CARE Denmark

Since its establishment in 1987, CARE Danmark has been focused on strengthening the capacities of poor people living in rural areas  with the purpose of improving their livelihoods, as well as the recognition of and respect for their rights.  CARE Danmark focuses on nine countries in Africa and Asia in which the organisation cooperates closely with local society. CARE’s work in developing countries is carried out by local employees, who account for 97 percent of all employees in CARE. This secures sustainability and effective and locally rooted operations.

OUR VISION AND MISSION 

VISION: A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR THE MOST CLIMATE VULNERABLE    

We work to ensure that the world’s poorest and most climate vulnerable people, despite extensive climate change, have the opportunity to create a good and dignified life for themselves and their families. It is imperative that they have access to food, a home and, not least, better opportunities to create their own income and a bettr future where they live. Together with partners in the north and the south, we will focus on the areas in which we can add the malue as a catalyst for innovation and social change for sustainable climate solutions. 

To succeed with our vision and mission towards 2025, CARE Danmark will create continuous and sustainable innovative solutions that build on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the world's poor, and therefore we will work – both practically and politically – to realize the SDG’s relevant to the dream we want to achieve, especially Goal 13 regarding the fight against climate change and its consequences. 

HOW WE CREATE CHANGE 

NEW CHALLENGES REQUIRE NEW SOLUTIONS 

If we are to solve the major global challenges facing the world, we need to challenge ourselves and others to think out of the box by incorporating new approaches and new ways of working. This requires us to think more openly, creatively and innovatively, and to show greater flexibility and risk-taking. We start with and believe in a good idea’s power to change – and we will foster sustainable solutions through innovative processes and need-driven ideas, new types of partnerships, alternative collaborations and by exchanging knowledge and expertise with a wide range of innovative and prospective actors. 

Our innovative solutions focus on concrete challenges for the climate vulnerable and on more transformative changes in the local community, which can give the poor new opportunities to create a better future. Local opportunities for climate adaptation thus also include the capacity of climate vulnerable people to gather information, make wide-ranging decisions, and secure external support for the implementation of community climate initiatives, such as strengthened economic empowerment of women and girls, and a civil society working for the improvement of the situation of the most vulnerable.  

PARTNERSHIPS FOR INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 

We cannot reach the dream we want to achieve by ourselves. We believe that the greatest change and innovation takes place through strong collaboration with others – both long-term strategic partnerships and more ad hoc-based collaborations.  

We believe that civil society has a great potential for change and to ensure that innovative solutions are locally rooted and sustainable. Thus, in partnership with local and national civil society organizations in the South, we will seek to influence the underlying political, social, economic and cultural structures in a direction benefiting the poorest and most climate vulnerable, particularly women and girls. It is typically the role of government authorities to carry out climate adaptation and disaster preparation, but it often requires sustained civil society pressure before it happens. A large capacity for mobilization and advocacy, as well as strong alliances and networks, are also needed to bring together civil society's voice to influence decision-makers. Alliances with other like-minded actors in the private sector, the research world, think tanks and social movements are also central to strengthening opportunities for influence. 

Both at home and abroad, it is a strong priority to facilitate collaborations on innovative climate solutions with new and different partners, including commercial companies, start-ups, think tanks, research institutions and atypical civil society actors. Cooperation will, to a greater extent, be organized through constructive multi-stakeholder partnerships. Our mission here will be to find different partners with the right expertise, experience and network - and identify and benefit from their comparative benefits. Our local civil society partners are good at identifying unresolved issues and unmet needs of the target audience. Both commercial companies, start-ups, think tanks and knowledge institutions, in the perspective country and internationally, can offer new types of sustainable solutions and may be interested in entering into development and adaptation processes with us. 

The focus from the private sector will naturally be on what CARE Danmark can contribute as a value-creating partner. This means that we need to become better at specifying what we actually can bring to such partnerships. We will continuously work on this, with the aim of using our knowledge about the challenges faced by people in developing countries, to assist Danish companies in developing solutions and products that are adapted to the specific needs of such people. The focus will be on developing poverty-fighting and commercially sustainable solutions, business models and products that effectively improve people's living standards and help tackle the consequences of climate change. 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 

To ensure the widest possible reach and impact of our efforts and innovative climate solutions, it is crucial that implementation is not the end. When new concepts appear useful and effective, they must be disseminated. This can be done through private partners, local organizations and institutions, other donors and INGOs as well as in our own programs and through CARE International.  

