Localisation: reshaping humanitarian response.

 Today i participated in a consultative meeting for an organisation I volunteer for. Basically, they want to write a localisation policy and are in the process of consulting all partners what they feel about the policy. It got me thinking about how it is actually important that humanitarian players should start thinking and acting from a local point of view. This global change is neccesary. For far too long local communities have been fed with programs, ideologies, resources that do not address their needs because they were not given a voice in deciding what they actually want.

So what is localisation? In theory it is involving all local actors at every step of the planning, implementation, monitoring andd evaluation processes of humanitarian work. It is doing everything from a local context taking into consideration the thoughts, beliefs, culture and traditions of local people. This effectively rule out the 'one size fits all' approach which has its own problems. 

Localisation looks at people who have some sort of power in society, people who may reprethe voice of many other. These include public health workers, traditions chiefs, educators, councillors, religious leaders etc. However, it is important that minority groups are not forgotten i.e LGBTQIA+, women, youths, people with disabilities, minority tribes etc. Thede people usually lack representation in leadership positions but do have a voice.

In conclusion, local people are important and are ready to contribute to sustainable practices that not only benefit them but the globe as well.

Image credit: UNAIDS.