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Localisation and Preparedness Workshop Copenhagen 29, 30 September and 1 October 2025

Procurement

Humanitarian supply chains determine how effectively and equitably assistance reaches people affected by crisis. As crises grow more frequent, complex, and protracted, and resources become increasingly constrained, the sector faces renewed urgency to embed localisation and preparedness as core, interdependent pillars of an effective humanitarian response. This shift moves the system away from reactive, externally driven operations toward proactive, nationally owned approaches.

Today, however, progress remains limited. Humanitarian supply chains still tend to operate in parallel to national structures, shaped by short-term projects, risk-averse practices, and models that prioritise organisational efficiency over system-wide effectiveness. The result is fragmented efforts, duplication, and weakened national leadership, leaving supply chains reactive rather than anticipatory, and dependent rather than resilient.

Localisation recognises that crises are most effectively addressed when local and national actors lead, with international partners playing complementary roles. Preparedness ensures that supply chains are equipped, adaptable, and ready before crises strike. Together, these pillars strengthen accountability, improve efficiency, and enable the humanitarian system to meet both immediate and future needs.

©UNICEF Plenary session
Photo: ©UNICEF Plenary session

©UNICEF Group Photo
Photo: ©UNICEF Group Photo

©UNICEF Panel
Photo: ©UNICEF Panel

Key Areas for Action

Under the Humanitarian Leadership Group on Supply Chain (HLGSC), the Localisation and Preparedness workstreams, co-led by DRC, IFRC, and UNICEF with support from DG ECHO, convened 73 participants from 57 organisations to define a shared vision and actionable priorities. Discussions centred on six systemic barriers impeding progress: unclear roles, weak integration between humanitarian and national systems, externally designed planning, limited governance and accountability, fragmented funding, and insufficient data visibility.

  • Humanitarian Supply Chain Conclusions: Develop a shared, system-wide vision and set of conclusions to guide collaboration, define roles, strengthen accountability, and reduce duplication.
  • Framework for Engagement on Localisation and Preparedness: Create a practical framework, at both global and country levels, that clarifies roles, aligns with national strategies, strengthens national leadership, leverages existing coordination platforms, promotes collaboration over competition, and shifts accountability toward shared responsibility across all actors.
  • Sustainable Financing and Funding Models: Reform funding mechanisms to support long-term, locally anchored systems. Priorities include integrating preparedness into existing funds, enabling forecast-based and parametric financing, making preparedness costs eligible during response, expanding multi-year funding, and supporting governments to invest through national budgets.
  • Build on Existing Tools and Initiatives: Avoid creating new tools; instead scale and contextualize existing initiatives across humanitarian, development, academic, private, national, and local actors. Conduct rapid mapping to identify scalable solutions, gaps, and duplication.
  • Investment in Data, Evidence, and Predictive Systems: Strengthen forecasting, early action, and locally led decision-making by investing in interoperable data systems, co-developing tools with national actors, ensuring ethical and secure data use, expanding access to predictive analytics, and encouraging donors to adopt data-sharing requirements.

Participants agreed that advancing localisation and preparedness requires coordinated, long-term transformation across the humanitarian system. Building anticipatory, locally anchored supply chains demands a shift from fragmented, project-based approaches to sustained collaboration, shared investment, and nationally led decision-making.