Ceren Can, Coordinator of the Localization Advocacy Group, which took its first steps two years ago with the initiative of Support to Life Association and grew with the support of Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF) and Civil Society Development Center (STGM), gave information about the Localization Advocacy Group, an independent and local initiative that supports the improvement of civil society work through localization, and emphasized that CSOs as local actors are not visible in the large and multi-stakeholder humanitarian aid system.
"Humanitarian aid is a big sector and every year donor countries pool funds and channel them to crises around the world. There is a serious flow of funds here. We are talking about a large and multi-stakeholder system in humanitarian aid. Most of them are international actors, but there are local actors who are closest to the affected people and communities at the very end of the system. Although there are many stakeholders in this system, we as local actors are not very visible."
Can said that localization has started to be discussed and talked about through the problems experienced in practice in the humanitarian aid system, and explained that most of the funding available in humanitarian aid works on trying to keep the system afloat and that the system is not sustainable due to the exclusion of local actors.
"These funds and grants are realized through the intervention of external actors in a time of crisis. Since these are big structures, big money is spent to keep this system and mechanism alive. Therefore, most of the grant money is spent on keeping this system afloat. Intervening in the crisis from outside means not knowing the local people, not building on local capacity, not understanding the local people. Therefore, when international actors withdraw, we cannot see a long-term and sustainable impact from these crises."
Mahmut Can İsal, Coordinator of the Local Humanitarian Forum of Turkey, which has organic ties with the Localization Advocacy Group, and Seda Alp, Program Officer of the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, also attended the program.