As decisions in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding (HDP) sectors are too often made far from the communities they affect, the imperative for localization has grown. It calls for shifting resources, agency, and power from international to local actors, as they are the ones who come from and live in the affected environments.
This urgency gained recognition in 2016 with the “Grand Bargain“, an agreement aimed at “getting more means into the hands of people in need and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the humanitarian action”. The debate around localization has since expanded, both in practice and in academic discourse.
Since then, HDP organizations have scaled up their localization policies, engaged more in transferring program ownership to affected regions, and rethought fundraising, communication, and staffing models. In this edition, KOFF member organizations and their partners showcase their efforts in this regard.
Despite this trend and the positive firsthand experiences of our contributors, they also witness various weaknesses and challenges, partly due to uneven interpretations and expectations of localization within existing political, legal, and financial frameworks. This results (among others), in remaining trust issues, inflexible donor fundings and unwillingness to cede enough control and to redesign partnerships management.
Enjoy the read.
Sanjally Jobarteh, editor of KOFF Magazin