Understanding humanitarian localization in Latin America—as local as possible: but how necessary?

Abstract

This paper questions the pertinence of the humanitarian aid localization agenda in Latin America, at least in the narrow sense embraced by the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. Localized support has been the standard practice in the region for decades, thanks to at least two correlated factors: the Monroe Doctrine limiting intervention to the USA and regional efforts to resist such intervention. Instead, humanitarian action in the region is an example of a particular way of understating localization, mainly specialized support to specific issues, no distinction between humanitarian or development divisions, and coexistence of different response approaches, synthesizing international and local experiences that intermingle with community practices and traditions, under national government leadership. Governments, together with NGOs, civil protection, and other relevant actors from international cooperation and development, engage in crises based on a long-standing tradition of risk management at national and regional levels. Fears of abuses hidden behind the non-interference principle, human rights activism, and disaster risk management approaches to emergencies created a complex ecosystem for humanitarian localization.