Locally Led Emergency Response Fund (LL-ERF) Project: Experiences from Bangladesh, Puerto Rico, and Uganda

This report contains learning from a pilot implementation of the Locally Led Emergency Response Fund (LL-ERF) Project in three countries. The LL-ERF is a funding innovation that provides flexible, quick humanitarian funding to local actors in order to save lives during emergencies, advocate for the rights of people affected, and advance the shifting of power to local actors in the humanitarian sector. In the pilot, the LL-ERF was designed and managed by a consortium of local actors in each of the three pilot sites. Feedback from communities showed that this funding facility helped reduce suffering caused by low-attention disasters. This learning report identifies good practices and challenges and documents the experience of local actors in managing funds and designing response options.

The learning in this report presents opportunities to explore how best to increase and direct funding to local actors. At the same time, it identifies barriers encountered during the LL-ERF Project that stakeholders in this sector must continue to overcome together.