CO-ERF for local actors in Southwest Uga Globally, several actors, networks and alliances are calling for the strengthening of more locally driven humanitarian assistance, rooted in decades of advocacy by NGO leaders and more recently, the Grand Bargain Commitments’ workstream 2 on localizationwhich seeks to provide more support and funding tools to local and national responders. This commitment sets a target for 25% of global humanitarian funding to be provided ‘as directly as possible’ to local and national responders. Oxfam is a signatory tothe Grand Bargain Commitments as well as the Charter for Change and under these advocates for meaningful participation in humanitarian preparedness, implementation and coordination, and investments in the leadership of local and national humanitarian actors .

International NGOs showed a growing trend to pass funds down to national NGOs (such funding increased from $1m in 2016 to $4.1m in 2017), but they provided minimal levels of funding to local NGOs – just $0.2m in 2017 . This statistic makes clearthat, without access to financial resources, power over humanitarian response cannot be exercised where it should be: in the hands of the people most affected by crisis. AsLocal and National Humanitarian Actors (LNHAs) continue to see their people grosslyaffected by crisis, the desire to respond is largely hindered by limited access to resources. To have capable local and national humanitarian actors (LNHAs) in Uganda play a leading role in humanitarian work, the Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) project created the Humanitarian ResponseGrant Facility (HRGF ). ELNHA was a five-year initiative that ended in March 2021 aimed to strengthen the role of local and national humanitarian actors in preparing for and responding to disasters.

The final evaluation of the Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) Project, Phase II recommends among other things; to advocate for establishing new national pooled funding mechanisms to promote localization and a deeper investment in local and national humanitarian actors. The purpose is for international actors, national governments and even larger local and national NGOs as well as private-sector actors to contribute funds that can be used in targeted approaches supporting local and national humanitarian actors.

Localization is at the heart of Oxfam’s agenda andis inspired by the work of the global Charter for Change network. In Uganda to date, Oxfam has partnered with 13 Local NGOs and 8 refugee led organizations to deliver interventions in WASH, COVID-19 awareness, livelihoods and community led initiatives in peacebuilding in the different districts of interventions. Oxfam’s current refugee response is supporting over 600,000 refugees in 7 camps of West Nile and South Western Uganda with integrated WASH, protection, disaster risk reduction, and livelihood interventions. More than 120,000 host community members are also benefiting from these interventions. A number of local actors have been engaged and or are collaboratingwith Oxfam in response and some of these include: Foundation for Urban and Rural Advancement (FURA), African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD), Joint Efforts to Safe the Environment (JESE), Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid (HIJRA), and Livelihood Improvement Programme (LIPRO), Uganda. These actors together with others have initiated a local humanitarian actors platform for the South West.
South-Western Uganda borders with Tanzania (in the North-West), Rwanda (in the North) and DRC (in the East); and the region is home to six refugee settlements which include Nakivale, Oruchinga, Kyaka I, Kyaka II, Rwamwanja and Kyangwali. Much of the population in this region are peasant farmers and over 80% of this population depends on subsistence farming. The area experiences intermittent influx of refugees, disease out-breaks such as Ebola, hemorrhagic fevers, HIV/AIDS; and of late COVID-19. Floods and landslides also continue to affect the local population displacing people in South Western Uganda.