Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand – working with communities to transform lives and elevate indigenous voices. 

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand partners with local indigenous organisations and community groups that are having a real impact on the lives of those most in need, as well as supporting people during disasters and emergencies. 

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ agency for justice, peace and development, building a world free of poverty and injustice through development, international emergency relief, advocacy and education.  

Since our foundation in 1969, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has always connected international development with issues of poverty and injustice within Aotearoa, especially the place of Māori as Indigenous people of this land. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a vital member of the global Caritas Internationalis network, active in 160+ countries, and a key member of the Caritas Oceania regional network. 

What do we do in this space

We have expertise to support humanitarian and development programmes, with a particular focus on climate change impacts and food systems. We support our local indigenous partners with their monitoring, evaluation, research and learning processes and ensure that they are fully compliant with international standards. 

Our work includes: 

  • Disaster Risk Reduction and anticipatory action 

  • Climate change adaptation  

  • Food and water security 

  • Health and nutrition 

  • Agroecology 

  • Vocational and technical training 

  • Microfinance  

  • Humanitarian emergency assistance 

  • Advocacy and education to help address root causes 

All of our work is focused on serving those who are the most marginalised in a community, often women and children.  

Empowering indigenous perspectives 

From our earliest days, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has always listened to and empowered Indigenous and local perspectives to confront challenges and injustices around the world. 

Our close relationships with indigenous Māori communities around New Zealand inform our work of international justice, peace and development. 

Inspired by the work of Māori academic and founding Caritas Director Professor Mānuka Henare, we are currently implementing an Ethic of Care framework to guide and measure our work through five interrelated well-beings: cultural, economic, faith, environmental, and social. This framework will further enhance the vitality and strength of indigenous voices.  

Professor Henare was a dynamic thinker who aligned the dignity of human work alongside faith by examining how the philosophies, religions, cultures and world views of indigenous peoples inform the theories and practices of today. 

“I’ve come to see more clearly how Māori issues are global issues too. It’s land loss. Loss of language, as well. Colonisation and cultural domination.” (Prof Mānuka Henare, 2017 1). 

Examples of indigenous voices in the work we do 

He Oranga Taurikura – A Thriving Life, is an innovative integrated development programme across five Pacific and two southeast Asian countries. This five-year partnership with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade builds on successful, earlier programmes through nine in-country partners in Cambodia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, and Tonga. Grounded in local indigenous culture and context, the partnership continues to build resilience and promote healthy lives and livelihoods through agroecology, health and nutrition, food and water security, sanitation and hygiene, vocational education, and disaster risk reduction.  

Community-Led Environmental Adaptation and Resilience, as part of the NZ Government’s Climate Finance for Community Resilience programme. This two-year programme covers some of the world’s most climate change impacted and vulnerable communities in Kiribati and Papua New Guinea. Activities include water security and soil health for agriculture. 

We also provide small project grants, for initiatives such as: 

  • The Lujan Home for Girls affected by violence from superstition–based prejudice in Papua New Guinea. 

  • Women’s livelihood training in rural Fiji. 

  • Women’s agricultural collective groups in Timor-Leste. 

  • Legal processes for land rights in Papua New Guinea and indigenous cultural protection and preservation in rural Cambodia, among many others. 

We support a variety of both disaster risk reduction and anticipatory action programmes, including a focus on prepositioned supplies. 

Compliance and safeguarding 

We are a fully compliant organisation with the Caritas Internationalis Management Standards, the New Zealand Government’s Charities Commission regulations, and the Council for International Development Code of Conduct. Our rigorous compliance processes ensure that all of our processes are of the highest standard. This includes safeguarding and protection, financial rigour and legal processes. 

Learn more about our work here or call us on 0800 22 10 22 (outside of NZ +64 476 1742).