Humanitarian organizations must focus on building the resilience of local groups and communities in order to address crises that will emerge in the next years and decades — and to ensure their own survivability, said Chris Jochnick, president and CEO at Landesa.
“Increasingly, international NGOs face skepticism from both governments and local civil society,” he said. “Those groups that are going to survive are the ones that are able to partner effectively and generously with governments and civil society groups.”
Landesa works with governments, communities, and civil society to support the more than 1 billion people globally who lack legal rights over the land they live and work on. Since 2015 — the year Landesa won the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize — more organizations have entered the land rights field, Jochnick said, adding that there is still insufficient awareness among donors of the fundamental link between land rights and other development priorities such as climate change and gender equality.
“When it comes to deciding which crops to grow, which agricultural practices to adopt … women are more likely to decide in favor of soil health, climate conservation, and food security,” explained Shipra Deo, Landesa’s director of women’s land rights in India.
Deo emphasized the importance of ensuring that humanitarian and development efforts are rooted in the local needs and context.
“When local communities are involved in the planning process, they take ownership, and the designed program ultimately falls in alignment with their interests, and that also ensures the sustainability of any intervention,” she said.
Jochnick noted there is still an important role to play for INGOs from the global north in humanitarian work, but that “we have to approach that role with more humility and with more of an appreciation for the long term needs of strong local actors.”
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