< back Date of completion: 1 Dec 2021 Grey Water and Rain Water Harvesting for Food Growing in Syria Piloting Grey water and Rain water harvesting and irrigation for food growing in Syria. This capacity strengthening project included the development of vegetable gardens in IDP camps in Northern Syria with partner organisation Syrian Academic Expertise. Working in three IDP camps in A’zaz and Jarablus in Northwest Syria, this pilot project tested the viability of creating vegetable gardens to grow food, partially irrigated by harvested rain water and grey water. The project started with training events including five successful webinars for our INGO sponsors and the production of a grey water booklet by SOILS Permaculture Association Lebanon . The growing plots varied in size, from home gardens to community gardens in A’zaz, and a school garden in Jarablus. The aims included introducing regenerative strategies to improve food security, mental health and community cohesion. Working with a large INGO, Re-Alliance acted in an advisory capacity, with our subcontracted partners, Syrian Academic Expertise, providing research, training and mentoring support. The gardens were successfully established with food grown, harvested and eaten. The gardens were highly popular with camp residents, with many more requests for participation than the pilot could facilitate. Bi-weekly mentoring visits were undertaken by our partners while Re-Alliance conducted monitoring and evaluation and the production of learning materials including an NGO guide to using harvested rain and grey water .

< Back George McAllister Trustee and Safeguarding Focal Point With an NGO background since the early 1990s, George’s experience spans humanitarian and development sectors in Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia, Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa. This first hand engagement with the realities of people affected by political instability, social division and shattered infrastructure drew George to agroecology, which combines biophysical and social and political regeneration. George is interested in inclusive processes that invite people into decision-making, to link relief to development more coherently and to stimulate new ways of thinking and acting together. George has experience in directing the NGO Garden Africa, which she co-founded in 2001 and currently works as an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (Coventry), where she completed her PhD in Stabilisation Agriculture.

This picture-led booklet, made in collaboration with GUPAP and Sporos, explores how to grow Permaculture-inspired gardens on the roof, especially designed for communities with limited access to land. < Back Building a Garden on the Roof This picture-led booklet, made in collaboration with GUPAP and Sporos, explores how to grow Permaculture-inspired gardens on the roof, especially designed for communities with limited access to land. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English Español Português عربي Swahili Français

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This practical guide covers approaches to growing food in camps and settlements with limited water. < Back Food Growing in Camps and Settlements: Collecting, Storing and using Rainfall and Grey water This practical guide covers approaches to growing food in camps and settlements with limited water. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English English (Black & White)

Re-Alliance is a global network of regenerative practitioners working in the humanitarian and development sectors. Find out more about us. About Re-Alliance Re-Alliance is a coalition of field practitioners, policymakers, educators, community leaders and humanitarian and development workers, sharing skills and experience to grow the influence and impact of regenerative development in the humanitarian field. Its work focuses on regenerative development and its response to disaster and displacement. We ask the question, how can we create long-term resilience and abundance while responding to immediate humanitarian crises? Profiled work showcases the restoration and revitalisation of social and ecological systems which integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature. Through the solidarity of valuing and elevating the existing regenerative practices of its membership, the alliance seeks to share and develop knowledge and extend awareness beyond the group to stimulate further practice. It aims to increase the expertise of the independent members by sharing learning between researchers and practitioners, and to build a collective voice for cross-sector influence and impact. Re-Alliance was registered with the UK Charity Commission as a charity in April 2020 and its charity number is 1188936. History During the 2018 Lush Spring Prize , a group of judges and practitioners facilitating innovative projects identified a desire to unite practitioners across the field of regenerative development and integrated humanitarian response. Talking and researching further, gaps were identified for making this work more effective. The gaps concerned the collection of evidence for this pioneering work; the possibility to influence and give legitimacy to this approach with funders and policy makers and; the capacity for transformation at scale. There are many good examples of effective methods being applied across the globe, which use regenerative approaches to humanitarian and development work but, to date, these have not entered the mainstream. We are committed to taking a coordinated and systematic approach to recording evidence and influencing funders and policy makers that impact large scale humanitarian and development interventions. Groundbreaking practitioners are successfully working in the application of regenerative development in the humanitarian and development fields. As pioneers, they often have limited time to record evidence; have limited resources to scale; and a limited platform to share their innovations. To address these limitations, there is a need for mutual support, learning and collaboration, as well as a need to build the evidence base, unlock funds, and communicate powerful stories of regenerative change. This pioneering work then becomes visible and legitimate both at the grassroots level and within the establishment, which enables the growth of its influence and impact. Our Mission Our mission is to strengthen a coalition of field practitioners, policy makers, educators, community leaders, and development and humanitarian workers, sharing skills and experiences to grow the influence and impact of regenerative development in the humanitarian field. We do this by: - Providing an environment for mutual learning and support amongst those active on the field, - Building a body of evidence and stories to communicate the effectiveness, authenticity and value of regenerative work, - Leveraging support and funding from large relief organisations toward regenerative groups and practices, and, - Focussing on the intersections between disaster and displacement, sustainable and innovative community-led regeneration. Our working principles include: Affected communities first Ensuring that profiled work is of benefit to people experiencing disaster and displacement, the surrounding communities and the natural environment in which the work is being undertaken. We have a small team with lean administration costs, aiming to direct any funds we accumulate toward maximum effectiveness. Integrity Ensuring integrity through use of sociocratric principles which enable robust, defensible and inclusive decision making. Openness, transparency and sharing All of the work we do is promoted openly, in order to grow the legitimacy of regenerative practices. Support Embodying care and support for all those in contact with Re-Alliance.

