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Strengthening Localised Humanitarian Action in the Pacific

Posted on 11 October 2021

Earlier in the year year the Pacific Resilience Partnership, which includes PIANGOand a number of other significant collaborators, released their report – Humanitarian Action in the Pacific: “Towards Strengthening Local Action in the Pacific”.  As the ‘enforced localisation’ due to the covid pandemic continues, it is an important report for engaging on emergency response in the Pacific.  

Drafted by Pacific Resilience Partnership, the report places local non-government actors at both regional and national levels at the center of the localisation discourse in the region. In doing so, it recognises the pivotal, and complementary role NGO’s play to government and the distinct strength of humanitarian work currently in the Pacific. The following recommendations reflect the key priorities as identified by the respondents:  

  • Capacity development in specific areas such as gender, project management, financial management, monitoring and evaluation and compliance.  

  • Support to strengthen organisational structures governance structures, risk management and compliance mechanisms and capacity built to maintain these.  

  • Strategies to enable flexible and simplified funding mechanisms that are easily accessible to local actors.  

  • Support to maintain and strengthen shared ownerships with beneficiaries at community level.  

  • Ensure that the local actors particularly the NGO community are well represented in regional and national level coordination mechanisms.  

  • Local actors both at regional and national level continue to be meaningfully engaged and consulted on the development and review of relevant policies, frameworks, and legislation related to humanitarian action, disaster risk reduction and climate change.