Faith in localisation? The experiences of local faith actors engaging with the international humanitarian system in South Sudan.

Localisation, as it aims to shift power in the humanitarian system, will involve the increased inclusion of local faith actors, those national and local faith-affiliated groups and organisations that are often first, and last, responders in crises and have been responding in humanitarian contexts for many years, but often in parallel to humanitarian coordination mechanisms. In primary research in South Sudan with local faith actors and international humanitarian actors, this article aims to examine the inroads and barriers to local faith actor involvement in the humanitarian system and the realisation of localisation with local actors such as these. The research is based on an ethnographic study in which researchers were imbedded in a humanitarian project that aimed to help bridge divides between local faith actors and the international humanitarian system. The findings are based on one-on-one and group interviews with 89 participants from a range of international and local, and faith and secular, organisations. Findings indicate that local faith actors are active in responding to crises and want to be linked to the humanitarian system, but they feel distanced from it and pigeonholed as local faith actors. Formalisation through the appropriate registration systems and then training and networking with the humanitarian system helped them build legitimacy and feel confident to participate in humanitarian coordination. International humanitarian actors can help bridge barriers by understanding and connecting with the local faith actors and challenging their own assumptions about who local faith actors are.

Local Faith Actors and the Global Compact on Refugees.

Power dynamics of global decision-making have meant that local faith actors have not been frequently heard in the context of refugee response. The development of new global refugee and humanitarian frameworks gives hope that there will be greater inclusion of Southern-led, faith-based responses. A closer look, however, demonstrates discrepancies between the frameworks used in global policy processes and the realities of local faith actors in providing refugee assistance. We present primary research from distinct case studies in Mexico and Honduras, which counters much of what is assumed about local faith actors in refugee services and aid. Interventions that are considered to be examples of good practice in the global South are not always congruent with those conceptualized as good practices by the international community. Failure to recognize and integrate approaches and practices from the global South, including those led by actors inspired by faith, will ultimately continue to replicate dominant global power structures.

'Faith can come in, but not religion': secularity and its effects on the disaster response to Typhoon Haiyan.

While other works have analysed what constitutes a faith-based approach, this study examines what values and practices are employed in a secular approach to disaster response in communities where religion matters. Evidence of a secular approach is assessed in the context of the disaster response to Typhoon Haiyan (2013) in the Philippines, a country in which more than 90 per cent of the population identify themselves as religious. Using interviews with staff members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and focus groups composed of beneficiaries, this paper provides an overview of how respondents commonly characterise a secular approach to disaster response. Results indicate differing NGO and beneficiary opinions on interaction over efficiency and the impartiality and neutrality of organisations. Secularity had a distinct effect on the disaster response to Haiyan, mostly by creating boundaries vis-à-vis when and where religion was permitted in the secularised humanitarian system. An awareness of these effects is encouraged to improve interaction with affected populations and local organisations.