At a Concern Worldwide-supported Nutrition Site in Rohingya Refugee Camp, Bangladesh, mother and caregivers are waiting to receive Nutritional Supplementary ration by maintaining social distance. Photo: Shah Arafat Rahman / Concern Worldwide

More than any other humanitarian crisis in recent history, the novel coronavirus pandemic brings into stark view the imperative for humanitarian leadership. By its very nature, the pandemic forces communities and countries into a state of lockdown, restricting transit of people – including humanitarian actors – in or out, and so it shines a spotlight on the limits of both governments’ capacity to respond as well as the gaps in the international humanitarian aid system where local leadership, preparedness measures, and coordination need to be the most robust.

We recognize the complexity of challenges facing humanitarian actors today and the need for creative leadership in order to meet the needs of affected populations. The international community must take action on the grand bargain commitment to a “participation revolution,” by identifying and supporting local humanitarian leaders. There are plenty of talented, motivated, and creative individuals exercising leadership in some of the world’s least accessible and most inhospitable places. As an international community, we need to support their organization’s efforts through direct material assistance so that they remain incentivized to continue to support local populations in need.

The novel coronavirus underscores the extraordinary strain on countries coping with the virus to provide relief and demonstrates the limits of donors and international humanitarian agencies to prepare for and effectively respond to the most critical humanitarian emergencies. Governments have a duty of care to their citizens and in many instances will be the primary responders in the COVID-19 response.

Yet, many governments either lack adequate capacity to respond, or in some cases, may lack the necessary political will to provide for their citizens. Furthermore, there are millions of refugees and internally displaced persons globally that may fall through the cracks, but are served by front-line national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or community-based organizations. One can readily imagine that if the COVID-19 response has been dire in the global north, that it is going to be infinitely more devastating for governments that have only a fraction of the financial and medical resources.

What has already been done?

The humanitarian aid system has undergone profound change in recent years with reforms emphasizing more effective coordination and greater professionalization of staff. United Nations reforms in 2005 and 2011 resulted in increased provision of technical standards and greater proliferation of training and professional resources for international humanitarian aid agencies. While important steps, far more is required to meet the growing demands of a system dealing with fewer resources and greater needs.

The recently issued Global Humanitarian Response Plan appeals for 2 billon dollars in international humanitarian assistance is a move in the right direction, but will invariably fall far short of the trillions of dollars needed to meet the needs of the response, the lost income and secondary humanitarian impacts of the pandemic.

The international aid system’s delay to effectively coordinate and respond to COVID-19 is, in part, understandable. Even if a clear plan for international aid agencies to respond to a pandemic had been prepared, the virus has forced countries across the world into lockdown, curtailing travel and limiting access to populations already in need of humanitarian assistance. Under these extreme conditions, national and local actors are at the forefront of the responses in their own countries.

Local civil society organizations and NGOs, in particular, play a critical role in supporting and supplementing their health systems by raising awareness, training on best practices, or through direct medical care, especially for displaced populations that may not have access to proper healthcare facilities. Yet, little progress has been made to establish the mechanisms needed for donor governments to provide funding to these organizations, despite commitments made four years ago at the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016 to move in this direction.

Recommendations

A Concern Worldwide Nutrition Worker, wearing a mask in line with COVID-19 prevention guidelines, showing a flash card regarding referral pathway for malnourished children during Mother MUAC Training session at the Rohingya Refugee Camp. Photo: Shah Arafat Rahman Concern Worldwide

The international community must renew its commitment to the localization of aid and seriously increase the scope and speed of the transition to cope with the global impact of COVID-19 and to better prepare for future crises. The localization of aid holds the promise of improving the quality, speed, and scale of humanitarian action provided by frontline local NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs).

Local NGOs and CBOs possess the contextual knowledge and access to populations-in-need required for effective humanitarian action and are always the first organizations to respond. However, they lack the resources and support from donor agencies that international humanitarian aid agencies enjoy.

Donors

The international donor community, NGOs and all humanitarian stakeholders have a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that frontline local NGOs and CBOs have access to the protective gear needed by their health workers to continue to provide life-saving humanitarian programs in fragile contexts like Cameroon, Syria, Yemen, and dozens of other contexts like these around the globe. Donors should also increase funding to agencies seeking COVID-19 test kits for their own workers and for those agencies providing health services to populations they work with. 

Both international donors and international aid agencies should follow the lead of donors who have relaxed some bureaucratic requirements and increased flexibility in funding to enable frontline aid agencies to respond quickly and  protect their own staff from COVID-19 as they continue to provide life-saving food distributions, medical assistance, water sanitation and shelter services to populations in need. 

International donors should immediately agree to increase the amount of aid they provide directly to national NGOs and, at minimum, meet, if not exceed their current World Humanitarian Summit goal of providing 25 percent of humanitarian funding to local and national responders.

International Aid Agencies

Respond to the urgent call for action from frontline health providers and humanitarians requesting additional resources needed to train community responders to support prevention, early detection and early action in responding to COVID-19. These training resources are often concentrated within the international aid system and are rarely available to local humanitarian agencies. These resources are vital now, but also over the longer term to enhance the ability of local aid organizations to respond to other humanitarian emergencies.

International aid agencies must work towards a future where national and international staff are afforded the same opportunities to build their own professional capacity, as well as that of their organizations. This is vital as local organizations are most attuned to the needs of affected communities.

Local Governments

Governments around the world must relax all tariffs and duties or bureaucratic processes that would hold up the delivery of aid. Equally important, governments must ensure the protection of civilians and do everything possible to secure humanitarian aid workers and medical facilities and medical staff.

Now is the time to follow through on the global commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016. Let’s reach out to those exercising leadership in some of the world’s most challenging humanitarian contexts and provide them the support they need. It is time for international donors to exercise leadership by making good on their former commitments and explore new ways to fulfill the first humanitarian principle, a commitment to support humanity. As Jagan Chapagain aptly noted “the value of strong local and national humanitarian response -backed by global resources where they are needed – has never been more evident than it is today.”