Attachments
Centring Local Solutions to Turn Rhetoric into Accountability
The humanitarian system is facing a crisis not just of funding, but of legitimacy. Donors are cutting funding, multilateral platforms are fraying, and global coordination is becoming more fragmented. In this context, the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator’s call for a "humanitarian reset" presents a rare opportunity. It is a chance to confront a defining question: who is the system accountable to and who is trusted to lead it into the future?
For local and national actors (LNAs), this is not a new debate. NEAR members have been raising these questions for years – not as critics from the margins, but as frontline responders holding communities through repeated shocks. What the reset delivers – or fails to deliver – will determine whether this moment becomes a turning point or yet another cycle of empty promises.