Localising Humanitarian Action

Calls for a greater inclusion of local actors, local communities and local organisations as well as a better sensitivity toward the local context in which humanitarian action takes place have featured for some time in debates on how to improve the humanitarian system and its effectiveness on the ground. In what can be labelled a `local turn in international humanitarian action, localised humanitarian action is increasingly seen as panacea to ill-fitted and inefficient humanitarian. Localising humanitarian action has also been propagated for addressing structural shortcomings of the humanitarian system that has been criticised for reproducing power imbalances between countries (and people) from the Global North and the Global South. Despite the general acknowledgement of the importance of localising humanitarian action, research and evaluations of humanitarian activities reveal that the localisation of humanitarian action has been implemented in practice only to a limited extend. Within a qualitative research design and in reference to specific cases, this projects seeks to close an existing research gap on the potential and challenges of localising humanitarian action. Particular attention will be given to the way the local is construed, negotiated and represented in humanitarian action.