Annual Report 2013 Stronger together: working for a climate-stable future Who we are Rooted 25,000 in the communities staff and volunteers we serve 76% global south 22% global countries north 2% global Working together for sustainable change organisations Contents 1 ACT in numbers 12 ACT in Asia 20 ACT in development and advocacy Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines Middle East: EU action 2 Introduction by General Secretary Floods in Cambodia Indonesia: fighting for resilience 140 John Nduna India: floods and landslides Guatemala: upholding the rights 3 ACT over a year India: Cyclone Phailin of indigenous women Kenya: campaigning for peace Following the 6 ACT in emergencies 15 ACT in the Caribbean Climate justice is an ACT priority 6 ACT in Africa highest international Ongoing recovery in Haiti ACT’s voice in post-2015 development Drought in Namibia and Angola Bad business: taking a stand The displaced in the Central African 16 ACT working together for codes and standards Republic development Initiating inter-religious dialogue Gender equality and justice in the communities Cyclone in Madagascar 24 ACT Alliance members Climate change and conflict in Mali Disability-inclusive development we serve DRC refugees in Uganda Psychosocial support 26 ACT accounting for change Rights in development 28 Finance report 10 ACT in the Middle East Safety and security Ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria Protection 29 Governance 11 ACT in Eastern Europe Project impact Syrian refugees in Armenia DRR and adaptation to climate change Flash floods in Romania 1 Flood victims in Russia Fighting members44 Cover: Children run through the street in Timbuktu. The city, in northern Mali, was seized by Islamist fighters in 2012 and then liberated by French and Malian soldiers in early 2013. ACT poverty Alliance is helping displaced families return to Timbuktu. Achieving success through Photo: ACT/Paul Jeffrey coordinated humanitarian, This page: Fish from a polluted stream in Rodriguez, Philippines. Families were relocated here from other areas of Manila and the nearby countryside to make way for urban renewal projects. development and advocacy work With help from ACT members, communities have taken part in a process of disaster risk and injustice reduction, including identifying and mapping high-risk zones and evacuation routes in their area. Photo: ACT/Paul Jeffrey 1 Introduction by General Secretary John Nduna ACT over a year At the Hamedia camp for displaced people in Darfur, Sudan, students learn Arabic, English, mathematics and more. Tens of thousands of camp residents have access to clean water, healthcare, free medicine, schools, and other services thanks to projects supported by ACT Alliance and Caritas Internationalis. Photo: ACT Caritas/Laura Shea ACT General Secretary John Nduna talks with Mercy Estosane and a translator in Bacubac, Philippines. The province of Samar was badly affected by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. Photo: ACT/Paul Jeffrey The number of people living in extreme poverty – ACT earning less than US$1.25 a day – has halved in the past two decades. Yet the violent and fragile nature over a year ACT members raised US$34.8m of so many of these lives remains. ACT Alliance is for our emergency appeals in 2013, with the largest amounts committed to continuing to champion humanitarian directed to the most critical humanitarian disasters: US$8m and development issues. for relief following the typhoon in the Philippines; US$7.2m for lifesaving materials for Syrians The year 2013 ended with three extreme As we strive towards accountability humanitarian and advocacy work. emergencies – in Syria, the Philippines as an alliance – to donors, beneficiaries, The core value of our alliance displaced both within the and the Central African Republic. All of members, partners and colleagues – we continues to lie squarely in the work of country and in neighbouring them were designated the highest level are proud that the ACT Secretariat was our members and partners, who every states; and US$7.1m for the of humanitarian crisis by the United this year certified with the Humanitarian day seek to tackle poverty and respond to Sudanese people of Darfur Nations. These represent the types of Accountability Partnership’s 2010 HAP emergencies caused by wars and natural living in camps. In total, 29 protracted, weather-related and civil Standard in Accountability and Quality disasters. Thank you for your support – emergency appeals were issued. emergencies to which the world has sadly Management. As the first secretariat of political, financial, in-kind and seconded This year we outlined the become more accustomed. The United a global alliance to be certified by HAP, – and for your unfailing commitment targets we’d