BRAC welcomes the release of a new report from the Grand Bargain Ambassadors and partners, which calls for renewed commitment to long-term investment in local and national organisations at a time of growing global humanitarian need.
The Grand Bargain, agreed in 2016, set out to make international assistance more efficient, effective and locally led, with the aim of directing more resources directly to people and communities. Nearly a decade on, the report finds that many communities continue to be underserved, highlighting the gap between global commitments and lived realities.
The report emphasises that meaningful localisation is not achieved through short-term capacity building, but through long-term institutional development of local and national actors. It brings together evidence from pooled funds, coalition approaches and blended finance models, showing that sustainable impact depends on multi-year, trust-based investment that strengthens governance, financial systems and local leadership.
BRAC is featured as an example of how this approach can work in practice. Our experience demonstrates the importance of early, flexible funding for local and national actors, and of bridging humanitarian, development and private-sector approaches. Through social enterprises and investments, alongside donor- and partner-funded programmes such as the Ultra-Poor Graduation approach, we have built locally rooted institutions that generate their own resources while delivering large-scale impact.
The report also highlights BRAC’s Pooled Fund for Localisation, which supports Bangladeshi NGOs to lead sustainable, locally driven humanitarian responses for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char.
The report’s message is clear – investing in local actors is not ideology, it is effective development and humanitarian practice. If localisation is to succeed, long-term partnerships that enable local leadership to thrive must replace short-term, project-based funding models.
Read the full report here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QITCirRc3q-ZFqTua9hnSiVo8M2fNjNO/view