Calls to “reimagine aid,” “shift the power,” and “decolonize aid” express frustration with systems of humanitarian and development assistance that are dominated by actors from the Global North and lack participation from local communities affected by these policies. In various domains of global governance, major reform movements consider how to meaningfully devolve decision-making power and resources from global institutions to local communities. This “localization turn” raises a few important conceptual and practical questions. How is localization understood by scholars, practitioners and local communities themselves? How is localization practiced and to what effects? What does localization reveal about how power and agency are constituted in global governance?

This conference, convened by the Humanitarian Action Initiative (HAI), an academic and research hub housed in the George Washington University’s  Elliott School of International Affairs, will engage in a critical interrogation of the localization agenda; evaluate the ongoing efforts to implement localization policy; analyze the underlying power relations and dynamics in humanitarian and development assistance; discuss points of contestation and resistance; and consider localization’s broader impacts. The conference is organized around six main themes and we welcome papers in these areas:

1. Top-down approaches to localization: Evaluating institutional reforms: Current approaches to localization emphasize top-down reforms which involve changes in the practices of donor governments, UN agencies, and INGOs in four main areas: funding, coordination, capacity-building, and partnerships. This theme focuses on reform efforts in these areas, examines the nature, design, and outcomes of these reforms, and the impacts on the broader localization agenda.

• Political economy of localization: This theme examines the political economy of humanitarian and development assistance to reveal how donors’ practices, policies, and interests either advance or impede localization. What is the range of strategies big donors, and their contracting partners use to “localize aid” and what are the effects of these strategies on the policy objectives of localization?
• Knowledge production, professionalization, standards, and expertise: This theme investigates the political dynamics of professionalization, knowledge production, and standard-setting. How do these norms and standards diffuse? What are the interactions between global and local norms, standards, and knowledge? What knowledge, expertise and standards are valued and how does this shape power dynamics?
• Bottom-up approaches to localization: This theme examines the agency of local actors to decide whether and how to engage with the global humanitarian and development systems. What are the existing forms of South-South cooperation and how do they shape localization? This theme explores these dynamics, considers bottom-up approaches to localization and South-South cooperation, and investigates how local actors shape the spaces where they interact. 
• Social inclusion/exclusion and localization: While localization intends to improve the inclusion of affected-communities, it may also exacerbate the exclusion of marginalized groups if local power dynamics and tensions between different social and political groups are not taken into consideration. This theme explores the conditions under which localization might enable or impede social inclusion and the tensions between meeting commitments to “do no harm” and localization.
• Localization in restrictive, authoritarian or conflict settings: Approaches to locally-led development and humanitarian assistance differ in the role they establish for the state. How do democratic backsliding, shrinking civic space, counter-terrorism measures etc. affect and shape local actors’ room for action? How can localization policy support local partners in these contexts in meaningful ways? This theme examines national contexts and how they affect the operation and function of local development and humanitarian actors.

This conference will highlight and share cutting-edge research, capitalize on our central location in Washington D.C. to foster conversation between academics and practitioners, and form the basis for a special journal issue on the power and politics of localization.

This conference is generously funded by a William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant.

Contact: Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre, Ph.D. Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director, Humanitarian Action Initiative, George Washington University humanitarian@gwu.edu