Building Local Leadership for More Effective Humanitarian Response in Nigeria

Recognizing the need to enhance local leadership and ownership in humanitarian response, as part of the Leave no one behind! project CBM in collaboration with UNOCHA localization and capacity building expert facilitated a training to build stakeholders’ understanding of localization concepts, commitments, opportunities, and practical implementation strategies within the Nigerian context.

Strengthening partnerships for effective and community-centered responses

A two-day training workshop on Localization in Humanitarian Action in Nigeria was successfully conducted in July 2026 in Katsina State. The training brought together 40 participants, comprising 23 males and 17 females, and 3 persons with disabilities representing a diverse range of stakeholders from INGOs, NNGOs, and government institutions. The workshop aimed to strengthen participants’ understanding of localization principles, promote locally led humanitarian responses, and enhance collaboration between international and national actors in humanitarian programming. The workshop was designed to support ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships between international organizations, government entities, and national civil society organizations, ensuring more effective, sustainable, and community-centered humanitarian action.

New localization working group to drive continued collaboration and learning

CBM and UNOCHA jointly established a localization working group for partners in Katsina state to strengthen communication, coordination, information sharing, and continuous engagement among stakeholders involved in advancing the localization agenda in Nigeria. The platform is expected to facilitate the dissemination of updates, sharing of best practices, collaboration opportunities, and peer-to-peer learning among INGOs, NNGOs, government agencies, and other localization actors.

Text by Karagama Ishaku, CBM, Nigeria