CSO Sovereignty Standing Amid the Rubble of the Global Humanitarian Aid System
Sovereignty in humanitarian action, for us, means that at-risk communities and local actors hold central authority to set priorities, allocate resources, design strategies, and define success. This is not isolation; it is decision-making power with true accountability.
At the Indonesia Localization Lab National Convening in Jakarta on 22–24 September 2026, we launched “The Jakarta Declaration on the Sovereignty of Humanitarian CSOs” [1]. Through it, we proclaimed our own kind of localization:
There is no responsibility without authority, no authority without resources.
There is no localization without affected communities and local actors at the center.
To understand this shift fully, we must look at the profound crisis currently shaking the traditional global aid system. Donor budgets are falling sharply. Sitting through the conference on the Future of Development Co-operation conference took place on May 11–12, 2026 at the OECD headquarters in Paris, France, I jotted down OECD figures showing that official development assistance fell by 23.1% in real terms in 2025, while humanitarian ODA dropped by 35.8% [2]. As international institutions implement severe structural cuts, the illusion of an infinite external safety net has been completely shattered. Yet, many remain in denial, silently hoping that the old humanitarian architecture will somehow rebuild itself.
This will not happen. Nor should it.
The transition from the UN-led Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) to the local CSOs co-led Indonesian Humanitarian Coordination Platform (IHCP), launched on World Humanitarian Day in August 2025 and followed by a six-month transition to local leadership in April 2026 [3, 4], was not just a procedural shift. It was a profound declaration of our resolve.
As we enter this new era, we face an uncomfortable truth: civil society is being asked to shoulder heavy responsibilities without the accompanying transfer of authority, resources, data systems, or institutional support.
“Memegang kemudi patah”
Literal translation: Gripping a broken steering wheel/rudder.
Meaning: Being put in charge of a situation without the operational power or means to steer it.
If localization is merely a symbolic handshake where international actors hand over an empty bag as they withdraw, then it is not true reform. It is simply a transfer of structural risk to us, the frontline responders, without giving us the means to handle it. “We are now qualified to do anything with nothing" (with kudos to Josef Jireček )
For us, true localization should not be about finding cheaper administrative fixes. It is about sovereignty.
Our New Determination: Sovereignty in Decision-Making, Unity in Action
I have seen too many local civil society organizations (CSOs) treated as cheap subcontractors, trapped in transactional compliance, top-down oversight, and endless procedural hurdles.
In reality, when a disaster strikes, neighbors, village officials, and local civil society groups, many of which do not even label themselves as "humanitarian" organizations [5], are the ones who act immediately. Moving out of solidarity in the spirit of Gotong Royong, or mutual aid [6], they form the very first line of response, and they never leave the community.
Yet, when the global funding crisis hit, international actors scaled back, restructured, or withdrew entirely. This left local actors to manage complex humanitarian coordination structures without the necessary institutional support or resources. While international backing disappears, this heavy responsibility remains firmly on our shoulders.
Inspired by IARAN’s Future of Aid 2040 scenarios and the resulting Pathways to Transformation report and guide [7], humanitarian CSOs in the Global South must learn to break free from these historical traps. These scenarios offer alternative futures, not predictions of inevitable collapse. We need a realistic framework for achieving sovereignty, one that moves beyond rhetoric and acknowledges the real risks of this profound shift.
Relying on Ourselves: Mobilizing What We Have
We can no longer sit and wait for international actors to deliver on their Grand Bargain commitment to "... achieve by 2020, a global aggregated target of at least 25% of humanitarian funding to local and national responders as directly as possible to improve outcomes for affected people and reduce transaction costs". In 2024, a meager 3.8% actually reached local actors directly [8]. We cannot build our future on promises we do not control.
So today, we call on CSOs across the Global South to rise up and build our own domestic and regional financing architectures.
In Indonesia, this means developing innovative ways to mobilize our own non-traditional social capital: zakat, Islamic philanthropy is already supporting humanitarian action at a massive scale [9] and social investments from domestic businesses, while also seeking public sector funding without sacrificing our core autonomy. Moving forward, we must accelerate the establishment of the Lumbung Sumberdaya Kemanusiaan (Humanitarian Resource Pools). This mechanism was discussed during Indonesia’s National Localization Conference in Banda Aceh, the ground zero of the Indian Ocean tsunami, held in conjunction with the 20-year commemoration of that historic devastation [10].
At the same time, we must foster strategic working relationships with regional funding mechanisms such as the Change Fund, the AASHA Fund in the Asia-Pacific, and the Networked Financing Mechanism (NFM) [11]. We need a solid backstop against the ongoing withdrawal of international actors from our country. Resource sovereignty is the necessary foundation for building our own humanitarian home.
