CARE Selected for Inaugural Board of Climate and Environment Charter
July 2024— CARE International has been elected as a part of the pioneer board of the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations, an initiative that aims to foster a strong commitment to climate action across the organizations within the humanitarian community- both large and small. As a global confederation focusing on the empowerment of women and girls, CARE works to defend dignity and fight poverty and social injustice around the world by working side-by-side with communities to understand the root causes of poverty and find innovative, locally-led solutions.
CARE’s board membership at the Charter Secretariat will be fulfilled by the CARE Climate and Justice Center (CJC) through its Interim Director and Program Quality Lead, Thuy-Binh Nguyen. The CJC leads and coordinates the integration of climate justice and resilience across CARE’s programming, as well as the implementation of the Global Climate and Environment Policy.
Serving as the referral hub for support and connection to organizations implementing Charter commitments, the Charter Secretariat is administered by the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and the board, which serves as the Charter’s governance mechanism. The board includes three permanent members: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the ICVA – who together led the development of the Charter. In addition to this, two other signatory organizations and one State supporter will serve as non-permanent members on a rotating basis. CARE International together with All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) were elected as the first non-permanent members for the period of two years from September 2024 to September 2026.
As a dual-mandated development and humanitarian organisation, with our partners, CARE delivers, adapts, and incrementally combines lifesaving humanitarian assistance and development support for impact at scale, particularly in fragile and complex contexts. Gender Equality and the Empowerment and protection of Women and Girls is central to all our work, supporting people of all genders before, during, and after crises, supporting them to recover from crises with increased resilience to future shocks and to build back better. As the Charter’s Board members, we aim to bridge humanitarian, development, peace, and climate actors, approaches, and practices. This is extremely important as climate and environment have encompassing impacts in the Humanitarian-Development and Peace Nexus.
As a Climate and Environment Charter Board Member, the CJC will work closely with all CARE entities and global teams to fulfill this important responsibility, supporting humanitarian organizations to help people adapt to a changing climate and environment, while also increasing its own environmental sustainability.
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The Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations is an initiative intended to galvanize and steer collective action in response to the climate and environmental crises, particularly for those who feel their impacts the most.