POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Christian Aid works hard to shift the balance of power in decision making to the local level.
The current international humanitarian system in Bangladesh tends to be dominated by a few, large international organisations. These end up working with sizable international actors, who frequently ignore local and national actors. This creates an imbalanced power relation between international agencies and local ones. Locals end up on the periphery of a humanitarian response, and all that local knowledge, leadership, and capacity for decision making is lost.
One of our trusted partners in Bangladesh is ‘GUK.’ They work with locals to enable sustainable change in the livelihoods of communities living in extreme poverty. GUK is well-known locally for its work with women, who are among the poorest of people in Bangladesh. GUK specialises in resilient livelihoods development, climate change, disaster risk reduction, gender and women’s empowerment, and good governance accountability. Inspired by the belief in ‘release not relief’, GUK works with socially marginalised individuals and communities to bring about positive and self-sustaining change.
Community members gather during needs assessment after flash floods in Haor floods. Credit: Shakeb Nabi/ Christian Aid.
Prayer Time
Heaven and earth are filled with your praises, O Creator God! You taught us to love to lilies, the birds, and our neighbour. Help us forgive all debt as You taught us in prayer; to lives beyond the reaches of unjust economic systems that devastate the earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
No Debt @COP26
We pray for a big commitment to be made at COP 26 for the unconditional cancellation of debt for the global south. This will help countries invest in climate adaptation and mitigation, and help frontline communities stay in their homes as Climate Chaos threatens to displace them.
Cancelling debt will also help global south governments to rebuild public services and buy Covid-19 vaccines.
Debt cancellation would help atone for the climate and ecological debt owed by the global north to the global south. Commitment for Life joins Global justice Now in calling for massive debt write-offs with immediate additional finance to compensate for loss and damage due to climate change.