Pragmatic South-South Cooperation
This writing comes to you with greetings from Bandung, Indonesia, the historic birthplace of the 1955 Asian-African Conference, which later laid the groundwork for the launch of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 [12]. From this symbolic vantage point, we recognize that South-South cooperation has deep political roots. Yet, too often, it remains a mere ideological commitment rather than a sustained operational program. Solidarity alone cannot build collective resilience while the international humanitarian aid system collapses around us.
But these options are not lost to us. We have a critical opportunity to explore them again within civil society and humanitarian response. By pooling our collective forces, we can use South-South approaches to build bargaining power, share structural risks, and develop shared accountability frameworks.
To survive, solidarity among Global South actors must move out of meeting rooms and into concrete collaboration. Through platforms like the Asia-Pacific Localization Lab, we must actively exchange locally tested practices, deploy joint needs assessments, and build shared leadership [13]. Today's mandate is clear: less rhetoric, more joint action.
Principled Alignment with the National Government
Most local CSOs, especially in Indonesia, do not operate in a vacuum. We live and work within a state that bears the primary responsibility for disaster management and the protection of its citizens, as affirmed by Indonesia’s Law No. 24/2007 [14].
Realism demands that CSOs in the Global South be pragmatic while fiercely upholding humanitarian principles. Some partners in the Global North expect us to distance ourselves from our governments, operating under the assumption that independence requires hostility toward the state. Yet, this reflects a specific Western understanding of civil society, not a universal rule. Humanitarian independence means maintaining complete autonomy over our humanitarian objectives; it does not mean refusing to cooperate with public authorities [15]. This distinction matters deeply in countries where the government holds the primary mandate for disaster response. We must remain completely free to disagree, challenge, and act impartially.
Because of this, we shall continue to actively align our CSO capabilities with national disaster management frameworks. In Indonesia, we are currently developing a collaborative framework with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK), embedding CSO capabilities directly into the national response ecosystem.
This alignment must take the form of a clear partnership that respects civil society’s operational autonomy and our direct obligations to affected people. Where humanitarian principles demand independence, we will defend it; where collective survival requires state infrastructure and authority, we will lead together.
We are fully conscious that this emphasis on state alignment could be misunderstood as a fixed, universal model for the whole Global South. It is not. It is a context-sensitive framework that supports local self-determination in all its varied forms. In stable, high-capacity settings such as Indonesia, sovereignty is expressed through principled cooperation with an effective state in order to maximize impact and protect domestic resources.
This approach also accepts, rather than rejects, the fact that in fragile, repressive, or conflict-affected contexts, genuine localization requires a fierce, radical independence from the state in order to preserve neutrality, ensure survival, and protect vulnerable communities. Ultimately, the central principle of the Jakarta Declaration is that frontline responders, whatever their political environment, must have absolute authority to determine their own operational boundaries, financial structures, and safety thresholds, free from any single externally imposed template.
If this principled stance results in our exclusion from the self-appointed 'elite club' of humanitarian civil society, it is a price we are more than willing to pay.
Charting a New Course: From Principle to Practice
The path ahead remains uncertain, but we have a unique opportunity to shape it. It is time to assess how our new local CSO platform in Indonesia performs in real-world disasters, from the end-2025 massive flash floods across three provinces in Sumatra to the earthquake that devastated East Nusa Tenggara Province [16, 17]. We must be entirely honest about our shortcomings and document them periodically, perhaps through some sort of “State of the Indonesian Humanitarian System” report at the end of this year.
We continue to welcome international partners, but their role must fundamentally change. We must interact as equal partners, sharing authority, resources, and risks, while respecting locally defined priorities. As our Minangkabau wisdom beautifully reminds us:
"Ka bukik samo mandaki, ka lurah samo manurun, sakik samo mangaduah, luko samo manyiuk."
Up the hills we climb as one, down the valleys we descend, in pain we cry together, in wounds we bleed
The global aid system as we know it is crashing irreversibly. The era of waiting for permission, funding, or validation from the Global North must come to an end. Sovereignty, as we articulated through the Jakarta Declaration, means standing our ground, rooting our work in community values, and securing total control over our coordination and resources.
This is the direction of a possible post-aid future. It is not the end of global solidarity, but the birth of a crisis response system that is primarily led, financed, and governed locally, with international actors playing a strictly complementary role.
The Global South is not simply surviving the upheaval of global aid; we are paving our own way forward today. The Future of Aid is now!
