ACT Alliance General Assembly Opens

The ACT Alliance third Assembly opened on October 28 at the Uppsala Konsert & Kongress (UKK) in Uppsala, Sweden. The opening event on gender justice was followed by an evening of worship and reflection at the Uppsala Cathedral. The primary issues on the agenda for decision-making at the Assembly are:

1. A Global Strategy for the ACT Alliance: 2019 – 2026
2. Engagement Model for ACT Membership
3. Revision of ACT Alliance Statutes
4. Elections of Governing Board, Membership and Nominations Committee and Officers of the Board.
5. Appointment of Auditors
6. Created Equal: Gender Justice at the Assembly

On the first day of the Assembly, participants had the opportunity to join a special event on gender justice. The Assembly heard from high-level church, youth, UN, and civil society leaders on the significance of gender justice. “A key element of our faith is based on the conviction that every person is loved and is created by God and has the same dignified rights”, said the head of the Church of Sweden, Archbishop Antje Jackelén, during a press conference held after a gender justice event at the General Assembly of ACT Alliance, on 28 October. “Gender justice is a win-win concept for everybody”, said Jackelén, who also emphasised the transformative power of faith communities in addressing unjust realities for women. 

Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Nguka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, emphasised the opportunities that faith communities have to push for a transformative agenda on women’s rights, and staunch the alarming pushbacks that have been progressing across regions of the world.According to the UN Women Executive Director, 19% of women and girls aged 15 – 49 have experienced sexual violence by their partners in the last 12 months alone. 

“We need the church to help minimise pushbacks and to build on the historical role that it has played to promote gender equality”, said Mlambo-Nguka. For Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of ACT Alliance, faith-based organisations have been historically at the forefront of protecting women’s rights and dignity, especially during humanitarian crisis and in fragile contexts.  “ACT alliance promotes human dignity for all. Faith-based organisations must be part of the solution and help shape a narrative where women and girls are equal”. The 3rd General Assembly of ACT Alliance goes on in Uppsala until 1 November. 

Sermon from Opening Worship

Hundreds of ­participants of ACT’s General Assembly and representatives of the Church of Sweden filtered into the Uppsala Cathedral for the Opening Worship of the Assembly. The service provided an opportunity for Assembly participants to worship and reflect together and to commit the week ahead into God’s hands. The sermon was delivered by the Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden, Antje Jackelén.

The service included prayers of gratitude from faith leaders of ACT Alliance, which was delivered in the three official languages of ACT: English, Spanish and French. “Loving God, we thank you for Action by Churches Together, for our membership of churches and related agencies working together in unity to serve in the world, participating in your mission of reconciliation and healing, and of lifting up signs of hope,” reads a section of the prayer.

“We thank you that through the work you have called us to do, ACT has been able to positively influence and witness change at local and global levels; supporting communities enduring or recovering from crisis, assisting communities to realize their hopes and visions for a better world for themselves and their families,” the prayer continues.

At the heart of the service was the theme of ACT’s Assembly, Hope In Action: Putting People First. “What a great topic for a General Assembly! Our world is yearning for hope, for credible hope. Behind the most tormenting issues facing humankind, the question of hope looms large,” said Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden, Antje Jackelén.

Putting people first is at the core of ACT’s work, it highlights ACT’s proactive approach to bringing hope to situations of crisis, poverty and injustice. It builds on ACT’s Christian values and the hope that we have in Christ.

“Hope In Action, claims to be credible hope, liberating and empowering… It does not put one’s own particular interests first. It puts people and their natural and social environments first. Also, it does not put human failure first; it puts human rights first,” continued Archbishop Jackelén.

The Assembly theme of Putting People First will remain relevant as ACT continues to mobilise ambitious commitments and actions from members that put people first.

The new time starts now

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria
ACT General Secretary

Welcome to Uppsala and to the 3rd ACT General Assembly! We have finally arrived to celebrate our achievements, but also to raise a new parameter for our Alliance. We have a big responsibility to define new scopes and perspectives for our work together. That will be an exciting exercise due to our diversity and what we represent together.

In this Assembly we want to acknowledge the uniqueness of every participant and make every possible effort to nurture their full participation in all sessions, which is crucial to promote the holistic dimension of our coming together. It will include moments of celebration, deliberation, decision and affirmation of our further journey as an alliance.

One of the major topics for this Assembly is the affirmation of the new strategic direction for the Alliance. To begin another journey of enthusiasm and achievements, it is important that we celebrate the fact that we are the world´s biggest Protestant and Orthodox humanitarian, development and advocacy network. This status already puts a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.

Our Assembly occurs in a moment in which the world is facing division, polarization, populism and attacks against democracy, where values are being questioned and human dignity undermined. As ACT, we are not free from these world dynamics, and as with any other organization or sector, we are exposed to situations that may undermine our Christian principles and values.

As we start our assembly, it is important that we have in mind the founding values and principles of our Alliance, which all members subscribed when they became part of ACT. I urge all participants that all our discussions, deliberations and decisions during the Assembly prevail on these principles. It is important that we are bound together by several core values that are grounded in our Christian faith and which guide our work.

We believe that all persons are created in the image of God. Therefore, we act in ways that respect dignity, uniqueness, and the intrinsic worth and human rights of every human being, irrespective of race, gender, belief, nationality, ethnicity or political persuasion, and that make us to commit ourselves to listening to, learning from, and sharing experiences with other members in order to improve the quality of our work and draw on the rich diversity of our alliance. The Assembly days are not enough to embrace all the richness of our work, nor to go deeply into the topics that require our attention as members and as alliance. However, this is the beginning of a new phase, which is the start of our deep engagement in the life of the Alliance and our response to the situations that the people of the world expect from organizations like ours.

