The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the international humanitarian sector to adapt to a different operational reality, with many international staff unable to travel and access affected communities. A renewed focus on the role of local actors offers an opportunity to turn this rhetoric into action, and provide more funding, support and recognition for national humanitarian responders.
Capturing evidence of changes is important. It not only helps inform future programming, funding decisions and details lessons learnt, but also makes a case for future support to national responders.
The Humanitarian Policy Group’s (HPG) new mapping tool is capturing some of these changes in real-time. Using an online survey and a review of publicly available sources, it documents how Covid-19 is triggering change in the humanitarian system towards more local humanitarian action, local leadership and partnerships between international and national responders.