About ACT Alliance

Basic facts about ACT Alliance

    • ACT Alliance is composed of more than 125 member organisations working in long-term development, humanitarian assistance and advocacy
    • Members work in 140 countries
    • Members employ around 30,000 staff and volunteers
    • Members mobilise approximately $1.6 billion each year
    • The alliance was created on 1 January 2010 by bringing together the efforts, resources, people and organisations who have been working together since 1995 as ACT International and since 2007 as ACT Development.
    • The alliance is supported by an international Secretariat of 22 staff based in Geneva, Switzerland

      Our vision
      The ACT Alliance works towards a world community where all God’s creation lives with dignity, justice, peace and full respect for human rights and the environment.

      Our Mission
      Members of the alliance work together for positive and sustainable change in the lives of people affected by poverty and injustice through coordinated and effective humanitarian, development and advocacy work. We work with and for people of all faiths and none.

      International networks and standards
      The ACT Alliance is a member of the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP). ACT is also a member of AlertNet.

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      ACT is a signatory to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief and is committed to the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and the Global Humanitarian Platform’s Principles of Partnership.

      Membership
      Members and official observers of the ACT Alliance are:

      See the full list of members on the ACT Alliance Members page.

      Governance
      The alliance has a General Assembly (GA) of all members which meets every four years. A Governing Board of up to 21 representatives is drawn from the GA and meets annually. The Governing Board is supported by a smaller Executive Committee of up to 13 persons (seven being members of the GB, and six selected from the wider membership based on specialised knowledge that they can contribute). See the Governance page for details of who are on the governance bodies.

      The Secretariat
      The ACT Secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland and has a staff of 22 people from around the world. Its role is to support the membership and governance through global level coordination, collaboration and facilitation of special initiatives, thematic groups, policy engagement and ACT’s response mechanisms for coordinated humanitarian programmes. This includes the coordination of finances, material aid and personnel mobilised by members in response to emergencies and the processing of ACT appeals from members. The Secretariat also supports international communications, capacity building of the alliance members and global representation of the alliance in different platforms, networks and UN and multilateral bodies.

      What does the ACT Alliance do?
      Members of the ACT alliance work together for positive and sustainable change in the lives of impoverished, marginalised and vulnerable women, men, girls and boys through coordinated and effective humanitarian, development and advocacy work.

      We support communities to find sustainable ways to:

      • overcome poverty
      • adapt to changes in their environment and reduce the risk of future disasters
      • cope with and be better prepared for emergencies
      • recover from major setbacks due to conflicts or war, and
      • influence their governments and other decision-makers to fulfill their duties in protect basic rights.

      We work with and for people of all faiths and none. We give priority to the poorest and most vulnerable people in areas of the world with the greatest need for external assistance. And we work to enable and strengthen existing capacity and resources, putting communities at the centre.

      We work to uphold ethical and professional standards of transparency and accountability to the communities we serve, to those whose resources we are asked to be stewards of, and to each other. In all of this, we are committed as an alliance to learning, coordinating and collaborating with each other and others to increase the difference we make.

        See the What we do page

        See the members of ACT

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