A Washington-based research center is calling on international donors to directly fund African humanitarian organizations, which are severely underfunded despite being the best and fastest responders to crises on the continent.

In a report to be presented next Wednesday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) takes stock of the process of localizing humanitarian action in Africa, that is, the effort to transfer control, decision-making power, and resources of humanitarian aid to local and national actors on the continent, allowing community members to lead the programs and services they need.

According to the report quoted by Lusa, the current localization movement gained momentum at the 2016 global humanitarian summit, when then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for humanitarian action to be "as local as possible, as international as necessary."

At that time, representatives of 18 donor countries and 16 aid organizations committed to directly allocate at least 25% of their humanitarian funding to local and national actors by 2020.

However, by 2020, the percentage of funding allocated to local and national organizations remained at the same 3.1% as in 2016, the report recalls.

Currently, humanitarian involvement in Africa is driven by events such as conflicts, epidemics, and natural disasters.

Provincial, municipal and local organizations are usually the first responders to crises and often have access to areas that are difficult for international organizations to reach right after a crisis breaks out.

Their presence with communities before, during, and after crises allows them to provide basic services, mobilize resources, and build long-term resilience.

But while they sometimes receive support from international and national actors, they are often excluded and ignored in the systems built by international actors and multilateral organizations, the report's authors lament.

"African voices are excluded from the decision-making landscape - in donor discussions and in localization efforts themselves (...). The conversation about localization in Africa cannot be limited to the African continent; it must take place in donor capitals, with African voices leading the dialogue," the document reads.

CSIS therefore argues that donors should increase the allocation of direct funding to African organizations to increase and sustain existing capacities and help them become independent of intermediary organizations with their own agendas.

To this end, donors should create smaller funding lines, with simplified application processes, to enable African civil society organizations to apply for direct institutional support.

International organizations should increase the representation of African, national and local organizations, activists, civil society associations and scientists, who have a solid understanding of the dynamics and drivers of crisis dynamics.

"These stakeholders should be proportionally represented in all relevant forums, from leadership in the field to boards at headquarters," suggest the report's authors.

African local and national organizations "should be treated as partners, not as representatives or sources of information to be reused in the strategy of international organizations without due credit."

"The nature of localization in the context of globalization is such that no one, rich or poor, holds all the keys to the world's challenges. From climate change to pandemics to armed conflict, African organizations are part of the solution. African voices cannot be ignored, they must be elevated," the report concludes.