Regenerative Camps and Settlement Projects for Refugees and IDP communities following disaster and Displacement Current Project: Regenerative Camps & Settlements Great oaks from little acorns grow: from pilots to system-change. A £191,000 project over 3 years aiming to increase the impact and influence of regenerative solutions to disaster and displacement. Over the next three years, Re-Alliance will be working on our ‘Regenerative Camps and Settlements' project. The project will pilot regenerative interventions within formal and informal camps for refugees and IDPs. The learnings from the projects will inform our wider research into regenerative responses to disaster and displacement and create content for further learning materials and knowledge sharing aimed at promoting grass-roots, community led interventions and influencing mainstream INGO activities. 1 st Funding round May 2022 41 applications received 8 projects selected In May 2022, we held our first round of funding and selected eight projects from the 41 applications received. A second round of funding is planned for 2023. The local partners selected have begun implementing change-making regenerative programmes to trial innovations which benefit local communities and the natural environment. The projects aim to enhance multiple systems, increasing the health of social, ecological and economic systems together. These projects aim to work in an integrated way to break down the traditional silos between sectors. We will have a second round of funding in 2023 when we intend to fund projects focusing on energy and communication. This round of projects include: 3 Integrated Sanitation Projects (Nakivale Uganda, Lebanon and Kakuma Kenya) Although the concept of dry and compost toilets is now understood and has been adopted in some camp settings, widespread uptake is limited because, in part, the benefits of resource creation are not understood and therefore systems are not maintained and valued. We have partnered with local groups with a focus and understanding of soil health, nutrient cycles and food growing. By integrating various designs of composting toilets with amending soils for plant growth we aim to create projects which thrive at the intersection between WASH and Livelihoods creating multiple benefits to both areas. 3 Urban Agriculture (Cameroon, Gaza and Athens) Urban agriculture increases access to healthy, affordable, fresh food and gives communities a chance to learn about nutrition and growing food. More than this, it gives people who have been uprooted from their homes purposeful, therapeutic activity. By growing and cooking favourite foods, a taste of home can be created in a new place while tiny green spaces enrich the environment and biodiversity of cities. Reducing the amount of food families have to buy increases resilience and reduces the amount of food that needs to be imported into cities at high carbon costs. The projects supported also integrate the use of upcycled and recycled materials and seed saving to reduce inputs and create regenerative cycles. Lime Stabilised Soil construction (Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh) If concrete was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of CO2 in the world. Lime Stablised soil is a viable alternative to concrete with similar cost, strength and adaptability benefits but with a fraction of the carbon footprint. Following disasters, huge rebuilding programmes often utilise concrete for rapid rebuilding, but lime stabilised soil has been shown to have greater benefits as it allows for the use of on-site materials (soil) and reduces the need for imported materials. It therefore minimises costs, carbon and resource demands and reduces construction traffic by avoiding transport of excavated and imported materials. Lime stabilisation is established practice with a proven history of successful use internationally but cement is still the first choice by many engineers in part because of the knowledge gap of use. Lime Stablised soil could be particularly useful in projects in Cox’s Bazar, because the use of concrete is often prohibited by the authorities for political reasons. Lime could be a viable alternative to concrete without compromising on strength and safety and help the Rohingha communities build durable paths and settlements, 1 Camp Composting (Nakivale: Uganda) Closing the nutrient cycle by converting food waste into compost is a fundamental tool in turning human activity from an extractive to regenerative process. This project works at the intersection between waste management, livelihoods and health. Composting schemes such as this reduce waste management costs, enrich soils to enable healthy food to be grown and increase the health and biodiversity of the soil. Healthy soils sequester more carbon, absorb more water during heavy rainfall and facilitate organic food growing due to increased nutrient content. Anchor 1

