Strengthening Capacities: CAFOD's vision to promote locally-led humanitarian response

At the forefront of humanitarian response are local organisations who are amongst the first ones to respond, have better knowledge of the context and better acceptance from the crisis affected communities. However, this local capacity is often undermined, ignored or overwhelmed by international humanitarian actors who fail to recognise their critical role, particularly in responding to large scale disasters. 

In 2012, CAFOD identified capacity strengthening of partners as one of the key corporate priorities and established the Humanitarian Capacity Development (HCD) programme. This pioneering initiative responds to the call made in the Humanitarian Emergency Response Review and in the broader humanitarian sector, to “improve the strategic, political and operational leadership of the international humanitarian system,” with a particular focus on the global south. 

This paper provides an overview of the successes and challenges of the HCD programme to date.