There has been a strong push for localisation in humanitarian and development programs for a number of years, but the COVID-19 pandemic offers new opportunities and challenges. International (and domestic) travel restrictions, disrupted supply chains, tightened funding, and the need to embrace new ways of communicating and collaborating, all influence existing localisation efforts. In this online discussion, we hear from leading humanitarian and development practitioners who are working to localise humanitarian and development programs and learn how the global pandemic has helped and hindered their work.

Panellists:

Lana Woolf, Director, Edge Effect
Linda Kenni, Researcher, Humanitarian Advisory Group
Anna Pelkonen, Program Lead, Oxfam Australia

As a volunteer organisation, MDC has ongoing costs, and as such we would greatly appreciate financial contributions in order to keep providing events such as this to the benefit of our community.

Socials and tags:
Twitter: @thedevcircle #meldevcircle

Localisation in Practice - Readings

To prepare for our discussion, please find links below for suggested background readings.

A Pacific Case Study from CARE and Live & Learn

Emerging Indicators and Practical Recommendations

Speaker Bios

Lana Woolf, Director, Edge Effect

Lana straddles management, strategist and practitioner roles, that are informed by 25 years experience working on women’s rights, disability, Indigenous and LGBTIQ+ inclusion and participation programs and projects. Lana is currently involved in both humanitarian and development projects in Asia and the Pacific. She also takes on a large research role within Edge Effect with several papers being published this year including the ‘Intersectionality of Disability, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and/or Expression, and Sexual Characteristics in Development and Humanitarian Contexts’ partnering with CBM and commissioned by DFAT. She is keeping her practice skills up by leading the Participatory Action Research components within Edge Effect. Lana is deeply passionate about participatory practices through the whole project cycle from co-design to co-delivery, with an emphasis on the inclusion of crisis affected communities.

Edge Effect
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Linda Kenni, Researcher, Humanitarian Advisory Group

Linda is a researcher based in Port Vila, Vanuatu, with over 10-years’ experience working with humanitarian and development. Linda is Pacific Associate with Humanitarian Advisory Group. Linda’s recent work includes being engaged in evaluating Australia’s whole-of-government response to Cyclone Pam for the Office of Development Effectiveness, DFAT; examining the localisation of humanitarian action in the Pacific for Australian Red Cross, and researching localisation and COVID-19 in the TC Harold response.

Profile

Anna Pelkonen, Program Lead, Oxfam Australia

Anna Pelkonen is a Program Lead for the Australian Humanitarian Partnership Disaster Ready program at Oxfam Australia. For the past 10 years she has worked on topics of forced migration, refugee protection, civil society movements and international relations, across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Pacific. She has a Master of Arts from University of London focused on Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies.