ACT Alliance is a globalalliance of more than 145 churches and related organisations working together in over 120 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalized people. ACT Alliance is supported by 25,000 staff from member organisations and mobilises about USD 3 billion for its work each year in the areas of humanitarian aid, development and advocacy. 76% of its member organisations are rooted on the global south, 22% in the global north and 2% have a global presence. ACT Alliance through its faith-based nature is deeply rooted in the communities it serves, and is therefore on the frontlines every day addressing systemic poverty, supporting survivors of disasters, wars and conflicts, training rural communities in sustainable agricultural techniques, helping people adapt to environmental change, and influencing governments and other key decision makers to safeguard citizens’ human rights. The global secretariat of ACT Alliance is based within Switzerland, Jordan, Thailand, El Salvador, Kenya and New York City. In addition, the ACT Alliance Advocacy office to the European Union is based in Brussels, Belgium. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is currently the General Secretary, a national citizen from Brazil, and Birgitte Qvist Sørensen, General Secretary of DCA, 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 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 and the Lutheran World Federation 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, issues of finance for development and development effectiveness, private sector accountability, migration, gender justice and climate justice. 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 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.
Quality and accountability
ACT Alliance is committed to demonstrating quality and accountability in every aspect of its work, and through its Quality and Accountability Framework lays out the standards of quality towards which the ACT Alliance governing bodies, ACT Alliance member organisations and the ACT Alliance secretariat are held to account. ACT Alliance has a seat on the boards of the Sphere Project and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, and holds the position of Vice-Chair as a Principal of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. In his capacity as representing SCHR, ACT Alliance General Secretary Rudelmar Bueno de Faria is a Standing Invitee of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. 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.
