Locally-led Humanitarian Action conference convened Turkish and Syrian aid sector actors in Gaziantep

The Locally-led Humanitarian Action Conference (HX Gaziantep), held on 14 – 16 October in Gaziantep, Türkiye, created a convening space and fostered dialogue in the Turkish and Syrian humanitarian community.

Organised by the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA) in collaboration with Save the Children International Türkiye Country Office and Save the Children International Syria Response Office, the event aimed to cultivate locally-led conversations. More than 200 people representing local Turkish and Syrian NGOs, the UN and governmental agencies, attended the conference to build connections, talk about challenges, and exchange best practices.

We opened the event with a plenary session on locally-led action, setting the mood for the three days and outlining the main topics of the sessions and discussions ahead, including capacity building, implementing effective localisation strategies, humanitarian leadership, partnerships and collaborations. Attendees proceeded to the selected sessions delivered in breakout rooms in English, Turkish, and Arabic. All the sessions provided time for questions, discussions, and exchange of experiences.

The exhibition space encouraged participants to learn more about each other’s work, share achievements, exchange contacts and build connections. With participants actively engaging in sessions and networking, the venue was filled with inspiring energy.

The next day, the event picked up with 15 sessions on local capacity strengthening, ecosystem mapping, innovation in humanitarian response, child participation, funding, empowering local healthcare authorities, to only name a few.

Başak Atalay, Partnership Officer at Save the Children International Türkiye Country Office, shares:

– From today’s sessions, we learned that the localisation process not only strengthens local NGOs but also solidifies international partnerships. The collaboration between local and international stakeholders leads to more effective and sustainable solutions.

Hashem Sammu, Program Operations Coordinator at Save the Children International Syria Response Office, highlights:

– I co-facilitated a Capacity sharing vs. Capacity draining session where we explored different aspects that can help local NGOs build their capacity as well as challenges and barriers to improvement.
Bringing together INGOs and local NGOs helped to share the different expertise of the participants to build better responses for future projects and share success stories and lessons learned.

The sessions of the final day addressed various topics including partnerships, funding access for local organisations, local participation, coordination structures and response architecture. Experts from local organisations and INGOs operating in the region, including the HLA and Save the Children, led these discussions throughout the event (you can find the full list of organisations here). After the closing session, our colleagues conducted a quick live survey, to collect the first feedback. According to it, the participants appreciated sessions on localisation focused on partnerships and capacity strengthening the most and are keen to hear more about leadership, sustainability, and innovations in the future.

The event achieved its goal of providing a platform for local voices to be heard, and we gathered valuable insights on capacity strengthening, local participation, partnerships and collaboration from the perspective and expertise of Turkish and Syrian humanitarian actors.

As participants mentioned that it was “a true representation of localisation in action”, we thank everyone who attended and contributed to the Locally-led Humanitarian Action Conference.

Deb Barry, Head of Learning & Capability at the HLA reflects:

– I knew at the end of the first day that this had been a great start, but hearing such positive direct feedback today really did inspire me and help me see the greater importance of not only the topic but, even more so, the power of going away from the capital cities to the heart of where the response is.

The inaugural Humanitarian Xchange (HX24) event was held on 20 February in London, UK and was named Best Charity Event/Event for Positive Change in the Conference and Event Awards. We look forward to building on what we have learned from these two events as we continue to create spaces for local humanitarian actors to convene for learning and connecting. We plan to organise HX events in various regions – watch this space for updates!