Let´s put our efforts and commitments together to shape a new and innovative way to work together in order to promote our values, beliefs and proposals.

The new time starts now!

The role of faith-based organisations in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals the conversation

Keynote addresses were delivered to the Assembly by Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Carin Jämtin, Director General of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.  

“Faith organizations and their leaders play a critical role in addressing the needs of those that are left behind,” said Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General, on 29 October, during a plenary of the 3rd General Assembly of ACT Alliance, being held in Uppsala, Sweden. Acknowledging the dedication and contribution of Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs), such as ACT Alliance, Mohammed said: “your efforts have earned you the trust of the communities you serve, and you are often directly engaged with those who are left furthest behind.”

“You are well placed to carry innovations and lessons learned across communities and national borders, to participate, to mediate, to often be those that help to heal communities,”added Mohammed. The UN leader was one of the speakers of a panel on the role of faith-based actors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “I am grateful to the ACT Alliance for making the SDGs a focus and an inspiration to its activities, finding common ground,” added Mohammed. “As an organisation working in more than 120 countries, you have a broad reach into communities around the world and tremendous ability to help socialise the SDGs in everyone’s life,” she said. The UN Deputy Secretary-General concluded by reflecting on the shared objectives between the UN and the FBOs: a future of dignity, prosperity and peace on a healthy planet. “To reach this, we must deliver for the people we serve, stay true to our ambitious global goals and make good on our collective pledge to leave no one behind. Let us continue this partnership together,” she said.

Forum Good Practice Award

ACT Alliance is pleased to present the Forums Good Practice Award to the ACT Ethiopia Forum. The Forums Good Practice Award was launched in 2017. The initiative aims to strengthen the Alliance through the sharing of knowledge, expertise and experiences of ACT Forums around the world. The ACT Ethiopia Forum has demonstrated its engagement with other forums in the Alliance on ACT’s Global Strategic Aims. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), ACT’s Ethiopia Forum mapped its presence in various sectors throughout Ethiopia. The Forum made use of GIS technology to demonstrate the diversity and reach of ACTat a national level. The GIS map provides an opportunity to identify potential areas for cooperation and leverages the alliance as a key national partner in humanitarian and development work. 

Mr Girma Borishie Bati, from the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus Development and Social Services Commission(EECMY-DASSC), received the award on behalf of the Forum.

“On behalf of the ACT Ethiopia Forum, we would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to ACT Alliance for preparing such an inspiring mechanism to encourage forums,” said Mr Borishie Bati. 

“We know very well that we’re not perfect but we are moving towards better country-level collaboration and coordination with an enhanced capacity and commitment for the implementation of projects on the ground, putting people first as much as possible,” he continued.

The Forum has received USD 5,000inseed funding to implement an initiative in line with ACT’S Global Strategy. 

ACT hopes that the collection of good practices will help to celebrate, motivate and encourage forums to work together effectively.“This award and certificate of recognition will substantially motivate us as members of the Alliance, to work hard, hand in hand to sustain and further strengthen our collaboration and coordination in the future to promote and realise the underlying strategic objectives of ACT Alliance,” said Mr Borishie Bati. 

#YouthInAction

ACT Youth are seeking equal and genuine participation in the Alliance, as well as concrete and consistent platforms to engage within ACT. It is vital to acknowledge young people as vibrant and important components of the Alliance. And it is critical to create space for youth involvement, at management, program and decision-making levels. The Youth Statement is available here. 

Stories of Hope

Stories of Hope provide the opportunity to share and celebrate the inspiring work of ACT Alliance members, forums, advisory groups and communities of practice through their humanitarian, development and advocacy work. The stories from around the world demonstrate the assembly theme of Hope in Action: Putting People First. 

This Story of Hope from ACT member Church of Sweden tells the story of Esther, a community leader, a supporter of other women, and a refugee. Her story is one that is full of challenges, but ultimately of hope for herself and for other refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo thanks to programmes in psychosocial support from ACT member the Church of Sweden. 

More Stories of Hope are available on the ACT Alliance website.

The ACT Ethiopia Forum has demonstrated its engagement with other forums in the Alliance on ACT’s Global Strategic Aims. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), ACT’s Ethiopia Forum mapped its presence in various sectors throughout Ethiopia. The Forum made use of GIS technology to demonstrate the diversity and reach of ACTat a national level. The GIS map provides an opportunity to identify potential areas for cooperation and leverages the alliance as a key national partner in humanitarian and development work.

Mr Girma Borishie Bati, from the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus Development and Social Services Commission(EECMY-DASSC), received the award on behalf of the Forum.

“On behalf of the ACT Ethiopia Forum, we would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to ACT Alliance for preparing such an inspiring mechanism to encourage forums,” said Mr Borishie Bati.

“We know very well that we’re not perfect but we are moving towards better country-level collaboration and coordination with an enhanced capacity and commitment for the implementation of projects on the ground, putting people first as much as possible,” he continued.

The Forum has received USD 5,000inseed funding to implement an initiative in line with ACT’S Global Strategy.

ACT hopes that the collection of good practices will help to celebrate, motivate and encourage forums to work together effectively.“This award and certificate of recognition will substantially motivate us as members of the Alliance, to work hard, hand in hand to sustain and further strengthen our collaboration and coordination in the future to promote and realise the underlying strategic objectives of ACT Alliance,” said Mr Borishie Bati.