CARE Danmark also wants to influence practitioners in other organizations to integrate our approaches and models into their work. Donors in both long-term development and emergency aid can thus support the distribution of innovative climate initiatives through support to other organizations. Through our membership to CI, we can also introduce new solutions to other CARE members' projects and programs. 

CLIMATE – ACTION AREAS 

CARE Danmark's efforts to give the world's poorest and most vulnerable people the opportunity to create a dignified life where they live in the face of the climate emergency must be done through a combination of long-term climate adaptation programs and the development, documentation and scaling of innovative and ground-breaking methods, concepts and approaches to managing climate change. At the same time, efforts must be made to limit global warming as much as possible. 

A significant effort in CARE Danmark's work on climate will focus on building climate resilience among population groups and communities that are particularly vulnerable. For example, through locally driven initiatives, where citizens, communities and authorities together develop and implement initiatives and action plans to improve local climate resilience. At the same time, the focus will be on developing and documenting innovative ways to address climate change – including new technological and digital solutions that vulnerable groups can use to ensure increased resilience – and disseminate them among practitioners and decision-makers. 

CARE Danmark's work on climate resilience is based on the strategic principle of a transformative approach to resilience, which implies that the effort not only focuses closely on adapting existing systems and structures, but will require more fundamental changes, for example, in food production, land distribution and exploitation, income security, and the more basic social and cultural perceptions and behaviours that contribute to climate vulnerability and inequality. 

CARE Danmark's work is rooted in the SDGs and contributes to achieving these. Goal 13 on climate is the lens through which we look at our five other main goals to combat poverty and stop hunger, to ensure equality and responsible jobs, and to work through partnerships. We actively use the SDGs, including the basic principles, targets and indicators, as a framework for and a concrete tool in our climate work. We also build a systematic and local approach to advocacy and monitoring of the SDGs that play a role in the UN's world-wide follow-up process. 

CARE Danmark is also working to support advocacy, campaigns and alliance and networking efforts to ensure that climate change perspectives are integrated into policies, strategies and plans, including the mobilization of public and international funding for climate adaptation. This is done locally, but also in national, regional and international decision-making processes. Building climate resilience requires urgency at a pace that individual citizens and communities cannot achieve alone. In addition, individual countries and the international community still do not live up to the agreements on building a model for climate resilience. Moreover, existing climate adaptation programs often lack focus on the most climate vulnerable groups and on inclusive approaches that can ensure sustainability in their efforts. CARE Danmark will also contribute to CI's advocacy efforts on climate, partly by supporting the advocacy activities carried out by partners in the countries we work, and partly by conducting advocacy activities in Denmark, the EU and under the UN. In line with Goal 13, the focus will be on limiting global warming, ensuring climate financing for both climate adaptation and the green transition, and on building effective international climate cooperation. 

The work on climate change impacts for the most climate vulnerable populations is closely linked to other threats, such as violence, conflicts and epidemics – as these threats can both arise as negative derivative effects of climate change and contribute to exacerbating the existing resilience of societies. Therefore, CARE Danmark's climate efforts will also operate in what we call a nexus spectrum between long-term development and humanitarian efforts, and contribute to ensuring effective coordination between long-term development, risk reduction and humanitarian interventions. Similarly, long-term climate initiatives in particularly fragile countries will also be linked with a focus on more direct disaster prevention and readiness, as well as establishing systems and efforts to ensure earlier and better reconstruction after disasters. Another focus area in the nexus effort is the work on conflict prevention and management related to climate change, which can prevent natural resource conflicts from causing people to migrate. 