Re-Alliance Members & Partners Contact us Visit us on social media Our diverse membership, spanning every continent around the globe, has organically formed with representatives from over 300 organisations, united by a shared commitment to integrated regenerative responses to development, disaster and displacement. Our membership includes experts from regenerative design fields working within INGOs, Universities, Businesses, small and medium NGOs and self-employed practitioners. Our members include founders, and CEOs of permaculture organisations and green foundations; directors of some of the larger aid or humanitarian NGOs; grassroots organisers; academics and researchers who have spent a lifetime building evidence of alternative, earth responsive solutions in areas of the world most affected by environmental disasters, and displacement. Connect with our members' expertise What would it look like to have regenerative principles embedded in your organisation's work? Our members are available to be hired as consultants, supporting you and your organisation to design and deliver regenerative responses in a wide variety of humanitarian and development contexts. Located on every continent around the globe, our members can support you in implementing locally-led and embedded practice, both minimising the carbon footprint of international travel while also honouring local, more culturally appropriate solutions. Each Re-Alliance member brings unique talents, years of experience, and a connection to a pool of shared expertise in different cultures, continents and contexts, through the Re-Alliance network. Contact us to hear more about how our talented members can support your work. Become a member Re-Alliance members benefit from a shared learning and collaboration space, connecting to a global network of other regenerative practitioners from the humanitarian and development sectors. Re-Alliance host monthly members meetings or invite-only webinars. We showcase and promote members' excellence through case studies and articles, and by brokering connections between our network of practitioners and organisations interested in regenerative design. Are you a regenerative design practitioner, or from a regenerative project, working in humanitarian or development spaces? We'd love to be in touch. Membership to Re-Alliance is free of charge. Contact us Find out more and request to join Below: Re-Alliance member Bee Rowan, teaching about ecological strawbale building practices in Nepal. Partner Organisations Would you like to join our membership, or would you like to find out more about how our members can support your organisation with regenerative design? Find out more below, or contact us here . Find out more and request to join Partner Members

