In December 2025, over 500 attendees representing 237 humanitarian organisations from 38 different countries, gathered in Bangkok for Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week (RHPW) Asia Pacific, a space dedicated to strengthening partnerships and advancing humanitarian action.
The RHPW Asia Pacific is held in Bangkok each year and is organised by the Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network (ADRRN), Community World Service Asia (CWSA), International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
For Act for Peace, this gathering provides a tangible platform for our local partners to be at the centre of discussions on the issues impacting them –both across the sector and in their communities.
We supported eight partners to attend RHPW 2025 through the Walking the Talk program, which is delivered in partnership with the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
Partners took part in three days of learning, collaboration and networking, working together to advance humanitarian solutions and strengthen their collective resilience.
Alongside RHPW, Act for Peace also held a full-day partner workshop, creating space for partners and staff to learn alongside each other and discuss the future of partnerships and localisation, explore the benefits of impact storytelling, collaborate on possibilities for collective action and reflect on the week’s learning.
Here, our partners share what the experience meant to them.
Maria Tendai Dendere, Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC)
“It has allowed us to network with many other partners coming from different regions, doing similar humanitarian work and also to learn from others in terms of their experiences.
We have been able to share, as Zimbabweans, as partners of Act for Peace, to share our experiences.
The issue of localisation is key…We need to strengthen locally led initiatives because it is more sustainable if we empower and strengthen the local people, the local initiatives, the local organisations.
If these are strengthened, then we have frontline workers
who can take care of disasters, issues of food security, issues of health, education, the early warning systems, because when they are empowered, they are there, and they are the first responders.”
Odina Vusi, Vanuatu Christian Council
“When we look at partnership, it’s very practical and shared responsibility for both the donor and the local actors. It’s really important that trust is always there as well as responsibility which comes with accountability and transparency.
But we also have to hear more communities’ voices and meet their needs there.
For me it’s the first time to attend such training, but when I go back, [to Vanuatu] I believe I will inspire the board members of what I came here to learn. These meetings not only inspired me, but it brings me to another level and opens my mind…
It’s about building relationships. I’ve communicated with so many people.”
Siu’ivahamama’o Fangupo, Tonga National Council of Churches (TNCC)
“I attended a session on inclusiveness and that’s what we’ve been working on the last three to five years in Tonga…so I learned a lot about how other organisations run programs in their countries.”
Oxwell Madara, Christian Care Zimbabwe
“One of the key takeaways was from the church-led humanitarian session presented by Caritas Philippines and Caritas Indonesia…where they are responding through the church. They’ve organised their structures in such a way that the churches, right from the grassroots, manage the disasters and risks and communicate through the structure of the church up to national and international level. It’s a perfect example for us back home. Using a similar structure, we can manage some of the disasters we are facing in Zimbabwe.”
Kyaw Hla, Myanmar Council of Churches
“I’ve learned a lot. So many presentations were inspiring to me. For us, our country situation is very difficult. When I go back to my organisation, I will share the information with my leaders and the community organisers in the rural areas. I’m trying to organise more solid systems for our programs, activities and structure.”
Jonathan Sta. Rosa, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)
“We are called to reexamine our partnerships. That’s not an easy process. Localisation should not be imposed. The motivation and initiative should come from each other. There should be a transition period, a learning process, some level of understanding, some expectations so that it’s not just imposed.
The NCCP celebrated 60 years a few years ago so in terms of age, the NCCP has a lot of experience and knowledge…that we can share. In the next event, maybe we can have the opportunity to share.”
Palwashay Arbab, Community World Service Asia
“The vision behind this event was to fill the gap that we felt was there in terms of representation, networking opportunities for the global south particularly this region which has been experiencing more crisis, more disasters over the last decade. This RHPW really aims to get the grassroots voices up… to ensure voices from the ground are reflected.
For this to be more meaningful and have more impact we thought we needed to have all the players, which is why we started mobilising more people, mobilising more resources so we can reach to this point where we have more than 500 participants and we have so many different segments of the sector participating and representing.”
Dino Satria, Yayasan Cita Wadah Swadaya (YCWS)
“One of the challenges we’re seeing is the decreasing funding that we have in this humanitarian sector and the challenges of that, especially for the local organisations.
The discussion of localisation at the Geneva-level doesn’t really include the local voices. So, what we’re having here, we’re hearing from many local organisations, their challenges…and this discussion needs to happen more.
My hope for the future is to see partnership as more co-creation, more collaboration and more connection.”
Sooriyakumary Sinnathamby, Organisation for Elangai Refugees Rehabilitation – (OfFER Ceylon) OfERR
“It’s a good forum to learn, share and think about the new technology and the diverse communities and their experiences.
There are tools, one session talked about disasters and how the humanitarian response could be better facilitated with technology.
I shared a lot at the event about the Act for Peace modality where it’s a localised partnership and strengthens the local voices.”
Image Credits: Aimée Keay/Act for Peace