It is essential for local and community leaders to take on a pivotal role in the humanitarian and development landscape. The unique insights and deep connections of local champions and grassroots organizations have been proven to drive sustainable initiatives and impactful change over the years.
NEAR was founded in 2016 as the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR): a movement of local and national civil society organizations from the Global South that share the common goal of a fair, equitable, and dignified aid system. It aims to reshape the traditional top-down humanitarian and development system into one that is more inclusive, locally driven, owned, and built around equitable, dignified, accountable partnerships. It has 256 member organizations and 20 partner networks in 41 countries across four regions worldwide.
Its founding coincided with the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in 2016. Held in Istanbul, the WHS has launched the Grand Bargain: a unique agreement between several largest funding institutions and humanitarian organizations to “provide 25% of all humanitarian funding directly to local and national responders by 2020.” The founding members of NEAR have lobbied and engaged in high-level dialogues for this advocacy to be part of the solutions to address the identified humanitarian aid financing gap. NEAR and its members are active in the Grand Bargain’s localization workstream, challenging definitions for who can be considered a local organization. The network is the first signatory of the agreement from the Global South and has remained so until the end of 2020.
The Center for Disaster Preparedness Foundation was one of the active civil society organizations in the WHS policy dialogues, leading to the formation of NEAR, serving as one of its founding members. At present, there are four full members in the Philippines, including the KAISA KA, the Ranao Women and Children Resource Center, the Young Women Initiative, and the CDP Foundation. The country's partner is Balik-Lokal (formerly Balik-Bayan), a network of local CSOs that has been lobbying for localization in the Philippines since 2016.
Objective
The Localisation Labs — a space for change centered on community philanthropy and the #ShiftThePower initiative — are increasingly becoming NEAR's institutional framework because these embed NEAR’s core principles, work, and ideas within their structures and members, promote their responsibility, and ensure that humanitarian and development shifts align with its mission.
The following are the objectives of the Lab:
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Movement building. Initiate and foster a cohesive and vibrant network of Global South actors, united by a shared vision of transformative change.
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Common ground. Cultivate an environment of shared values, collaboration, and shared decision-making among diverse stakeholders in the humanitarian and development sectors
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Solutions lab. Generate innovative, locally-driven approaches to address unique challenges in the Global South.
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Learning and sharing. Build evidence to promote knowledge exchange and capacity sharing among actors, with a strong focus on fostering a learning agenda that is driven, facilitated, and owned by actors from the Global South.
Activities
Documentation
Download the documentation of the Philippine Localisation Lab launch held on April 30, 2024 at the Ardenhills Suites in Quezon City. This document highlights key discussions, workshop results, and actionable recommendations.
