PHOTO CAPTION: Group photo of the Asia-Pacific Local Leaders (APLL) in Kathmandu, Nepal, August 2025.
by the Asia-Pacific Local Leaders (APLL) with storywriting support by By Neha Fayaz Sheikh, APLL Intern and graduate of the Harvard University
The global humanitarian system is broken. It is a machine fueled by crisis, prejudice, and profit. “We’ve too often seen our inclusion in ‘Asia-Pacific’ spaces reduced to tokenism,” states Akmal Ali, Coordinator of FALE. His words are our reality. The long-standing marginalisation of the Pacific – and the entire Global South – is not a debate topic; it is a weapon wielded through rampant funding cuts, growing distrust, and escalating political violence. We are trapped in a global disorder designed to entrench the power of the few. This domination of the Global North stifles all alternatives. Even well-intentioned reform frameworks—designed to create new ways of thinking—often risk replicating the very silences and hierarchies they seek to dismantle. Narratives shaped in the Global North still dictate who is seen and who remains unheard.
This systemic disregard is not an accident. It is the architecture of international aid. It is a crisis born of colonial histories – a closet of imperial horrors they hope to keep locked. When Western / Northern institutions attempt to “repair” these injustices, they fail. They refuse to cede power, to let local organisations lead, to trust us with context-specific responses and the equitable distribution of aid. Sameeri Noori, Executive Director of COAR in Afghanistan, lays the truth bare: “As someone who has worked for over a decade in humanitarian and development programs in Afghanistan, often under extremely complex and constrained environments, I have repeatedly seen how international aid systems, despite their good intentions, often fail to reflect or respond to the realities faced by local actors and communities.”
We refuse to be victims of this failure. In the face of this systemic collapse, we built our own answer: The Asia Pacific Localisation Lab (APLL). This is not a project; it is a movement. Forged by NEAR and partners across South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, it is our living testament to South-to-South cooperation. It is a network built not just to connect local organisations, but to finally hear them. These are the voices of leaders with a century of combined experience, and this is their declaration for the future.
From Skepticism to Solidarity
The power of APLL is its ability to transform our legitimate skepticism into unshakable solidarity. Akmal Ali of FALE was rightly skeptical: “Initially, I was hesitant – coming from the Pacific, we’ve too often seen our inclusion in ‘Asia-Pacific’ spaces reduced to tokenism. As I observed and engaged with APLL, I recognised a deeply intentional space working towards meaningful change. Being part of APLL now feels like returning to family. It’s a space for learning, debating, exchanging knowledge, and, most importantly, solidarity and safety. APLL has not just been another forum – it has been an affirmation of our work since 2016. Through APLL, we find resonance, understanding, and collective purpose.”
This purpose is echoed by Puji Pujiono, senior advisor to the Pujiono Center, who saw for decades how reform was dominated by the North. “I firmly believe that a Global South platform is essential to play an active and influential role in shaping our own future,” he observes. “This conviction was further solidified when, in Indonesia, we established SEJAJAR—a network of over 600 organizations—and later oversaw its transition into the Indonesian Development-Humanitarian Alliance (IDHA). These experiences demonstrated the immense power and potential of local leadership, strengthening my commitment to championing it on a larger scale.” Their journeys from doubt to conviction are our shared story.
From Principle to Practice: Tools Forged by Us, For Us
This is not talk. It is action. In Bangladesh, Ehsanur Rahman, Advisor for NAHAB, testifies to the power of adaptable frameworks: “NAHAB became involved with NEAR back in 2021 for adaptation of NEAR’s Localisation Performance Measurement Framework (LPMF). We have done so effectively by first translating the key, relevant sections into the local language (Bangla) and adapting the measurement parameters to suit the Bangladeshi context. We used LPMF indicators of assessment in the relevant focus areas.” In Nepal, the results are just as tangible. Eak Raj Chhatkuli, Executive Director of FOCUS-Nepal, confirms: “Institutional capacity assessment framework tool provided by NEAR was used for institutional development of FOCUS-Nepal. The capacity building training, networking opportunities as well as policy improvement. have all helped in better functioning of the organisation to provide the services on the ground.”
