Letting Go of Control: Empowering locally led action in Ukraine

Letting go of control: Empowering locally led action in Ukraine tells the story of how our partners in Ukraine worked with local community groups to run transformative, community led programming. It focuses on case studies of both survivor and community led response (sclr) and another cash approach called flexible small grants.

These first responders organically formed a humanitarian response based on their own resources and networks, connecting with like-minded helpers and local governments to expand and scale up. They did this despite the ongoing failure of the humanitarian system reform to truly put local actors in the drivers’ seat.

The paper argues that the international system needs a mindset shift; it needs to let go of power and put money and accountability in the hands of local actors. It was produced in partnership with Local to Global Protection, and programme partners on the ground in Ukraine, including the Alliance for Public Health, Hungarian Interchurch Aid, and HEKS-EPER, and Hungarian Reformed Church Aid.