wfn.org | ACT Launches Major Initiative

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

ACT Initiates International Program
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: c/o carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC10/10/97  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACT LAUNCHES MAJOR INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE 
INITIATIVE
CWS Will Coordinate 15-Month Capacity Building Training 
Program

 NEW YORK, Oct. 10 ---- A new international training 
program coordinated by Church World Service aims to help 
vulnerable people in the poorest areas of the world build on 
their strengths to better survive natural disasters and 
violent civil conflicts.

Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global ecumenical 
network that includes CWS, has issued a $1.3 million appeal 
to fund the 15-month program.  In a pilot training and six 
workshops, 240 people in various parts of the world will 
learn disaster preparedness and response skills.

The appeal also will enable the United Methodist 
Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to develop a curriculum in 
emergency capacity building, for introduction in 1998, at 
the Africa University in Zimbabwe.

ACT is based with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) 
and the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, 
Switzerland.  ACT's participants asked CWS to serve as the 
lead agency for the capacity building program.

Bangladesh Illustrates the Need for Capacity Building

Susanta Adhikari, Director of the Christian Commission 
for Development in Bangladesh, uses his country as an 
example of why a program that emphasizes local involvement 
and a long-term perspective is essential.

Mr. Adhikari was one of the participants in a working 
group, representing various international donors and 
implementing partners, including ACT and CWS, which met in 
New York Sept. 8-9 to study the proposal and suggest 
geographic areas for the trainings.

In the past 20 years in his country, Mr. Adhikari 
explained, there has been serious flooding every other year.  
In the past, the response of some international agencies has 
been to provide short-term solutions, such as building dams 
and roads.  However, the long-term consequences of these 
solutions worsened the flooding by upsetting the already 
delicate balance between the land and the sea.

In Bangladesh, emergency response workers had to learn 
that "you cannot fight the water" in a country that has 
"more rainfall than any part of the world," Mr. Adhikari 
said.  Instead of trying to stop the flooding, their tactic 
now is to provide proper training to mitigate the effects so 
that the most vulnerable people can cope.  For example, CWS 
has provided staff, funding and technical support to build 
widely used cyclone shelters.  These shelters have been 
credited for reducing casualties in recent cyclones in 
Bangladesh.

"We have learned that in many situations, it's not 
tools or structures that we need to give people, but 
knowledge," said Dirk Van Gorp, ACT Appeals Officer from 
Geneva, Switzerland.

This knowledge includes directing people back to their 
indigenous and faith-based practices, said Mr. Adhikari.  He 
noted that in Bangladesh, Hindu and Muslim fishermen did not 
fish at certain times as part of their religion.  It turns 
out that this practice is actually an important way to 
maintain resources.

"We have to have the insight of the past to plan for 
the future," Mr. Adhikari said.

Program Addresses Basic Survival Issues

The capacity building program will begin with a pilot 
training December 7-14 in Pakistan.  "Then six training 
workshops, approximately 6 days each, will focus at the 
grass roots level and will be basic and foundational," said 
Rick Augsburger, CWS Emergency Response Office Director.  
"While there will be approximately 240 beneficiaries of the 
training from local NGOs and churches, there will be a large 
number of persons who will indirectly benefit from the 
effective leadership provided in their communities by the 
trainees."

The most basic survival issues are at stake, said Rev. 
Benjamin Kanina of Kenya, who serves as Executive Director 
of Christian Community Services/Mt. Kenya East and is a 
member of the working group.  "If a local community can 
better cope with a disaster, then people can continue to 
make a living and keep life going."

Developing "improved capacity" will better serve those 
most affected by disaster situations, particularly 
vulnerable groups such as mothers, children, the disabled 
and the elderly.  "Building local capacity - as opposed to 
being dependent on international NGOs for emergency 
assistance - can result in a more sound emergency response 
because local partners better know the situation on the 
ground," said Admasu Simeso, Program Secretary for Training 
and Exchange for the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva and 
a participant in the Sept. 8-9 meetings.

Capacities which need to be strengthened include 
assessment, monitoring, early warning and preparedness 
systems; identifying and working with those most in need of 
assistance; accurate and effective communications 
strategies; systems for cooperation among response groups in 
the recovery process, and effective leadership in the 
implementation of preparedness and response programs.

At its most basic level, capacity training teaches 
people "don't put all your eggs in one basket, but put five 
eggs in five baskets," according to Rev. Kanina.

Local Ownership of Program is Crucial

"One of the problems in Rwanda and Zaire was that we 
had little experience working with local partners, so that 
when the crises hit, there were no networks we could depend 
on to keep them from escalating," said Mr. Van Gorp.

"We are no stronger than our weakest link," concurred 
Ms. Birte Hald from Denmark, Relief Coordinator for 
DanChurchAid, "and our weakest links need strengthening."

The working group recommended that participants 
selected for the trainings be "close to the ground" rather 
than heads of agencies.  "For this program to work, the idea 
of local ownership is crucial," said Mr. Simeso.

Because of the reduced capacity in Western Africa, the 
working group agreed that there should be a training in the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Other areas suggested 
were the "Great Lakes Region" of Africa, centered in Kenya; 
India/Bangladesh/Nepal; the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

To ensure long-term local development, "training will 
only be the first step," emphasized Mr. Augsburger.  "Every 
training participant will also develop an action plan that 
identifies how he or she plans to engage in capacity 
development in his/her local communities."

The capacity building program is all about recognizing 
and building on the strengths of local communities, 
according to the organizers.  The joint ACT/UMCOR program at 
the African University in Old Mutare, Zimbabwe, "will 
institutionalize training so that students from diverse 
ethnic and religious backgrounds can provide indigenous 
leadership in their communities," Mr. Augsburger said.

"It is important to acknowledge that people all over 
the world act all the time, both as individuals and as 
communities, to mitigate disasters," said Mr. Sstein 
Villumstad of Norway, who serves as Emergencies Coordinator 
for Norwegian Church Aid.  "This kind of training is needed 
for situations that go beyond the normal coping mechanisms.  
In those situations, if people do not have specific skills 
and leadership, time is lost and more people are hurt, 
displaced or killed."

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