Reforming CBPFs for Locally Led Action: A System-Wide Call to INGOs, UN Agencies, and Donors (2025)

This brief calls for urgent reform of UN-OCHA Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) to enable genuinely locally led humanitarian action. Despite their design, CBPFs are dominated by UN agencies and INGOs, limiting access, decision-making, and funding for local and national actors (L/NAs)—who deliver aid more effectively, efficiently, and sustainably. Save the Children’s phased withdrawal from CBPFs signals a strategic, principled step to create space for L/NAs, while advocating system-wide reforms in governance, compliance, financing, and transparency. The brief urges all humanitarian actors—UN agencies, INGOs, donors, and local partners—to shift power, resources, and leadership toward local actors, ensuring communities define priorities, drive outcomes, and lead responses in line with the Humanitarian Reset.