Background: Humanitarian response begins with local actors, however direct funding for local health and humanitarian organizations is minimal compared to international NGOs (INGOs) and multilateral organizations. In 2016, the Grand Bargain aligned 19 donor countries and 16 international aid organizations to advocate for more equitable distribution of funding and strengthening of local leadership and institutional capacities, but this has yet to be fully realized. From 2020 to 2021 direct funding to local humanitarian actors actually declined, and gaps remain between donor requirements and limits of local health and humanitarian organizations to respond. In 2021, Project HOPE launched the Local Capacity Strengthening for Response program (LCS4R), aiming to strengthen institutional capacities of Local and National NGOs (L/NNGO) across West and Central Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Methods: Project HOPE engaged eight L/NNGOs in one year of intensive on-site and remote support, workshops, and learning exchanges on priority domains selected by the L/NNGOs following organizational capacity and learning needs assessments. Over 200 L/NNGOs that applied to participate also had access to webinars, remote trainings and regional workshops on capacity strengthening, resource mobilization, equitable partnerships and engaging with the humanitarian ecosystem, as well as an online learning platform featuring adaptable resources, tools and manuals.

Results: L/NNGOs participating in LCS4R demonstrated strengthened capacity for response and resource mobilization through strategic plans, improved internal processes, staff training, expanded participation in existing and formation of new coalitions and networks, and increased leadership with direct engagement in the international humanitarian ecosystem. Development of policies, training and tools in core capacity areas such as logistics, security and human resources allow for compliance with donor requirements and more efficient and effective response to humanitarian and global health emergencies. L/NNGOs are able to describe and leverage their capacities and engage within the humanitarian ecosystem.

Conclusion: The capacity for humanitarian response is strong at the local level. Institutional support can facilitate L/NNGOs to further improve operational capacity, resource mobilization, leadership and engagement in the international humanitarian ecosystem to break the inequities of internationally dominated response to global health and humanitarian crises, and better ensure strong locally-led response efforts.