Humanitarian leadership in Syria: how are the capacities of local organisations built?

Country: Syrian Arab Republic Source: ODI – Humanitarian Practice Network Over the past decade, Syria has witnessed one of the most complex humanitarian crises of the modern era, one whose reverberations have cut through the lives of millions of civilians. Against this backdrop, local leadership has ceased to be a matter of mere practicality. It has become an existential necessity, the very thread by which aid reaches those who need it most. This article is grounded in three years of hands-on experience working with more than 50 local organisations across diverse sectors, under the programme ‘Supporting organisations to improve humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding responses in Syria, ’ implemented by the Center for Civil Society and Democracy (CCSD). The article draws on several analyses conducted throughout the programme period. Data collected by the programme shows that 81% of local organisations were able to reach areas that large international agencies could not due to security and administrative restrictions. That figure alone exposes an undeniable truth: the geographic and social proximity of local actors is the decisive factor in saving lives. Yet despite their growing role, local organisations continue to operate within a humanitarian system that does not always grant them the space they need to lead. In an internal programme survey, 82% of executive directors of local organisations reported that their greatest challenge is not a lack of competence, but limited access to direct funding and lack of meaningful participation in decision-making. These challenges reflect not a weakness in the capacities of local actors, but a structural gap in how the global humanitarian system is organised and how roles are distributed within it. Read the full article on ODI-HPN

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