African Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (ACEPO) is a registered international humanitarian agency and obtained registration number 4204 in Sweden.
It was established in 2015 and is strongly dedicated to serve impoverished populations and groups in humanitarian settings by providing critical relief and support. It aspires to transform the lives of vulnerable groups such as displaced children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly who play an important role in decision-making, programming which is crucial in ensuring community participation, local ownership and sustainability of our interventions.
Our current strategic programmes are inspired by our desire to contribute in building and strengthening resilience and self-reliance. Our specific focus areas include, but are not limited to; women’s empowerment through livelihood; health and psychosocial support; early childhood development; and WASH.
Through these programs, we hope to foster opportunities that enable the people and communities we support to mitigate the negative impact of future crises including food insecurity, pandemics, and poverty.
ACEPO envisions every person to have opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential, and to participate and contribute in all aspects of their life and development.
ACEPO is determined and committed to purse, together with the people and communities it works with, community empowerment, resilience, and self-reliance by strengthening local capacity in livelihood and implementing interventions that promote prosperity, food security, sound health, and literacy for all.
Our goal is to bring positive change in the lives of those people affected by humanitarian crisis by facilitating access to nutritious food, health services, water, and education.
ACEPO implements stringent policies and processes to ensure that our projects are successful in a compliant and ethical manner and our employees play a pivotal role in upholding ACEPOs high standards of integrity.
Ethics, integrity, and compliance are fundamental ACEPO values at the core of how ACEPO interacts with donors, partners, employees, vendors and communities. These values are embodied in ACEPO’s Safeguarding and Code of Conduct Policy, which is affirmed by ACEPO’s Board and applied across the entire organization.
ACEPO’s Deputy Director and Human Resources Manager oversees the Ethics, Compliance, and Safeguarding policies, promotes a culture of compliance through training and regular communication on important topics, and works with ACEPO’s management to establish, monitor, and enforce standards, policies, and procedures to identify and prevent illegal, unethical, or improper conduct.
At ACEPO, we take ethics seriously. Achieving humanitarian and developmental results in challenging conditions while complying with funding partner and host nation laws and policies requires disciplined performance. ACEPO’s professionals recognize that meeting these high standards will model effective and compliant management to their beneficiaries and establish trusting relationships essential to successful development.
If you have a question or concern on ethics or compliance that you would like to communicate to ACEPO, please contact the Deputy Director directly at +211 921 048 502 or at kadar@acepoafrica. All reports will be reviewed and responded to appropriately.
Needs-Based Assistance:
ACEPO is first and foremost focused on people who have been affected by suffering, particularly victims of armed conflict, famines, and natural disasters. ACEPO’s Executive Board of Management “ensure that the assistance provided shall, to the greatest extent possible, reach those most in need.” As a direct result of this, ACEPO strives to provide assistance on the basis of need. ACEPO will ensure that people who are more vulnerable due to age, gender, disability, or other factors can equally benefit from assistance provided to the community.
Commitment to People Affected by Disasters:
ACEPO believes that people affected by suffering, particularly victims of armed conflict, famines and natural disasters should be at the center of the response from start to finish as they have the right to life with dignity and have a right to assistance; and that all possible steps should be taken to alleviate human suffering arising from disaster or conflict. Recognizing that communities and governments are often best placed to respond to disasters, ACEPO seeks whenever possible to build upon country capacities at all levels to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Assistance can have adverse side effects on those affected by disaster or conflict, but ACEPO seeks to mitigate any adverse effects by working closely with the government to consult with impacted populations. International humanitarian assistance strives to be principled and “do no harm” since assistance may provide one side in a conflict an advantage over another, make a community or a portion of the community a target for attack, or create further conflict within a community. ACEPO’s policies, approaches, and programming will always seek to mitigate these risks.
Transparency and Accountability: ACEPO seeks to be transparent and accountable to our donors who fund our work, to the affected populations we serve, and to the affiliates we work with on a daily basis. ACEPO is committed to transparent and open decision-making within the bounds of ACEPO’s regulation and policy. As a learning organization, ACEPO constantly seeks to improve programming to the benefit of those in need. ACEPO strives to apply industry best practices in monitoring, evaluation, and reporting to ensure that it meets its accountability and learning responsibilities
Professionalism and Integrity: ACEPO strives to conduct itself in a professional manner, making decisions based on technical knowledge and in support of program quality and continued innovation. ACEPO draws on the experience of professional humanitarians and technical specialists, often from the very communities which are experiencing disasters. ACEPO also endeavors to conduct itself with integrity in its interactions with all parts of the humanitarian community.
Adaptability and Flexibility: The needs of the community and the resources available to respond can change very quickly after a disaster or during a conflict. ACEPO prides itself on being an office of open-minded problem solvers who can adapt to a myriad of complex situations, contexts, organizations, and cultures. As a part of its commitment to placing the needs of those affected first, ACEPO places a high value on remaining flexible and adaptable to the changing situation during a response. ACEPO works with the broader humanitarian community to respond to changing needs as quickly as it can.