Today, USAID reaffirmed its commitment to supporting local leadership with the release of its Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance Policy. This policy outlines the Agency's vision and goals for centering local actors, organizations, and communities in USAID's work across the humanitarian assistance continuum including emergency response, early recovery, resilience, and disaster risk reduction.
Through this policy, USAID will work to advance five key goals: Increasing the accessibility of funding for local humanitarian organizations; strengthening USAID's ability to build humanitarian partnerships with a diversity of local actors; increasing support for capacity strengthening, sharing, and mutual learning across humanitarian partnerships; elevating local humanitarian leadership; and leveraging humanitarian diplomacy and policy leadership to advocate for locally led assistance.
The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance is at a historic high due to compounding crises and the effects of climate change, and this policy enables strong contributions at a critical moment. USAID is committed to placing local communities at the center of humanitarian work and supporting a humanitarian system that operates on the basis of local decisions and priorities, reflecting the needs and preferences of impacted groups. As we implement this policy, we will be continually engaging in analysis of lessons learned across our humanitarian partnerships to strengthen Agency approaches to advancing local leadership.
