Supporting Local Actors: Evaluation of Sweden’s Application of the Grand Bargain Localisation Agenda

Summary

At the Global Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul 2016, 66 agencies – UN and other intergovernmental organisations, donor countries, international civil society organisations – signed the Grand Bargain to ‘get more means into the hands of people in need’.

Progress has been made along the Bargain’s workstreams. The use of cash-based programs, harmonised reporting and joint needs analysis have increased, and humanitarian and development actors work somewhat better together. However, when signatories met to reconsider overall progress in 2021, they agreed in a “Grand Bargain 2.0” to focus on two lagging areas: access to timely and flexible funding, and the ‘localisation agenda’.

The localisation agenda stems from the call for a ‘participatory revolution’. Local and national actors are first to respond when crises hit, they know their local context, and they remain in place when others leave. Hence, increased influence of local actors over the design and implementation of responses would increase their effectiveness.

As Sweden continues to stress the importance of an effective international system for humanitarian assistance, and promotes localisation, it is important to know why progress has been weak in this particular area. This is why EBA decided to commission an evaluation of how Sweden has applied the localisation agenda.

We believe this report will be of use to Swedish policy makers, staff within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Sida as well as within those organisations that serve as intermediaries and implementors of Swedish humanitarian assistance. We also hope the report will be of relevance for other actors within the international humanitarian system. The study has been conducted with support from a reference group chaired by Johan Schaar, who previously served as vice chair of EBA.

The authors are solely responsible for the content of the report.