Surya Narayan Shrestha, Executive Director of NSET, shows how this translates into systemic change: “The deepened understanding of locally-led solutions have also been very much useful in our interaction and advocacy with government and donor organisations. Our current work for the creation of the Community Resilience (CORE) Fund has been instrumental in promoting the concept of a pooled fund mechanism as an alternate solution to the current shrinking funding situation.” We reject the rigid, incompatible templates imposed by the Global North. Our frameworks are living tools, adapted by us, for our contexts. This is the critical difference. This movement-building extends beyond funding mechanisms to fostering new, independent local structures. Loraine de la Cruz of the Philippine Localisation Lab highlights a powerful example: “In my country, the Philippine Localisation Lab is proud of its role in paving the way for the formalization of the PASIKLAB, the active people’s movement promoting the shift of power and community philanthropy and leading various community-led actions in different parts of the country.”
Redefining Cooperation: The Ethos of South-to-South Solidarity
At the heart of APLL is a radical principle: South-to-South cooperation is our primary modality for action. Syamsul Ardiansyah of Dompet Dhuafa, Indonesia, defines our mission: “South-South cooperation should be seen as a primary modality that not only strengthens ties and solidarity. but also serves as a platform for formulating alternative, new, more deeply rooted cooperation models. It should have a different strategy from the asymmetrical, transactional cooperation model that is currently prevalent. [promoting] standards that apply to all. emphasising the principles of mutual respect, justice, and mutual benefit.”
Sumera Javeed, Learning Workstream Lead for APLL, explains what this means in practice: “It’s about moving away from traditional top-down aid models and building power horizontally where expertise, innovation, and solutions are exchanged directly between local actors without having to rely on Northern intermediaries. The Asia Pacific Localisation Lab has been instrumental. It provided a safe, inclusive space where we could engage in honest conversations about power dynamics, funding flows, and the systemic barriers local actors face. promoting not just knowledge exchange but also trust, solidarity, and collective advocacy.”
This very model is built on the strength and reliability of its members. As Loraine de la Cruz notes, the movement’s trajectory is clear: “From its birth to its current level of development, APLL has taken a natural yet decisive course — changing the system now not tomorrow, to usher in a future system in the service of the people and communities. Its greatest asset and capital is a bench of bankable and reliable sets of leaders from nine countries who have trust in each other and a good relationship with one another built for cooperation, collaboration and influence to make history for its region.”
The Future is Local
APLL is not just a network; it is an incubator for the future we are building now. For Afghanistan, Sameeri Noori envisions a profound shift: “In the next 2–3 years, I see the localisation movement in Afghanistan maturing into a recognised and resourced national process—where national NGOs are not just implementers but decision-makers, and localisation is no longer viewed as a project but as a systemic reform agenda.” For others seeking to build this power, Pansy Tun Thein of the Local Resource Centre in Myanmar offers a blueprint: “We learned that collective voices are stronger and better heard and that evidence-based advocacy is more effective. By promoting ‘Unity in Diversity’ and ensuring that all members and partners respect diversity, promote equity and inclusion, then the journey can be smoother and the goal achievable.”
This collective power is self-perpetuating, focused on ensuring the movement outlives any single individual. The leaders within APLL understand their dual role, as Loraine de la Cruz explains: “These leaders understand their roles to play in their countries and in the region - to put the communities at the heart of humanitarian, development and peace efforts to pave the way for their leadership in shifting power and systems change. They gladly endeavored to develop new sets of leaders and champions to have a never ending blossoming of leaders and champions from its movement building and influencing efforts. As regional leaders, we take pride in our mindset, direction and leadership as leaders in our countries and in the region of the Asia-Pacific.”
This is not a hopeful platitude. It is a declaration. We declare an end to the era of top-down, inefficient humanitarianism. We declare the dawn of a new era defined by solidarity, led by local actors, and molded by the voices of our communities. A humanitarian future shaped by the Global South is not a distant aspiration – it is a demonstrated reality. The question for our global partners is no longer if you should support local leadership, but how and when you will join the movement that is already throttling forward with full force. We are building the future. The choice to join us is yours.
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On 19 August, the APLL released the Kathmandu Covenant.
The covenant is the culmination of years of collaboration through the Asia Pacific Localisation Lab (APLL), a movement forged by the NEAR Network and partners across the region. It rejects the role of local actors as mere implementers and asserts their position as primary designers, decision-makers, and drivers of humanitarian, development, and peace efforts.
Read it here.
