Transferring more funds directly to local actors
Availability of funding is one of the key underlying blockers towards greater Local Humanitarian Leadership (LHL). The HRGF puts into practice Oxfam’s commitments to increase the levels of humanitarian funding accessible to local and national organisations and better share power and responsibility (see Grand Bargain and Charter for Change commitments).
A core funding model of ELNHA is the Humanitarian Response Grant Facility (HRGF). The HRGF is activated when there is need for a humanitarian response. It is designed to provide capacitated LNHAs with an opportunity to respond to on-going humanitarian crises locally, thus demonstrating to the broader humanitarian community their capacity and leadership to carry out direct implementation. The ultimate aim is to increase their direct access to funding from donors.
The HRGF provides the opportunity to access funding to:
- Strengthen capacity to independently design and implement quality responses (according to minimum standards), conduct needs assessments, design project proposals, manage funds, monitor and evaluate, and meet reporting compliance;
- Demonstrate capacity to independently design and manage quality response programs, with the aim to increase access to other sources of funding directly (international or national) – for the same response and/or for future responses;
- Provide learning to donors on how to design funding modalities that best meet the objective of improved quality of responses through leadership of local actors
Through a practical, ‘learning by doing’-approach, the HRGF provides space for capacity development and learning, while at the same time offering a way to gain more experience in the full cycle of humanitarian response, from proposal writing to response implementation.
THE HRGF process consists of 1) preparatory activities, 2) activation of the call and selection of grantees, and 3) implementation and M&E. Depending on the capacity available and the type of humanitarian crisis (rapid onset versus protracted crisis), the HRGF should be adapted.
Relevant Documents
Humanitarian Responses of local consortia- experience from Uganda
Research on perceptions of community empowerment by local actors
