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A 2019 study published by the EU on ‘Societies outside Metropolises: The role of civil society organisations in facing populism’ recommends that “Concrete and consistent actions over time are needed in order to empower civil society organisations in those regions to deliver their mission and play their role of speaking on behalf of those who are underrepresented and advocating for the marginalised, and to educate and create a kind of genuine bond between different communities”. However, the way the international aid sector currently operates most instrumentalises local and national CSOs as subcontractors for their agendas, rather than supporting them as independent civil society actors catering to the real needs and priorities of the community and encouraging their governments to act as the duty-bearer and protect people’s fundamental rights. The Covid19 pandemic has extensively and adversely impacted the aid architecture, at a time when the lifesaving assistance to population facing natural disasters or protracted crises is most needed. Local organisations are facing further marginalisation at a time when they are at the forefront of the response, be it Covid19 health response or economic or other crises caused during this period. Download Statement.

Dear Grand Bargain Sherpas,

We, one of the multi-country networks of local actors actively engaged on localisation, know that the next annual meeting of Grand Bargain on 24-25 June 2020, is open only to the Grand Bargain Signatories, and only Sherpas will be able to use audio and video. We see the signatories wanting to talk about the future of Grand Bargain and strengthening local action, without presence of local actors around the table who continue to face obstacles to get included in a process, designed for their empowerment. We have tried to proactively engage with the localisation work stream but have been very disappointed with the lack of response. We have seen systematic exclusion and discrimination against meaningful participation of a diversity of local actors in many of these processes.

We believe you share our concern of seeing less than expected progress on most of the workstreams, according to the self-reports of the signatories. The World Humanitarian Summit triggered several good processes, intending to reform the humanitarian architecture and practices for overall aid efficiency, mitigation of needs and better support to the affected population. Given the slow progress, we are hopeful that the Signatories would use the next annual meeting to introspect on the reasons for the slow progress, define the mechanisms to fix the accountability and answerability and come up with a future roadmap which is more inclusive, equitable and respectful of the local actors.

The local actors do not want to remain passive beneficiaries of a change process. They rather want to have equal stake, ownership, shared leadership and representation across all the processes and the discussion fora. We, as one of the committed network of local actors, firmly believe that the signatories are genuinely interested to deliver on the Grand Bargain commitments by overcoming the barriers. As we do not have the privilege of being present, we would like to request that you kindly reflect on the following issues during the annual meeting in our absence:

• Reflect on the recommendations, made by Alliance for Empowering Partnerships (A4EP) in its paper ‘The Grander Bargain’ and incorporate them in the future plan of the GB
• Engage local actors and their various relevant networks, including A4EP, in the discussion deciding future of the Grand Bargain, as that largely determines our future
• While finalising the next 12 month’s plan, keeping Covid19 response into consideration, do plan adequate engagement of local actors in the planning process as well as the implementation
• Please ensure adequate representation of local actors (at least 50%) in the 5-year anniversary meeting of the Grand Bargain
• The 5″ annual report, instead of being a self-report from signatories, should be externally verified and written, based on the evidence provided by the signatories
• Restructuring of workstreams in the final year to ensure at least 50% leadership position going to local actors
• Signatories to publish cumulative financial reporting on IATI or FTS to ascertain the quantity and quality of funding being passed on to local actors
• Report on all the financial investments that have been made on localisation research, meetings and conferences and their effectiveness in terms of tangible change
• Since the country offices of the signatories have often been the biggest barriers in the localisation process, a system ought to be created to make them as accountable and answerable as their headquarters are. IASC definition shouldn’t be manipulated in the final year of the GB to deny funding to homegrown local actors.

Although, local actors are overwhelmingly not allowed to participate in the annual meetings, we are still optimistic that our concerns would be heard and reflected on during the 2-days of the meeting, and that appropriate space would be created for us for future collaboration.
In the humanitarian architecture, each of us have to play the complementary role. As Signatories, you have acknowledged the significant role local actors play during a humanitarian response. We have equal realisation of the complementary role you play to strengthen us. Hopefully, next time we would be sitting across the table as equals to exchange ideas.

