Beyond Local and International Humanitarian Action at the Margins

December 2019 Briefing Note Beyond local and international Humanitarian action at the margins Larissa Fast A key commitment of the 2016 funding to local and national actors Larissa Fast is a former Senior Research Fellow at the World Humanitarian Summit and (without intermediaries) – 0.2% of Humanitarian Policy Group resulting Grand Bargain was to all humanitarian funding – lag far (HPG) at ODI. She is now Senior increase direct funding to local behind the target, as opposed to an Lecturer at the Humanitarian and national responders and estimated 12.4% via ‘intermediaries’ and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, and a make humanitarian aid ‘as local such as the UN, Red Cross Research Associate with HPG. as possible, as international as movement or international non- necessary’. The latest analysis of governmental organisations (INGOs) This work is licensed under progress towards this goal identifies (Local to Global, 2019). Even CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. improvements and normative shifts though these percentages are higher Humanitarian Policy Group regarding the place of local actors in some countries, they still fall short Overseas Development Institute in humanitarian response. It also of the 25% goal (Els, 2017; Willitts- 203 Blackfriars Road suggests we have a way to go to King et al., 2018). London SE1 8NJ United Kingdom achieve targets and systemic reform Discussion about the contributions (Metcalfe-Hough et al., 2019). of and dynamics between local Tel.: +44 (0) 20 7922 0300 The Grand Bargain commitment and international actors is likely Fax.: +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 to rectify funding inequalities to continue well into the future. In Email: [email protected] Website: odi.org.uk/hpg followed emotive and charged rhetoric, if not necessarily in intent, debates about ‘institutionalised the contrasting terminologies of Cover photo: Community discrimination’ (Wall, 2015), only to ‘local’ and ‘international’ imply roles representatives visit a family on the outskirts of Beni, DRC to give rise to new discussions around that are fixed, with associated value raise awareness about Ebola. whether funds routed through judgements about who is or should World Bank/Vincent Tremeau intermediaries counted towards be primary responders, and with the aim of 25% of donor financing implications for the responsibilities, going ‘as directly as possible’ to local power and funding that accompany organisations by 2020 (Edwards, these actors in times of crisis. In 2017). Global amounts of direct reality, however, the categories of local and international are often fluid and informal spaces of humanitarian action. As such, relative. HPG’s research on local humanitarian intermediaries and marginal spaces represent action exposes varying degrees of localness additional lenses through which to explore local covering everything from geography and affinity humanitarian action and the localisation debates, to linguistic or experiential differences. For helping to move us away from the binaries of instance, local organisations responding to local and international actors and towards a refugee crises often do not reflect the identities more capacious vision of humanitarian action. or experiences of the displaced. National This paper is the third and final in a series of organisations based in a capital city may be briefing notes (Fast 2017; 2019) related to HPG’s more local than international organisations, local humanitarian action research, titled ‘From but are still not necessarily considered local by the ground up: understanding local response communities themselves. Meanwhile, the ‘local’ in crises’ (HPG, 2017), and complements the organisations participating in coordination final report of this two-year project (Bennett or other formal processes may be the largest and Fast, forthcoming). As part of this research and best known, rather than representing agenda, HPG hosted a roundtable discussion in the full diversity of ‘local’ actors in a crisis November 2018 about the roles of intermediaries context (Wake and Bryant, 2018; Mosel and in humanitarian action to further explore the Holloway, 2019; Fast, 2019; Bennett and Fast, nuances of local action. forthcoming). The diversity of language and This briefing note captures some of the insights lived experience in crisis suggests a variety of from this roundtable, drawing upon this and ways that organisations or staff members may be related literature. It uses the metaphor of ‘space’, considered ‘local’. particularly the grey spaces of the middle and Equally, the notion of ‘intermediaries’ alludes the margins, to capture the richness and variety to the fact that some categories of actors and of functions and roles beyond the categories of institutions do not fit neatly into binaries of local and international humanitarian action. The ‘local’ and ‘international’. This leads to a series note focuses first on intermediary actors and of questions: who are these intermediaries their roles, followed by a discussion of those and who are the actors at the margins? What operating in the marginal spaces of humanitarian roles do they play in humanitarian action? response. Such spaces stretch our understanding Do intermediaries act as gatekeepers and of terminologies and can shift our perspectives. go-betweens, or can and do they also function Moreover, examining roles instead of actors can in supportive or complementary ways to local promote inclusiveness and offer ways to expand action? How should we categorise national faith- our conceptions of complementarity. The note based organisations with extensive networks draws upon research corresponding to the four outside the country? Or the in-country offices of themes of HPG’s local humanitarian action international federations, whose staff are almost agenda – capacity and complementarity, dignity entirely national but whose funding base may in displacement, humanitarian financing, and the be primarily external? What about organisations protection of civilians – with the aim of exposing that receive funding and other forms of support pathways to implementing a more effective and from diaspora organisations? locally led humanitarian response. Intermediaries play a plethora of roles – some more bureaucratic than others – that fulfil Looking to the spaces between important functions in the middle or at the margins of a response. These groups operate in The concept of an ‘intermediary’ in the between spaces, at multiple levels between humanitarian action implies a liminal space, the international and the local, somewhere in the where actors function neither as local nor middle of initial donors and final implementers. international, or share elements of both (Kraft Others operate at the margins, outside of but and Smith, 2019). Analyses of the formal linked to the formal system, or move back humanitarian system (Bennett, 2018) point and forth between the formal system and the both to the need for principled action (Dubois, 2 2018) and to the contributions of those who is to build capacity of local actors. Typically, operate outside of the formal system (Currion this involves training or transferring skills and 2018; Zaman 2018). Intermediaries represent processes in ways that tend to replicate local one such group of actors who connect and organisations in the image of their international encompass international, national and local counterparts (Pouligny, 2009; Wall and groups, networks and individuals. They Hedlund, 2016; Barbelet, 2018), which goes might be national affiliates of international against the idea of locally led or locally organisations or international entities outside owned humanitarian action. While sometimes of the formal system that serve as conduits interpreted in a more negative light, this to local community-based organisations. function can be transformative in shifting the Intermediary individuals, organisations, balance in favour of local actors if the capacity networks or institutions possess contextual building is multi-dimensional and emerges knowledge, humanitarian expertise and access out of local actors’ self-assessments (Barbelet, to local communities and to institutions at the 2019). A third role is that of gatekeeper, in centres of power. which intermediaries monitor the actions Yet intermediary actors can – and arguably of others or control access to meetings (e.g. should – be disentangled from the roles cluster coordination), funding (donors) or other they play in a response. They fulfil multiple processes. Consequently, intermediaries may functions, which often shift according to deliberately or inadvertently include or exclude context (ALNAP, 2018). Despite their influence local actors or add bureaucracy and layers to on the scope, shape, language and quality of a system that already centralises power and humanitarian action, the role of intermediaries resources (ALNAP, 2018). As gatekeepers, in the sector is less understood. This makes it individual and organisational intermediaries difficult to grasp the extent of their influence make it possible to ‘avoid local politics and its or understand how they shape local action, discontents’ but are key for their access and but presents new options for advancing contextual knowledge and in identifying those complementarity in humanitarian response. in need of assistance (Carpi, 2018). Researchers have identified a plethora While these roles reinforce existing power of intermediary roles in conflict settings differentials in the humanitarian system, (Mitchell, 1993). Those

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