Imagine an area experiencing a disaster. The damage was severe, and there were many casualties. Signals were disconnected, and the access to the area was also cut off, so the emergency response assistance from people outside the area could not be distributed timely. What could be done, and who would play a major role?
A concept called localisation can be a process to answer the question above. Localisation is a concept or process to strengthen support for humanitarian actors at the local level, including to the affected communities. Localisation aims to empower local humanitarian actors so that they can become first responders and meet their own needs in an emergency situation. Locally-led humanitarian response is significant as local actors can respond to the emergency situation as soon as possible. The roles and leadership of local actors in disaster situations can increase the effectiveness of disaster management.
“Partners for Inclusion: Localising Inclusive Humanitarian Response”, later known as PIONEER, is a programme that incorporates the concept of localisation. This programme is a mechanism that aims to strengthen the role of local actors through inclusive, quality, and equal partnerships to achieve localisation, especially for persons with disabilities and older people.
The PIONEER programme is an inclusive partnership and collaboration through a consortium managed by the Arbeiter Samariter Bund (ASB) Indonesia and the Philippines, the Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (HFI), Advocacy for Disability Inclusion (AUDISI), and the Resilience Development Initiative (RDI), and received assistance from the Team Advisory Committee. This program was implemented in Sigi Regency, Central Sulawesi, and Magelang Regency, Central Java, in the period February 1, 2021–September 30, 2022. PIONEER was funded by Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
During its implementation, this programme has produced a variety of products. Two of them are best practice books related to localisation and training modules.
First, a best practise book titled “Localisation in Building Inclusive Humanitarian Preparedness and Response”, was developed to provide lessons learnt from the implementation of the PIONEER model mechanism in increasing inclusiveness as well as facilitating the actors within it, including Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), Older People Associations (OPA), local humanitarian response organisations, and regional government organisations, to be able to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate humanitarian programmes.
The second product is an inclusive humanitarian preparedness and response planning training module. This module has been used as a reference for providing training to beneficiaries in Sigi and Magelang Regencies by bringing three main values together: meaningful participation, capacity building, and equal partnership. There are five material packages in it, namely: (1) Disability and Older Age Inclusion, including Accessibility Assessment for Meaningful Participation; (2) Data in Humanitarian Response; (3) Disaster Preparedness and Inclusive Humanitarian Response; (4) localisation of Assistance in Humanitarian Response; and (5) Project Cycle Management.
Not only for PIONEER programme implementers, the best practise book and this training module can be used by other stakeholders, such as humanitarian practitioners, who seek to implement inclusive humanitarian response. This learning material can be modified or replicated by other institutions by mentioning PIONEER as a reference. Both can be accessed via the following link:
Click here to Download Pelokalan dalam Membangun Kesiapsiagaan dan Respons Kemanusiaan yang Inklusif
Click here to Download Modul Pelatihan Rencana Kesiapsiagaan dan Respons Kemanusiaan Inklusif