Members of the Alliance for Empowering Partnership

#LocalActorsMatter

Date: 05 April 2020

HAI has mobilised a large group of volunteers and established coordination with the Delhi government and local administrative units to complement the efforts of the state and national government in dealing with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. HAI is currently focusing on the National Capital Region of Delhi, while trying to expand its activities in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. HAI’s current focus is on the population working in informal sector and daily wage earners who have suddenly become income and food insecure since the lockdown has been announced. Since the state response capacity has been overwhelmed, HAI is also helping the state government and the local administrative units with relief supply and use of technology, particularly for surveillance. HAI’s key achievements are presented below:

Activities at a glance: 

• Starting from 26 March 2020, HAI has provided cooked food to at least 12,900 people until 4 April, and continues providing food 2,500 people on daily basis
• 192 refugee families have been made food secure through a provision of food kit consisting of pulses (10 kg), edible oil (4 litres), wheat flour (40 kilos), turmeric (200 grams), coriander powder (200 grams), spices (1 pkt), chilli powder (200 grams), salt (1 kilo) and sugar (5 kilos). Please see the video of HAI’s food distribution in Majnu ka Tila here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyfOsaqGiq4
• Answered at least a dozen desperate calls from food insecure families and arranged for at least two weeks food, milk and necessary provisions to such families across Delhi
• Provided hygiene materials, including soap and sanitisers, to at least 225 refugee families  
• Conducted multiple awareness camps on COVID-19 Do’s and Don’ts, symptoms and proper hand washing 
• Disseminated COVID-19 IEC materials in refugee camps in Majnu Ka Tila and Signature Bridge camp on 17 March 2020
• Starting from 18 March, ensured regular clean drinking water supply in Signature Bridge refugee camp, which otherwise had no source of clean water. HAI also distributed jerrycans to 60 family for water collection
• Conducting online psychosocial meetings to address stress and psychological impact of the pandemic on the general public – HAI has conducted two sessions, so far, with the help of a qualified doctor
• Developing a COVID-19 virtual care platform – an app to support health care workers for tracking, monitoring and responding to COVID-19 
• Supported the Delhi police for surveillance of crowded areas and a quarantine centre through the Drone for Humanity platform of HAI. Please see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkqtjkQpmA

Plans:

• Continue with the cooked food distribution up to 14 April 2020
• Provide dry ration for a month to at least 300 families more 
• Initiate programme for sanitation workers to ensure their protection through the provision of awareness and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 
• Pilot disinfecting public spaces through drones 

The Bulletin can be downloaded from here.

A4EP Position Paper

The Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP) is a network of organisations committed to strengthen the humanitarian architecture and locally led response. On 21^st of March A4EP held a meeting with Directors of 14 local/ national organisations from 11 countries, some of whom are part of larger networks in country and representatives on the national, regional and international coordination mechanisms. This position paper contributes to the discussions and decision making on COVID-19 at international, regional, national and local level. It is aimed at the governments, their international development partners, aid donors, INGOs, the private sector and citizens. 

Most countries of A4EP members have reported only a limited number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. We recognise, that this may be the result of lack of testing rather than reflect the real epidemiological situation. The measures taken so far, to control gatherings of people and restrict mobility, tend to be less drastic than in China, South Korea or Europe for example, but this may change rapidly. While the message on hand washing is already circulating more widely, maintaining physical distance is lagging. Some of our CSO members are already limited to working from home. Overall, our populations, and our own staff, are deeply concerned. Many people in our society are not digitally well connected, and do not receive the health messages already circulating. Partial and often uncoordinated messaging adds to rather than reduces the confusion, stress and anxiety.  Also for us this is an unprecedented situation, for which we have no standard operating procedures – so far.

Local and national civil society organisations have a critical role to play in the response to this pandemic. This all the more so because drastically reduced international travel and supply lines make large scale international mobilization impossible. Many international actors are also dealing with their own operational disruptions and domestic COVID-19 crisis. We know that this will be not only a public health, but also an economic and social crisis. It may also lead to a rise in ethnic, gender based and domestic violence, and may cause social unrest among daily wage earners and people working in informal sector faced with loss of jobs, income and food security. All local and national capacities need to be mobilized to mitigate these impacts as much as possible.

Through our position paper we ask for:

1. Clear, coordinated and understandable communications and protection for health care personnel and humanitarian workers and uninterrupted supplies.
2. Support to maintain or restore our operational continuity through technical support and funding
3. Social welfare and protection for economically vulnerable
4. Governments, fellow citizens and fellow humans to treat everyone with dignity and respect during this crisis

Please click here to download the complete paper.

#COVIDー19 #COVID19outbreak #CoronaVirus