ACT Alliance: Giant global humanitarian body to be created

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA -- Church-based emergency and development organisations are about to create one of the world’s biggest networks.

The name of the new body will be the ACT Alliance with a common income of more than US$2 billion dollars and a staff of 40,000, including volunteers. The formal launch of the new alliance will take place in March of next year in Malawi.

The General Assembly of ACT Development, holding its meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina decided today to unify with the emergency network, ACT International. Both alliances are based in Geneva, bringing together more than 150 agencies, churches and organisations. Through emergency appeals, ACT International coordinates humanitarian operations all over the world, and has been recently active in hot spots like Sri Lanka, Gaza, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Colombia and India. ACT Development works on long-term development issues and coordinates work in areas such as aid effectiveness, impact assessment and malaria. The members of the alliances come from both the global north and south.

The director of ACT International, John Nduna, says the new movement will be a professional and Christian alliance working on emergency and development. ACT saves thousands of lives every year, it is impossible to say how many.

The magic of ACT is the cooperation with churches all over the world. When most infrastructure collapses, there is still a church that operates and that we are working with. That represents a unique network.

Forty representatives at the ACT Development General Assembly voted for the unification with two votes against.

Presbyterian World Service and Development is being represented at the ACT Development Assembly by Ken Kim, PWS&D’s Director. Rick Fee, General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency and past PWS&D Director has been serving on the ACT International Board for the last eight years. That body voted last month in favour of establishing the new merged ACT Alliance.