The primary target group in CARE Danmark's climate efforts are poor and marginalized communities in climate vulnerable and natural resource-dependent communities. We work with both men, women and families, with the particular aim of ensuring the rights of women and girls. Women and girls are more vulnerable to and are most affected by climate change. For example, they are the first to starve when food is scarce. Likewise, they have less capacity and fewer opportunities to deal with the consequences of climate change due to their lower socioeconomic status, limited mobility, unequal access to information and limited control over economic and natural resources. In addition, climate change – without targeted efforts to ensure women's and girls' rights – will also strengthen existing gender inequalities, further reducing their already limited access to physical, social, political and financial resources. Our focus on working to ensure women's and girls' rights is also rooted in their strong potential to ensure lasting results, playing a key role in mitigating and adapting to climate change, both in their productive and reproductive roles. 

When the disasters hit, CARE Danmark must also be ready to help people in need in the countries we work in. Some emergency situations are of an insidious (slow-onset) character, while others occur quite urgently. We must be able to respond to both types. The humanitarian effort of helping people in need must be rooted in national and local civil society partners. We will have a special focus on ensuring the protection and involvement of women and girls in emergency situations. There is a great need for innovation in the humanitarian sector, which we will contribute to. 

Geographically, efforts will follow CARE Danmark's regional focus and, in the long term, we will no longer simply look at rural areas, but to a greater extent operate across countries and cities. We will increasingly also look at the migration towards big cities and the big and growing slums around the cities. 

STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES 

Based on the above analysis and the strategic priorities for CI, in the future, CARE Danmark will focus our work on the following strategic principles: 

CARE Danmark's strategy and work is directly linked to the 17 SDGs. This is done concretely in the form of a main focus on Goal 13 on CLIMATE. Additional focus will also be placed on Goal 1 on POVERTY, Goal 2 on HUNGER, Goal 5 on EQUALITY, Goal 8 on PUBLIC JOBS and Goal 17 on PARTNERSHIPS FOR ACTION. We will also ensure that the basic principles of the goals guide our work, particularly the principle of focusing on those who are furthest from achieving the goals ('leave no-one behind') – typically the poorest and most marginalized people – and the principle of the three dimensions of sustainability – social, environmental and economic. 

Innovation will be at the core of all of CARE Danmark’s. Innovation in CARE Danmark will always be need-based and user-driven, contextually relevant, promote local ownership through partnerships, and be relevant both in relation to our strategic focus on climate challenges and traditional challenges for the poor and marginalized. It must also be cost-effective and scalable. CARE Danmark will also consciously work to strengthen learning internally and across like-minded organizations and, at the same time, take inspiration from start-ups and organizations outside the humanitarian industry to challenge ourselves and move outside of our comfort zone. 

Do no harm: Innovative and transformative work is associated with risks, but CARE Danmark is committed to ensure that the target group never takes on these risks. 

CARE Danmark is a rights-based organization that works with a transformative approach1. People's dignity and equality are key objectives, and we work actively to address fundamental and structural causes of inequality, discrimination and human rights violations to ensure sustainable change and accountability from relevant actors in relation to poverty, food insecurity and vulnerability to climate change. 

CARE Danmark always works in partnerships, which create value by ensuring the right expertise, capacity, knowledge, legitimacy, influence and results, while at the same time creating new opportunities and ensuring scalability. Partnerships are different in nature. The long-term partnerships are central to our approach, but at the same time we will explore brand new types of partnerships and focus on multi-stakeholder approaches to challenge habitual thinking. This applies across actors with whom we want to collaborate, including civil society, think tanks, government institutions, research and education institutions as well as the private sector. 

CARE Danmark is committed to promote gender equality as an integral part of our work. Gender equality is both a universal human right, as well as an essential element to combat poverty and social injustice. With long-lasting experience in this area, CARE Danmark recognizes that gender-related issues overlap with other forms of oppression and inequality, and girls’ and women's empowerment is therefore part of the solution to broader issues such as climate change. 

CARE Danmark will focus our engagement in West Africa, East Africa and Asia. We will work in the three selected regions to create coherence across national borders, ensure added value of CARE Danmark's efforts, and simultaneously strengthen regional efforts and approaches. Our concrete commitment is determined by our entry and exit criteria, but generally focuses on countries that are severely affected by climate change. At the same time, we will maintain the flexibility to act and respond where needs and opportunities arise around climate issues within the three regions, including working in the humanitarian field and nexus.