Act International
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies.
ACT's members are Protestant and Orthodox churches and their related agencies, drawn from the membership of the World Council of Churches and The Lutheran World Federation.
Established on August 25, 1995, the global ecumenical organisation came into being as a result of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when churches and their related agencies around the world responded to the disaster through a mechanism that was ACT's precursor--the then Church Action Aid.
What We Do and How We Work
ACT offers assistance to people caught in natural and environmental disasters, as well as in emergencies caused by war and civil conflict. Striving to reach people in need across front lines, national borders, and other ethnic, political or religious divides, ACT provides assistance irrespective of race, gender, belief, nationality, ethnic origin or political persuasion. ACT and its members are signatories to the Code of Conduct in Disaster Relief and aim to uphold the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, known as the Sphere standards.
ACT has strong local roots within populations affected by humanitarian crises and is therefore able to provide locally based knowledge, analysis, and understanding of emergencies. ACT recognizes that, as vital as the identification of vulnerabilities and providing for people's immediate needs are when crises occur, these are only two links in a much longer chain. With its local roots, members of ACT are equipped and well-placed to lift up communities' own priorities and available coping mechanisms. Strengthening and developing local capacity lies at the heart of our responses to emergencies.
ACT members have expertise in a range of humanitarian emergency sectors: camp management, shelter, food and non-food distribution, health care and trauma counseling, water and sanitation, disaster preparedness, de-mining, protection, and the transition from relief to development, conflict resolution, and peace and reconciliation initiatives.
Act Coordinating Office
The ACT Coordinating Office facilitates the alliance's response to emergencies, provides quality control of appeals (including evaluations of larger programs), oversees funding flows, and distributes policies, standards and guidelines in humanitarian assistance. The Coordinating Office distributes news related to its members' responses to emergencies, supports their advocacy initiatives, as well as shares program and financial information about ongoing emergency and post-crisis operations with its members and partners. The director of the ACT Coordinating Office reports to the ACT Executive Committee.
The running cost of the ACT Coordinating Office in 2005 was US$1.74 million and was entirely funded through member contributions. The ACT Coordinating Office is based in the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland.
How Act is Goverened
ACT is governed by a General Assembly/Emergency Committee of 30 elected members from around the world who meet annually to shape ACT policy. An Executive Committee comprising eight of those members meets several times a year to oversee the implementation of policies and mandates of the ACT Coordinating Office. ACT International is registered as a legal entity in Switzerland.
ACT's founders, the World Council of Churches and The Lutheran World Federation, are members of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. The emergency network of the Catholic Church, Caritas Internationalis, is an observer to the ACT Emergency Committee. In a number of emergencies ACT members work in partnership with United Nations agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Program, and UNICEF.
ACT emergency funding is based on actions and information from its members, presented in alerts and appeals to assist people caught in emergencies. ACT can also respond with its Rapid Response Fund to meet urgent humanitarian needs.
How ACT'S Work is Funded
Members predominantly in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Pacific raise funds for this work from private donations, church collections, and partners such as ECHO (Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission) and individual governments.
In 2005, ACT’s emergency funding totaled US$122 million. Africa received US$40 million, Asia and the Pacific US$72.7 million, Europe US$0.6 million, Latin America and the Caribbean US$3.7 million and the Middle East US$4.3 million. US$700,000 was spent on Emergency Management Training in the Rapid Response Fund. | 