Re-Alliance Cinema Play Video Play Video 03:35 Water Resilience Design at the Rubondo Regenerative Settlement, Uganda The community involved in co-creating the Regenerative Settlement in Rubondo, Uganda, came together to create a Water resilience design. This included water for instant use (rainwater harvesting and slow sand filtration) and water retention landscapes (through rain gardens and swales). This project is supported by YICE Uganda, Arup, and Re-Alliance. Guilherme (Gui) Castagna from @fluxusecobr is an Engineer, Permaculture Teacher, and Hydrology Designer. He visited Nakivale Refugee Settlement in May 2026 to support with workshops alongside a community of refugees who are co-designing a Regenerative Settlement for 20 families. Naswirah Nalukwago is the Project Building Manager and also the founder of Bassattu Innovations. Winnie Tushabe is the co-founder of YICE Uganda, the project host organisation. Water resilience is important in any context, and especially in Ugandan refugee camps where water can be scarce and inaccessible. Alongside water for daily use like drinking and sanitation, the community are thinking about longer-term solutions by storing as much water in the soil, and restoring aquifers. Find out more about the Regenerative Settlements partnership here: https://www.re-alliance.org/projects/nakivale-settlement Play Video Play Video 07:14 Beejvan | Restoring and regenerating sacred food forests in India Beejvan began in 2022 to revive local understandings of tree-based farming. In this film, Founding Director Sanjana Krishnan explores the joys and the challenges of land-based work. The project has become more than a farming practice, but a healing and community-building activity. 🎥 Film by Pankaj Rishi Kumar Play Video Play Video 04:41 YAKUM | Protecting and restoring the bio-cultural abundance of the Amazon YAKUM partners with three indigenous nations in Ecuador to turn degraded land into cultural food landscapes. In this film by Remi Bumstead, Re-Alliance member YAKUM explores the importance of Indigenous wisdom in forest protection and restoration, and the abundance that healthy forests can offer in terms of culture, food, and climate resilience. Arley Paraguaje and Nick Ovenden explain why YAKUM rediscover and replant diverse cultural foods, and safely harvest food from standing forests. Find out more about YAKUM's work at https://yakum.org/ 🎥 https://remibumstead.com/ Play Video Play Video 07:21 Minak | Growing nutritious mushrooms in a refugee settlement Mariam Antoine from Minak Women-led Organisation helped co-create a programme of training women in Nakivale Refugee Settlement to grow nutritious Oyster mushrooms in reusable buckets. In this video, trainees from Minak organisation explain how mushroom cultivation is such a powerful way to grow the health and income of people living in refugee settlements. Re-Alliance worked with Minak to create a how-to booklet for growing mushrooms. Read more about the project here and download the booklet: https://www.re-alliance.org/post/cultivating-mushrooms-in-buckets Minak is bringing to life real examples of #Permaculture in #Refugee settlements. Play Video Play Video 06:08 YICE Uganda | Urine Diversion Dry Toilets (UDDT) - a type of Compost Toilet Join Winnie Tushabe, co-founder of YICE Uganda, and Ecosan user Uwizeye Salima, in exploring Urine Diversion Dry Toilets (UDDT) a type of Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan) Composting toilet. In the Nakivale refugee camp in Uganda, refugees are given a small plot of land to build a dwelling and farm food on. Re-Alliance's partner organisation YICE Uganda (Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment) is working with families to create kitchen gardens but yields are limited because the soil is poor. Re-Alliance and YICE collaborated to build eight urine diverting dry toilets (or ‘Ecosan’ toilets) for families. By separating the urine and faeces, the volume of composting waste is reduced, extending the capacity of the compost chamber and giving an immediate source of fertiliser in the form of urine, which, when diluted 1:10 - 1:20 with water, is an excellent fertiliser rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Diverting the urine away stops the compost chamber from becoming anaerobic and smelly and the addition of wood ash or saw dust, after using the toilet, acts as a dehydrating cover material. This design used recycled plastic barrels as containers for the faeces, which ensures no ground pollution. Once nearly full, the barrel is moved aside and replaced with a fresh barrel. With the hot composting achieved inside the barrels, compost can be created in under 12 months in the Ugandan climate. The compost is used to enrich the soil around fruiting trees and bushes. Find out more about this design and create your own with our free guides on www.re-alliance.org/publications . Play Video Play Video 07:35 Unidos Social Innovation Centre | Eco-social regeneration in Nakivale Refugee Settlement What could it look like if Refugee Settlements were thriving ecological and social spaces? Unidos Social Innovation Centre is a refugee-led, community-based organisation that engages with young people located in the Nakivale Refugee settlement, South West Uganda. In this video, Unidos founder Paulinho Muzaliwa explains how they support the communities to create abundant Permaculture gardens, grow biodiverse food forests, and build healthy soils. Find out more about Unidos at https://unidosprojects.org/ Donate to Unidos' work here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/water-4-thriving-african-permaculture-group 🎥 7Times Film Production Play Video Play Video 04:36 Ecopoblaciones | Ecopoblaciones Ecuador Ecopoblaciones Ecuador create eco-social regeneration programs that promote the participatory design and implementation of sustainable and resilient populations. Their work integrates ecology, social, economic and cultural aspects, using tools and processes of eco-neighborhoods, eco-social movements, permaculture, ecotourism, bio-construction, participatory leadership, emotional management, well-being, among others. Find out more about Ecopoblaciones Ecuador here: https://ecopoblaciones.github.io/ Find out more about joining Re-Alliance's thriving community of members here: https://www.re-alliance.org/members Play Video Play Video 11:32 Green Releaf | Designing for resilience in disaster and conflict prone regions in the Philippines Green Releaf Initiative prototyped two projects that aimed to respond to and prevent disasters, in contexts of climate and conflict vulnerability in the Philippines. Green Releaf worked with Permaculture as an approach to address food security, regenerative livelihood, and ecosystem restoration. They had a community-led approach, working with early adapters as grassroots permaculture leaders to train as multipliers. They aimed to highlight the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) from the community, honouring their earth wisdom as key to the community's resilience. Featuring grassroots community leaders from areas affected by disasters and displacement where Green Releaf worked, this film begins to document the knowledge learned and practices implemented over time. Play Video Play Video 02:32 What is Re-Alliance? What is Re-Alliance? What do we hope to achieve? These questions and more are explored by some of of the founding members of the Re-Alliance network. Load More

