Over the years, humanitarian emergencies have become increasingly complex. Each year, millions of people are left in desperate need of immediate lifesaving aid, protection and assistance.
Local and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are at the forefront of humanitarian emergency response. They are the first to arrive, and their knowledge of the local context, relationships with authorities and affected communities means that they are well-positioned to respond. However, local and national NGOs often have limited capacity to scale up or sustain their operations. They face challenges—such as gaps in technical expertise, insufficient funding or ad-hoc organizational systems—that require further development, and during large-scale emergencies, the opportunities for strengthening capacities are minimal and are often not utilized.
The humanitarian sector recognizes the crucial role played by local actors, while recognizing the challenges these actors face. By systematically addressing these gaps, the humanitarian sector can ensure that local and national NGOs are best positioned to link efforts across preparedness, relief, recovery and resilience programming at the local level, and support their communities.
To address gaps in emergency preparedness and response, the Local Capacity Strengthening for Response (LCS4R) project will provide training to strengthen the institutional capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs), local NGOs (LNGOs) and national NGOs (NNGOs), helping them prepare for and respond to humanitarian crises and better engage with international and national humanitarian systems. Funded by the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the LCS4R project is spearheaded by International Medical Corps in collaboration with Concern Worldwide, and implemented through a consortium that brings together a combination of operational and technical expertise.
The primary target group of the LCS4R project is CBOs, LNGOs and NNGOs in East Africa and South Asia. LCS4R also will support the global humanitarian community by developing a knowledge platform and sharing resources developed by the project.
This component will provide intensive capacity-strengthening support to 10 CBOs, LNGOs and/or NNGOs. LCS4R will work with organizations in East Africa and South Asia that will undertake a participatory needs assessment, prepare organizational capacity strengthening plans and participate in training and a mentorship program based on those plans. LCS4R will provide support over a period of 12 months that will include site visits and remote support.
The Capacity Strengthening Symposium will comprise of 2 training workshop and a networking in both Bangladesh and Malawi. Using a skills-building participatory approach, the symposium events will provide hands-on learning and networking, enabling humanitarian practitioners, CBOs, LNGOs and NNGOs to further enhance their capacity to respond to emergencies.
To enable knowledge to be accessed by all relevant organizations, regardless of geographic focus, LCS4R will consolidate the resources into a global knowledge-management platform. The platform will be available to the wider humanitarian community and will promote the resources, materials and best practices developed during the project.
This material is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of International Medical Corps and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.