Since 1961, along side the poorest
The Catholic Committee against Hunger (CCF) was created in 1961 following the appeal by the FAO — taken up by Pope John XXIII — to involve the people of the North, and especially Christians, to fight against hunger in the world.
From hunger to development
Within this perspective, the CCF received from the church of France the mission of organizing and managing the Lent collection on behalf of international solidarity. However, it appeared very quickly that the fight against hunger cannot succeed if the causes of hunger are not attacked first. This reflection, grown richer through the Encyclical “Populorum progressio” led to the promoting of new strategies based on the empowerment of the populations concerned. In 1966, the CCF thus became the CCFD, the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development.
A few points of reference
Today, the CCFD is an association that brings together 29 church movements and services. To fulfill its mission, the CCFD is organized into a network of 15,000 volunteers, organized within 99 diocesan Committees. It’s supported by a standing team of 180 employees. Set up in the form of a non-profit-making association, the CCFD was officially recognized as beneficial to the public at large in 1984. In 1993, the CCFD received the Great National Cause label. It has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is today the foremost French NGO of solidarity for development.
Promoting common actions
To create synergies of action between partners involved in development, the CCFD belongs to several structures that group together associations, including: • At the national level: the CRID (Centre de recherche et d’information pour le développement) et Coordination Sud (Solidarité Urgence Développement); • At the international level: CIDSE (International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity) and Acord (Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development).
Vocation : Solidarity
For more than 40 years, the CCFD has been rising up against numerous forms of injustice: hunger, extreme povert y, exclusion, and exploitation of the weakest. In the upcoming years, it intends to contribute to the taking up of four major challenges: • Bring economic globalization under control so that it’s truly at the service of all; • Make fundamental human rights respected everywhere in the world; • Rehabilitate politics and promote citizen involvement; • Take action within the Church so that, more than ever, it continues to stir up solidarity in the world.
Two main lines of intervention
The CCFD’s action is carried out by two specific missions.
1. Support to partners of the South and of Eastern Europe
In order to help the poorest change their living conditions by themselves, the CCFD gets involved alongside them. It supports actions designed and implemented by local associations — its partners — with an aim of long- term development. It also provides its partners with concrete support by helping them to:
- Weave networks of actors of development in the South and in Eastern Europe: The synergies created this way enable more effective promotion of far-reaching actions in the areas of education, training, food security, access to health care, access to jobs, and the guarantee of decent incomes.
- Create strategic alliances between them and the CCFD, in particular within the framework of advocacy and lobbying actions in their country.
2. Development education
Based on the experience of the CCFD’s partners, the development education policy seeks to promote a clear, constructive, and tolerant vision of the world, so as to help mentalities and behaviors evolve. Better informed and better educated, each person - christian or non-christian - can thereby develop a critical mind and become an actor and initiator of profound economic and social transformations in the world.
A network of motivated actors
Made up of 29 church movements and services, the CCFD brings together adults and young people from different origins, cultures, traditions, and professions. Together, they make up a representative range of the socio-economic diversity of the French population. They all come together around evangelical values; they are actors of solidarity in the church and in civil society in France and in Europe. Through international networks and movements and services that make up the CCFD, this involvement takes on a global dimension.
A strong point of development education: the Lent campaign
Since its beginnings, the CCFD has received a mission from the bishops of France to heighten public awareness about international solidarity. This facet of the CCFD’s action takes on concrete form especially during the Lent campaign that it has been organizing since 1961, in which it invites the catholic and christian communities to donate, pray and take action.
Advocacy and lobbying
In close relation with its partners, the CCFD carries out opinion campaigns and lobbying actions that seek to influence the choices of political and economic decision-makers regarding crucial questions such as food sovereignty, economic solidarity, development financing, peace, and human rights.
Training sessions on economic, social and cultural rights enforceability approaches
CCFD-Terre Solidaire and its local partners in India (IRDS, Jeevika, Human Rights Federation of Dalit Liberation-Karnataka- HRFDL-K, People’s Education and Economic Development Society - PEEDS), Sri Lanka (Human Development Organisation- HDO) and China (Asian Human Rights Commission) take part in this programme.
CCFD-Terre Solidaire
4, rue Jean Lantier
75001 Paris - FRANCE
Tél : +33 1 44 82 80 00
Fax : +33 1 44 82 81 43
www.ccfd.asso.fr
