Ahead of the Grand Bargain Annual Meeting, 35 CEOs from international NGOs and INGO platforms are issuing a joint statement outlining a call on the international community – notably donor governments, INGOs and UN agencies – to urgently accelerate efforts to promote and demonstrate equitable partnership with diverse local civil society organizations in humanitarian action.
The statement emerges from discussions amongst civil society organisations in the Charter4Change coalition, Pledge4Change and other localization networks. It highlights three priorities raised by diverse local actors through the Grand Bargain Caucus on the Role of Intermediaries, the Caucus on Funding for Localisation, the Grand Bargain Risk Sharing Framework and country-level dialogues on localization.
Specific attention is given to promoting mutual accountability and attention to equitable partnerships, the ways in which donors and international agencies can shift towards local leadership (or co-leadership) of funding, and partnership approaches to risk management by donors and international agencies with local partners (especially when risk materialize). The objective is not to establish new commitments, but rather to focus senior leadership attention on barriers and enablers to deliver on existing commitments.
The three priorities:
1. Establishing safe processes to promote mutual accountability between international agencies and their local partners; including honest reflection on the extent to which partnerships are equitable and empowering, rather than transactional or top-down.
2. Establish and regularly assess progress against organisation-wide, measurable localisation plans at global and country levels; including actions towards (a) direct access to funding; (b) supporting local partners to take on leadership or co-leadership roles; and (c) resourcing capacity sharing.
3. Implement a partnership-based approach to risk management (‘risk sharing’) for grants and consortia. Beyond investing in local partners’ efforts and systems to prevent, mitigate and manage risks, particular attention is needed to ensure a partnership approach is maintained when risks materialise, so that the costs and consequences do not fall disproportionately on local partners.
The full document is available to download below in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. For more information, get in touch with hmollett@cafod.org.uk