Localisation
Improving local humanitarian response
Local and national actors based in crisis contexts play a key role in humanitarian assistance – being first responders in virtually every humanitarian crisis and most familiar with the needs of those affected. In our projects, we therefore focus specifically on localisation in order to make humanitarian measures more effective and sustainable. Find out how we improve the quality of our assistance through strong local partnerships.
What is localisation in humanitarian assistance?
Localisation means placing local and national humanitarian actors at the centre of humanitarian programming. They must play an active role in the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects, as they not only have better access to the population, but also a better understanding of their needs as well as context-specific expertise. Local and national organisations can also respond more quickly and effectively to challenges.
Our aim is therefore to strengthen local and national actors in order to create a more sustainable, effective and just humanitarian system. With our global Help Localisation Facility, we are setting new standards in locally-led humanitarian assistance and are building long-term equitable partnerships.
Why is localisation essential in the humanitarian sector?
The international humanitarian system is facing major challenges due to rapidly increasing humanitarian needs caused by the climate crisis and armed conflicts. A drastic decrease in humanitarian funding means that not all people in need receive adequate support. Global crises also jeopardise progress in the areas of poverty reduction, food security, education and healthcare. Local and national actors, that stay active in crises long after international actors have moved on, often have limited access to financial resources and decision-making processes.
Localisation aims to give them more influence over the use of international funds in order to make humanitarian assistance more direct, efficient and sustainable. As part of the Grand Bargain, humanitarian donors in 2016 have committed to providing at least 25% of funds to local and national actors.
What localisation means for Help
Since 1981, Help has stood for empowerment and promoting sustainable structures in affected communities. We see localisation not only as a means of increasing efficiency, but also as the basis for a more equitable aid system. In doing so, we endeavour to reduce power inequalities and involve local actors in planning and decision-making, always in line with humanitarian principles.
In our partnership with local and national organisations, we see ourselves not only as donors, but above all as supporters of local civil society. We work to ensure that the voices and needs of local and national organisations are heard, offer direct, flexible and long-term funding and work with them alongside in the implementation of projects.
To ensure the success of humanitarian projects regardless of political shifts, we focus on political independence, sustainability and long-term commitment. We therefore always pursue our localisation goals in a context-related manner and differentiate between regional framework conditions (such as local legislation), possible civil society restrictions and the independence, neutrality and reliability of local and national organisations. In its project work, Help follows the guiding principle of ‘as local as possible, as international as necessary’.
The challenges of localisation
Localisation in international humanitarian assistance has many opportunities and benefits for the quality of programming, but also some challenges. For many local and national actors, the strict requirements of donor institutions represent a major barrier, as they often have to fulfil complex donor requirements with limited resources that they were not involved in developing. In addition, donors consider cooperation with local organisations to be riskier than with organisations from the Global North.
Another factor is that large international organisations are preferred in the humanitarian system in order to intervene quickly and selectively in crisis contexts. This prevents the development of long-term partnerships with local actors.
Our principle of localisation
As a signatory to the international Charter for Change initiative, we are working to ensure that local and national actors take on a leading role in humanitarian project work in the future. We also pursue this approach in our development cooperation.
Our localisation objectives
We strive to organise our humanitarian and development projects in a participatory manner with the project participants. We work closely with local and national organisations to develop, implement and evaluate projects. We consider and favour leadership by local and national partner organisations at every step of the project cycle. If we deviate from this approach, we must justify this based on the specific circumstances on the ground.
We provide local and national organisations with high-quality, flexible and multi-year funding. This includes the fair provision of overhead costs so that our partners can build up a workforce, network with other organisations, participate in coordination mechanisms and develop their own fundraising and communication structures. We do not transfer financial risks to our partner organisations but work together to share and manage them.
In our cooperation with local and national partner organisations, we shift our focus, where possible, from short-term assistance for individual projects to long-term partnerships on an equal footing. We respect the knowledge and experience of our partner organisations and work together to develop programmes and projects. We regularly review each partnership and adapt it to new challenges together with our partners.
We work with local and national organisations to strengthen their skills and resources so that they can deal with humanitarian crises independently and achieve sustainable development goals. Our measures are based on a self-assessment by our partner organisations. At the same time, we recognise that working with our local partners also improves Help's skills and expertise. We want these partnerships to be mutually beneficial and mutually reinforcing.
We enable our partner organisations to recruit and retain employees. To do this, we ensure that they receive sufficient funding and support for professional training development. We avoid the recruitment of employees from local and national organisations (“staff poaching”).
We openly explain how we use our project funds together with local partner organisations. We assumeaccountability for our decisions and actions towards beneficiaries, institutional donors, private donors and the general public.
We advocate on behalf of our local and national partners towards political decision-makers and donor institutions. We share their concerns, represent their interests and wherever possible facilitate the direct dialogue between local partners and political decision makers and donors. We emphasise the important role of local and national actors in the international humanitarian and development system and call on the German government to fulfil its international commitments, such as the Grand Bargain or the 2030 Agenda. This includes improved access for local actors to quality funding, capacity strengthening and international coordination mechanisms as well as the removal of language, technical and organisational barriers.
We advocate for a more transparent reporting of international actors and donors on their localisation commitments.
We always show how important our local and national partners are for our projects. We make this clear to funders, donors, the media and the public. In our publications, events, meetings and in our press, social media, fundraising and public relations work, we present the work and expertise of our partner organisations correctly and transparently.
