Capacity Building of Local Organisations to Respond Effectively in Emergencies (SCORE) SCORE’s strategy is informed by Trócaire/Cordaid’s extensive experience, as partnership agencies, of CS activities with local partners globally. This includes ongoing CS work in each of the target countries using organisational CS frameworks/tools. It also includes Trócaire’s experience in the START-funded Shifting the Power programme – a 3-year CS initiative for which Trócaire was lead agency (in collaboration with CAFOD) for the Ethiopia component. 
Lessons learnt to date have informed project design. To ensure effectiveness, the CS approach will a) be locally-led, built on an assessment of CSO needs/preferences; b) be flexible to allow tailored support for each CSO; c) include multiple CS techniques, with a focus on experiential learning grounded in local contextual realities; and d) prioritise gender, age and diversity, incl. appropriate gender/diversity balance of participants.

SCORE is also informed by the global push since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit and Grand Bargain (endorsed by DG ECHO) for increased investment in CS of local actors to shift the power towards locally-led response. Trócaire and Cordaid are Charter4Change signatories and play a prominent role in researching and promoting localisation at the EU level (e.g. Trócaire/Groupe URD research, More than the Money: Localisation in practice, 2017). 

SCORE is an 18-month project aiming to enhance resilience in crisis-affected communities and promote a leading role for local actors in humanitarian action by strengthening the capacity of local civil society organisations (CSOs), incl. prospective EU Aid Volunteer hosting organisations, to respond effectively and efficiently to crises. Led by Trócaire, it is a consortium response consisting of Trócaire and Catholic Organization for Relief, Development and Aid (Cordaid), both headquartered in the EU, and 5 Trócaire/Cordaid country offices as affiliated entities, working alongside 12 local CSOs in 4 crisis-affected or at-risk countries: Ethiopia (ACPA; APDA; RACIDA; Acord; Agri Service), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Maams; Action d’Espoir; Padebu), Rwanda (ARCT; Duhamic Adri) and Sierra Leone (AAD-SL; KADDRO). 

Building on extensive experience within the consortium of working in partnership with CSOs, SCORE will prioritise effectiveness by ensuring that CS activities a) are locally-led, informed by CSO needs and preferences; b) are flexible to allow tailored support for each CSO, and c) include multiple CS techniques, with a focus on experiential learning grounded in local contextual realities. SCORE’s overall objective is to support the resilience of vulnerable/disaster-affected communities by strengthening the capacity of 12 local CSOs to prepare for and respond to humanitarian crises. The 3 specific objectives (SOs) are:
1. To strengthen E-Prep and CP in local CSOs;
2. To strengthen the capacity and readiness of local CSOs to deliver timely, high quality and needs-based humanitarian assistance; and
3. To promote organisational learning – both within the consortium and with other relevant stakeholders in-country and at European level – by documenting and disseminating lessons learnt and examples of good practice from the project. Direct beneficiaries are staff from the 12 local partner organisations in the 4 countries, indirect beneficiaries are all beneficiaries of their projects that will consequently benefit from the increased capacities in effective and efficient response to emergencies of the 12 partner organisations.