Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development

ACTED (French: Agence d'Aide à la Coopération Technique Et au Développement), formerly 'Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development', is a French humanitarian NGO established in 1993.[1] It is a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organization committed to supporting vulnerable populations around the world. ACTED's teams work in 36 countries, responding to emergency situations, whilst also supporting rehabilitation and development. ACTED implements more than 450 projects a year reaching 8 million people, with a c. €200 million budget and more than 400 international staff and 4,300 national staff. It is the second largest French NGO after Médecins Sans Frontières. ACTED has its head office in Paris and network offices in London and Washington, D.C..[2]

ACTED
Founded1993
OriginsKabul, Afghanistan and Paris, France
Area served
Worldwide
Revenue
c. 200m EUR
Websiteacted.org

ACTED was initially established in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1993, distributing coal and bread to bakeries to cope with bread shortages. Activities quickly expanded around the country and then to wider Central Asia. From here, ACTED's work spread to Africa, Central America, the Middle East and South East Asia.[3] In 2017, ACTED became the highest ranked new entry in the "NGO Advisor" Top 500 NGOs, at #33, and was marked "one of six organizations to watch".[4]

The ACTED Group also contains the Oxus Network - a microfinance institution created by ACTED in 2005[5] and IMPACT Initiatives - a leading think-and-do tank created in 2010.[6] ACTED is also one of the seven member NGOs of Alliance2015, along with Cesvi, Concern Worldwide, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, Hivos, People in Need (Czech Republic) and Welthungerhilfe. This represents a strategic partnership dedicated to fighting poverty more effectively by cooperating on various levels, working together in the least developed countries and influencing and campaigning together at EU level.[7]

Activities

Approach and commitment

ACTED teams are devoted to supporting vulnerable communities throughout the world and accompanying them in building a better future by providing a response adapted to specific needs. By ensuring the link between Emergency, Rehabilitation and Development, ACTED's teams guarantee that interventions made in a situation of crisis are useful and sustainable, because only long term support – by remaining in the area post emergency and involving communities – can end the poverty cycle and accompany populations on the road to development.

ACTED's teams on the field are implementing more than 450 projects in those fields: responding to emergencies and building disaster resilience, food security, health promotion, education and training, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, economic development, microfinance, institutional support and regional dialogue, cultural promotion.

With its experience working closely with vulnerable communities at the heart of situations that they live in throughout the world, ACTED contributes to reaching the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is engaged in the definition of the sustainable development goals, advocating for an integrated approach, co-construction and global partnership.

In association with several French, European and International partners, ACTED is committed to promoting and developing innovative approaches and initiatives, humanitarian principles, new forms of solidarity and convergences between private and public actors and NGOs from the North and the South covering themes such as aid efficiency and transparency, evaluation, information and coordination of humanitarian emergencies, promotion of local governance and civil society strengthening, sustainable access to income and microfinance, prevention and reduction of catastrophes, the link between development aid, sustainable development and social business, food security, etc.

Areas of intervention

ACTED intervenes in 8 particular fields: coordination of humanitarian emergencies, food security, health promotion, education and training, economic development, microfinance (see below), advocacy, institutional support, regional dialogue and cultural promotion.

Microfinance

ACTED has been engaged in microfinance since 1997, initiating microloans activities in a humanitarian context, led in partnership with numerous growing actors from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds. ACTED created OXUS, a network of microfinance institutions, aiming at a convergence of initiatives between development activities, technologic innovations, financial instruments, public policies and individual initiatives. All those actors contribute to creating a sustainable microfinance model to help fulfill the Sustainable development goals and to reduce poverty.

History

1993: ACTED is founded in Afghanistan.

1995: food emergency projects and distribution of flour and coal to Kabul bakeries to address bread shortages.

1996: ACTED's activities expanded to the entire country and subsequently to neighbouring countries, namely Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, with the aim of developing a regional strategy throughout Central Asia.

1997: the organization continued its expansion, opening its first office in Africa to support conflict-affected populations in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville).

1998: ACTED deployed teams in Nicaragua, following the Hurricane Mitch disaster, and in the Balkans after the conflict in Kosovo.

2003: activities in the Middle-East, to support the Iraqi population, linked with the office in Amman (Jordan).

2004: ACTED continued its involvement in Central Africa by opening missions in Chad and Sudan to respond to the Darfur crisis.

2005: the organization has started emergency reconstruction activities in South Asia after the tsunami disaster, and started working in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and then Pakistan.

2006: programmes in the Middle East, intervening in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territory to implement emergency programmes.

2008: ACTED intervened to provide relief to the populations of Africa, with new programmes starting in the Central African Republic, Kenya and Somalia. The organization also started providing relief and supporting the populations of Myanmar affected by the Nargis Cyclone and implementing projects in Vietnam.

2009: ACTED has been implementing food security interventions for the populations of Zimbabwe since October 2009, and launched projects in Cambodia on HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

2010: food security programmes to address the food crisis in Niger and Zimbabwe and disaster preparedness and risk mitigation project in Vietnam.

2011: ACTED started programs in Jordan, as well has responded to the emergencies in Libya and the Ivory Coast.

2012: The Bopha typhoon mobilized ACTED in the Philippines, while a regional office was set up in Bangkok to support in parallel Myanmar refugees in Thailand. ACTED also responded to the refugee crises in South Sudan, Jordan and Iraq.

2013: ACTED responded to the typhoon Haiyan emergency in the Philippines and is now accompanying the recovery of affected populations and the rehabilitation phase.

2014: emergency interventions in Central African Republic and South Sudan.

2015: ACTED responded to the Nepal emergency following the first of two earthquakes in April 2015 with vital humanitarian aid. Today, ACTED's operations in the country are moving towards a rehabilitation phase.

2020: On August 9, 2020, six French volunteers from the association based in Niger and their two Nigerian guides were assassinated by armed jihadists on motorcycles. The group were out for an excursion in the Kouré giraffe reserve , about sixty kilometers south-east of Niamey , aboard a vehicle of the organization.[8]

ACTED's teams remain fully mobilized today in response to the Syrian refugee crisis. Active in the region since 2004 and committed in assisting vulnerable Syrian refugees and host populations since the very beginning of this crisis, ACTED has expanded relief operations to ensure continued access to essential human needs, as the population and their needs rapidly expanded and evolved in the last couple of years.

ACTED contributes to reach the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is engaged in the definition of the sustainable development goals, advocating for an integrated approach, co-construction and global partnership with http://www.convergences2015.org, Pansons le Monde, the Hunger barometer, https://web.archive.org/web/20160119134843/http://www.mission.terre-ocean.org/, La Boudeuse, the Food Right Now campaign, the Bactria center, and the Impact Initiatives think tank, with the REACH programme.

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References
  1. "About Us". ACTED. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  2. "Our countries of intervention". ACTED. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  3. "Background". ACTED. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  4. "6 organizations to watch". DEVEX. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  5. "Our History". Oxus Network. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  6. "Who We Are". IMPACT Initiatives. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  7. "About Alliance2015". Alliance2015. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  8. https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2020/08/09/niger-huit-personnes-dont-six-touristes-francais-tuees-par-des-hommes-armes_6048537_3212.html
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