STRATEGY 2026-30
Goal 2
Champion a localisation movement
Overview
Sustainable development cannot be achieved without local level leadership. Local communities most at risk must be enabled to participate, influence and take decisions on risk-informed development policies and practices because they are the people most at risk.
Localisation is about who has the power, capacity and resources to make decisions about the risks facing a community, and how to best respond so that people and places are more resilient. Communities cannot become more resilient without local leadership. Communities most at risk must participate, influence and take decisions because they are the people most at risk. They have knowledge and experience of the threats they face, their values and priorities, the actions which will most help to reduce risk, and any barriers to those actions.
Localisation is more than transferring resources; it is transforming power relationships and nurturing local capacity to lead. For communities to lead, they must have real access to decision-making spaces, information, technology, and financial mechanisms. This includes strengthening civic space, protecting environmental and social leaders, growing governance capacity, and ensuring transparent, participatory governance. When local actors — especially women, young people and grassroots organisations — are recognised as legitimate decision-makers, governance systems evolve in their adaptive capacity and cultural relevance, and the decisions they make become more coherent, culturally appropriate and sustainable.
At the same time, we should not think of localisation as something ‘given’ to communities and implemented by international agreements and organisations. Local communities are already acting, with civil society stepping forward to take on leadership roles to strengthen the resilience of communities.
In many of the places where GNDR members are, however, this space for participation, influence and decision-making is not granted. GNDR has the mandate to support local actors to claim spaces and make their voices heard.
Strategic initiatives
Unlocking locally-led change
Communities are not only best placed to lead – they have the right to. This strategic initiative focuses on our members’ leadership at the local level, supporting members to innovate with their communities, demonstrate new ways of collaborating, and assert their important role in local decision making. It supports communities to influence – or, in some cases, disrupt – power and governance arrangements, and supports civil society to collectively engage with policymakers to promote concrete policy changes at the national and sub-national levels to make people and places more resilient.
We hope to see…
Member CSOs are enabled to identify, pursue and collaborate on ways to transform local and national systems, policies and practices, and are recognised as legitimate and valuable participants in their local DRR ecosystem.
We will do this by…
- Supporting members (whether in thematic coalitions, or as a regional, national or sub-national group) to identify opportunities to collaborate for change at the regional and national level
- Generating shared learnings to grow members’ capacity for developing specific policy proposals and advocacy messages
- Identifying adaptive approaches to locally-led change that can inspire innovation across contexts
- Leveraging the GNDR brand and identity to support members’ engagement with policymakers at national and sub-national level
Influencing the next horizon of local leadership in regional and international frameworks and action
By the end of this strategy, the Sendai Framework will have drawn to a close, as will the Sustainable Development Goals. Early Warnings for All, the UN flagship initiative, will also have concluded. At the same time, new important legal initiatives such as PPED are planned to be finalised by 2027. This strategic initiative focuses on influencing international and regional processes to recognize, value and resource locally-led action. It focuses on the successes, remaining gaps, and lessons learned from these international agreements, and how we can bring a strong civil society voice to the negotiations that will shape post-2030 international and regional frameworks and action.
We hope to see
Key regional and international frameworks and actions recognise, value and resource local leadership for DRR, responding to the practice-led and community-generated evidence developed and promoted by GNDR and its partners.
We will do this by
- Generating and promoting evidence that demonstrates how local leadership evolves adaptive capacity and transforms systems
- Advocating for flexible, trust-based funding approaches that fund process, learning, and relationship-building alongside deliverables, and that enable communities to invest in their own participation and time
- Amplifying the voices of local and civil society actors by facilitating their access to the global stage and through advocating on alongside them
- Identifying priority forums to target advocacy efforts to achieve specific outcomes, as set out in our global and regional workplans
- Developing shared advocacy positions, both as GNDR and alongside partners and allies, and empowering GNDR members to advance these in a range of forums
Impact
What will success look like?
Local actors’ agency and leadership increases, and greater trust in their capacity leads to an increase in formal decision-making power and resourcing of these roles
How will we measure this?
Unlocking locally-led change
Outcome
Member CSOs are enabled to identify, pursue and collaborate on ways to transform local and national systems, policies and practices, and are recognised as legitimate and valuable participants in their local DRR ecosystem.
Indicators
- # of members who gained access to DRR ecosystem spaces through GNDR (policy, funding, practice communities, research partnerships, media, capacity building)
- # members being recognised as legitimate and valuable DRR/climate actors in own contexts
- # national and/or local systems supported or influenced that enhance the resilience to natural hazards (including climate and environmental hazards) of people, communities, countries and their assets. (SDC indicator)
- # of climate change, DRR and environmental policies and/or legal frames supported (SDC indicator)
- Evidence that member perspectives/data shaped international frameworks
- # processes engaged that reflect language/ concepts from GNDR advocacy and evidence
- # references to GNDR advocacy and evidence by target organisations (e.g. UNDRR, donors, media, researchers)
- # of members who represented grassroots perspectives in international forums
- # of climate change, DRR and environmental policies and/or legal frames supported (SDC indicator)
Influencing the next horizon of local leadership in regional and international frameworks and action
Outcome
Key regional and international frameworks and actions recognise, value and resource local leadership for DRR, responding to the practice-led and community-generated evidence developed and promoted by GNDR and its partners.
Indicators
- Evidence that member perspectives/data shaped international frameworks
- # processes engaged that reflect language/ concepts from GNDR advocacy and evidence
- # references to GNDR advocacy and evidence by target organisations (e.g. UNDRR, donors, media, researchers)
- # of members who represented grassroots perspectives in international forums
- # of climate change, DRR and environmental policies and/or legal frames supported (SDC indicator)