Re-Alliance Publications WASH academic review community care composting food growing fungi sanitation settlement design urban environments water management Booklet Building a Garden on the Roof This picture-led booklet, made in collaboration with GUPAP and Sporos, explores how to grow Permaculture-inspired gardens on the roof, especially designed for communities with limited access to land. More info and download Booklet Community Composting This illustrated guide explores how to establish composting at community scale, to build soil health, cycle 'waste', and grow community cohesion. More info and download Guideline Community-Based Response to Collective Trauma This guide is for community responders to help them provide initial psychosocial support in times of disaster or emergency. More info and download Guideline Ecological Sanitation with Reuse in Camps and Settlements A guide to closing the sanitation loop in refugee and IDP camps and settlements: How to safely use the products of ecological sanitation for growing crops, ecosystem restoration and ecosystem services. More info and download Booklet Ecosans: Toilets in a Barrel This illustrated guide explores how to build and maintain a urine-diversion composting toilet called an Ecosan, which captures nutrient-rich urine for plant fertiliser, and human manure for use in farming. More info and download Booklet First Response to Trauma This picture-led booklet, made in collaboration with SACOD, explores how community responders can work with people who have experienced trauma in a safe way. More info and download Guideline Food Growing in Camps and Settlements: Collecting, Storing and using Rainfall and Grey water This practical guide covers approaches to growing food in camps and settlements with limited water. More info and download Booklet Gardening with Grey and Rain Water in Camps An illustrated guide of how to save and use grey water and rain water for food growing in refugee camps and settlements, made in partnership with SOILS Permaculture Association - Lebanon, and Malteser International. More info and download Booklet Growing Mushrooms in Reusable Containers How do you grow nutritious, edible mushrooms in reusable containers? This guide explores one method of using upcycled plastic containers to grow mushrooms for food. More info and download Paper Growing in Crisis: The costs, benefits and transformative potential of food growing in Cox's Bazar A study looking at the impact of new and previously established gardens in Cox's Bazar refugee camps on people's well-being and nutrition, as well as the costs and benefits of the different approaches used. More info and download Review Humanitarian Settlement Planning: A Review Authored by Simon Watkins and Paul Bröker, this review surveys existing guidance and practice relevant to humanitarian settlement planning, with a focus on how far current approaches support regenerative outcomes. It maps key tools and standards, identifies gaps in coverage, and frames critical questions for agencies, practitioners, and communities. More info and download Booklet Seasonal Food Growing in Refugee Settlements This picture-led booklet advises on seasonal food growing in refugee camps, made by Re-Alliance's partner SOILS Permaculture Association - Lebanon, in partnership with German Development Cooperation - GIZ, Mercy Corps, and the World Food Program. Translated from the original Arabic with permission from SOILS Permaculture Association - Lebanon. More info and download

< Back Jackie Kearney Network & Membership Lead Jackie is a researcher, network facilitator, and project coordinator with an MA in Global Development and Humanitarianism, whose work focuses on localised climate resilience, ecosystem restoration and forced migration. Dedicated to supporting grassroots organisations working for a shift towards more equitable approaches to disaster, displacement and development, much of her work involves facilitating the formation of partnerships and amplifying marginalised voices through various forms of storytelling.

How do you grow nutritious, edible mushrooms in reusable containers? This guide explores one method of using upcycled plastic containers to grow mushrooms for food. < Back Growing Mushrooms in Reusable Containers How do you grow nutritious, edible mushrooms in reusable containers? This guide explores one method of using upcycled plastic containers to grow mushrooms for food. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English Español Português عربي Swahili Français