References:
[1] Pujiono, P. (2026). Public account of the Jakarta Declaration on the Sovereignty of Humanitarian Civil Society Organisations, following the Indonesia Localisation Lab National Convening, 22–24 September 2026.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pujiono_deklarasijakartakedaulatan-omspdf-activity-7512530901054943232-dBJh
[2] OECD (2026). “International aid fell sharply in 2025, says OECD.” News release, 9 April 2026. Preliminary 2025 figures: ODA −23.1% in real terms; humanitarian ODA −35.8%.
https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2026/04/international-aid-fell-sharply-in-2025-says-oecd.html
[3] Indonesia Humanitarian Coordination Platform (2026). “Tentang IHCP” (About IHCP). Official institutional timeline: launched on 19 August 2025; transfer of leadership from UN OCHA in April 2026.
https://ihcp-indonesia.org/tentang-ihcp/
[4] Amri, A. (2026). “When the Keys Were Handed Over: Localisation on Steroids in Indonesia.” Humanitarian Advisory Group, 2 June 2026. First-person account of the IHCP transition, funding constraints, partner roles and Sumatra response.
https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/when-the-keys-were-handed-over-localisation-on-steroids-in-indonesia/
[5] McCommon, J., Sutton, K., & Pujiono, P. (2021). Undervalued and underutilised: Non-humanitarian actors and humanitarian reform in Indonesia. Humanitarian Advisory Group. http://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/HH_Blueprint-report-_Non-humanitarian-actors-Indonesia_Final.pdf
[6] Koopman, J. (2021). “The restoration of gotong royong as a form of post-disaster solidarity in Lombok, Indonesia.” Indonesia and the Malay World. Peer-reviewed analysis of how communities mobilised after the 2018 earthquake.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2021.1966318
[7] IARAN (2025–2026). Future of Aid 2040: Navigating the Aid Horizon; and Pathways to Transformation: From Analysis to Action. Four scenarios are alternatives, not predictions. Local leadership, complementarity, resource diversification and community-defined legitimacy are cross-scenario priorities.
https://iaran.org/future-of-aid
[8] Pearson, M. and Rieger, N. (2026). “The state of international humanitarian funding to local and national actors.” ODI, 14 May 2026. Direct funding reached 3.8% of international humanitarian funding in 2024; the Grand Bargain target is at least 25% to local and national actors, as directly as possible.
https://odi.org/en/publications/the-state-of-international-humanitarian-funding-to-local-and-national-actors/
[9] UNHCR (2026). Islamic Philanthropy Annual Report: Impact 2025. Documents operational zakat and sadaqah programmes; illustrative of the financing channel, not evidence that it can replace international humanitarian funding.
https://zakat.unhcr.org/en/posts-reports
[10] Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (2024). “Merumuskan Arah Pelokalan di Indonesia,” webinar agenda, 20 September 2024. Lists “NRG, Lumbung, Localisation Lab” among the proposed directions. The formal operational status of a Humanitarian Resource Granary was not independently confirmed.
https://www.humanitarianforum.or.id/agenda/merumuskan-arah-pelokalan-di-indonesia/
[11] NEAR Network (2025–2026). The Change Fund; AASHA Fund via the Asia-Pacific Localisation Labs; and the Networked Financing Mechanism. Organisational descriptions and project status.
https://near.ngo/our-work/solutions/
[12] Non-Aligned Movement (official history, accessed October 2026). “History.” Bandung Conference: April 1955; first NAM summit: Belgrade, September 1961.
https://www.nam.go.ug/history
[13] NEAR Network (2026). “Asia-Pacific Localisation Labs.” Confirms the existence, regional role and financing initiatives of the Asia-Pacific Localisation Lab.
https://near.ngo/our-members/localisation-labs/asia-pacific-localisation-labs/
[14] Republic of Indonesia (2007). Law No. 24/2007 on Disaster Management, notably Articles 4–6. Government and local government bear responsibility for disaster management; the law recognises gotong royong.
https://jdih.kemenkeu.go.id/api/download/fulltext/2007/24tahun2007uu.htm
[15] European Commission, DG ECHO. “Humanitarian principles.” Explains humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, including autonomy of humanitarian objectives from political or other objectives.
https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/who/humanitarian-principles_en
[16] Indonesia Humanitarian Coordination Platform (2025). “IHCP Situation Report #1 – Floods, Flash Floods and Landslides: Provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra,” 2 December 2025. Compiled by the IHCP; published on ReliefWeb.
https://reliefweb.int/report/indonesia/indonesia-humanitarian-coordination-platform-ihcp-situation-report-1-floods-flash-floods-and-landslides-provinces-aceh-north-sumatra-and-west-sumatra-december-2-2025
[17] AHA Centre (2026). “Flash Update No. 1 – M7.7 Earthquake in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia,” 15 August 2026. BMKG-reported M7.7 offshore earthquake near Mbay, Nagekeo Regency, 15 August 2026.
https://ahacentre.org/flash-update/flash-update-no-1-m7-7-earthquake-in-east-nusa-tenggara-indonesia-15-august-2026/