like to see set when Nations High Commissioner for Refugees we have set a benchmark for future to a world free of injustice, inequality the Millennium Development (UNHCR) says that in 2013, some 15.6 alliances. We will continue to push for and poverty. million people were classed as internally greater accountability in the sector: the Goals (MDGs) come to an end displaced and 10 million were living as Steering Committee for Humanitarian in 2015; and as new climate refugees. The Organisation for Economic Response (SCHR) is in the process of agreements are being shaped, Cooperation and Development (OECD) creating a certification system, and core we have begun paving the way says that by 2015, half of the world’s humanitarian standards for humanitarian for our most ambitious climate population living on less than US$1.25 agencies are also being written – two campaign yet. a day will be in fragile states. processes in which ACT and our John Nduna Alongside all of this, our One issue that will demand more of members have played active roles. General Secretary members’ work has continued to our time as an alliance, with increasing Our membership grew again this ACT Alliance tackle the long-term, life-saving urgency, is climate change. Many stories year. We have a total of 144 members in this report cover catastrophes caused as we move into the final phase of our and resilience-building efforts by extreme weather. And our work in current strategic plan. We are developing that help communities recover advocating for new climate ambition is as a new strategy to take us from 2015 to from conflict, improve their important as the relief work our members 2018 – one that will more effectively livelihoods and run effective carry out across the globe. combine our strengths in development, education, health and sanitation programmes. 2 ACT Alliance Annual Report 2013 ACT Alliance Annual Report 2013 3 ACT over a year ACT over a year “ACT Alliance is committed to continuing to champion humanitarian and development issues” John Nduna, General Secretary January to March April to June July to September October to December A child sleeps in the sand in Timbuktu, Mali. ACT Alliance is helping Relief materials in transit to support hundreds of thousands of people Sanaa is a Palestinian Syrian refugee. She and her family fled Yarmouk Arakhakuda village, Orissa, India, a few days after Cyclone Phailin hit. The families who fled during the period of Islamist control in 2012-13 to whose homes are destroyed by earthquakes in Sichuan and Gansu refugee camp in Damascus, in February 2013, to go to Lebanon. At first they damage to buildings and housing left a million people homeless. Many return to the north of Mali and restart their lives. provinces, China. slept on the streets. Now they live in a small, cold, dark apartment. destitute families face having to rebuild from scratch. ACT/Paul Jeffrey ACT/Amity Foundation ACT/Natalie Naccache ACT/CASA ACT members start the year continuing humanitarian Moves advance to integrate APRODEV, the advocacy body The appeal for Syria totals US$6.4m by this stage of the conflict. ACT is one of a handful of organisations invited to address the relief operations in Syria, where fighting has at this stage of ecumenical European development organisations, into • Another earthquake shakes China, this time in Gansu UN’s Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable killed 70,000 people. Several ACT members assist affected ACT Alliance. • Concern about gross human rights violations province, and ACT responds with an appeal. • ACT issues Development Financing during its civil society organisation populations through an ACT appeal both inside Syria and in in garment factories, following the Rana Plaza collapse in an appeal for Andhra Pradesh, India, following heavy floods. (CSO) session. • Civil society leaders from 30 countries meet Lebanon and Jordan. At the UN Syria funding conference, Bangladesh, leads ACT to make a submission to the UN Office Elsewhere in India, Maharashtra state faces extreme food in Blantyre, Malawi, for an ACT conference on restrictions to ACT calls for increased aid and predicts that Syrian refugee of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) about insecurity caused by drought • An appeal issued for CSOs. • Appeals issued in this period include those for the numbers will exceed UN estimates. • In post-conflict Mali, business enterprises and human rights. • Representing faith rural Angolan families aims to alleviate suffering caused by Central African Republic, the Darfur programme, Cyclone members set out to strengthen the resilience of communities organisations, ACT takes part in the second Civil Society drought and restore livelihoods • In neighbouring Namibia, Phailin in India and Typhoon Haiyan in the