marginalized or otherwise vulnerable populations. Climate justice seeks to achieve an equitable distribution of both the burdens of clima ...

. In countries with more than one ACT Alliance member organisation, members are encouraged to collaborate as national, and in some cases, regional, Forums. In 2016 ACT Alliance comprised 49 National Forums and 10 Regional Forums across the world. The third General Assembly of the ACT Alliance affirmed its New Global Strategy for the period 2019–2026. The main programmatic areas include: Gender Justice, Climate Justice, Peace and Human Security, Migration and Displacement, and Humanitarian Response and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Positions

ACT Alliance has a seat on the boards of the

Sphere Project Sphere (formerly known as the Sphere Project) is a global movement started in 1997 aiming to improve the quality of humanitarian assistance. The Sphere standards are the most commonly used and most widely known set of core humanitarian standards ...

and the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), and holds the position of vice-chair as a Principal of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR). In his capacity as representing SCHR, ACT Alliance General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is a Standing Invitee of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). ACT Alliance is also a member of the CHS Alliance, with the ACT Alliance secretariat having achieved HAP certification in 2013. In 2017 ACT Alliance Secretariat was certified against CHS standards.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Act Alliance Christian charities Organisations based in Geneva 2010 establishments in Switzerland