21/05/2026
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง ๐
๐จ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ
With growing humanitarian challenges across the globe, humanitarian actors gathered on 20 May 2026 at CCRDA for the Humanitarian Forum General Assembly to reflect on progress, strengthen collaboration, and shape the future of humanitarian coordination. The gathering brought together forum members, leaders, and partners committed to advancing localization, strengthening collective action, and building a more effective, coordinated, and inclusive humanitarian sector.
Opening the session, Tsehay Admasu, CCRDA Senior Program Development & Management Core Team, warmly welcomed participants and recognized the strong commitment demonstrated by Forum members in supporting humanitarian action across the country. She acknowledged the complex and evolving challenges facing the humanitarian community but emphasized that stronger coordination, collaboration, and shared responsibility can help build a more resilient and impactful humanitarian sector. She highlighted the importance of a coordinated platform within the current global humanitarian landscape, noting that organizations working in isolation often achieve limited impact, while collective vision and joint implementation create stronger and more sustainable results. She further stressed that sustaining and strengthening the Forum remains a shared responsibility for CCRDA and all members.
In addition, she underlined that localization has become a central global humanitarian agenda that requires bold engagement and leadership from local and national actors. She also expressed appreciation to the Steering Committee for its dedication and contribution, emphasizing that effective humanitarian operations and meaningful impact are driven by active member participation.
During the session, Nigussie Tefera, CCRDA National Humanitarian Forum Coordinator, presented the achievements and strategic direction of the CCRDA Humanitarian Forum. He explained that the Forum serves as a central advocacy and coordination platform that brings together humanitarian actors across Ethiopia, with a strong focus on local leadership, coordination, and information sharing. He noted that the Forumโs strategic focus areas for 2025 were centered on five pillars: Evidence Generation, Localization and Leadership, Coordination Systems, Advocacy and Strengthening, and Governance Effectiveness. Under evidence generation, he highlighted that the Forum successfully completed three major studies, namely the Localization Progress Assessment, the National CSO Capacity Survey, and the Humanitarian Reset Analysis, all of which contributed to informing policy discussions, financing mechanisms, and coordination efforts within the humanitarian sector.
Nigussie also shared key lessons learned from the Forumโs work. He emphasized that strong research and evidence generation significantly strengthen policy influence. He further noted that meaningful progress in localization requires long-term commitment and sustained advocacy from all humanitarian stakeholders. In addition, he explained that active engagement in broader humanitarian reform processes creates important opportunities for local actors to take leadership roles within the humanitarian system.
Looking ahead, he outlined the Forumโs priority actions for 2026, which include strengthening Forum governance through improved accountability and institutional systems, improving member engagement through consistent participation, advancing localization across humanitarian programs, enhancing engagement in humanitarian reform and place-based coordination mechanisms, and strengthening advocacy efforts to increase policy influence and partnerships.
The assembly also included a presentation by Dereje Gebremichael on the Local SPACE Project, which was launched in 2025 by CST Ethiopia and CCRDA. The project aims to promote local ownership and leadership within Ethiopiaโs humanitarian sector by addressing systemic challenges such as unequal funding access and power imbalances between international and local actors.
The presentation highlighted that important tools, including the Localization Guideline and Partnership Equity Scorecard, have already been developed and launched. The next steps planned include rolling out localization tracking dashboards, producing donor policy briefs, and organizing high-level national localization dialogues aimed at building a more equitable humanitarian system by 2027.
In addition, Nigussie Tefera presented a comparative analysis of the Forumโs 2017 (old) bylaws and the revised 2026 bylaws. . The analysis focused on structural alignment, membership responsibilities, operational efficiency, governance structures, decision-making processes, and financial accountability mechanisms. The document was presented as a guiding framework to support the organization in strengthening its legal and governance systems to ensure transparency, compliance, and long-term institutional sustainability.
During the discussion session, participants reflected on the key issues raised during the presentations, shared recommendations and possible ways forward, and discussed the performance of the Steering Committee. The session also included the selection of new committee members.
Participants emphasized the importance of transparency, accountability, inclusive participation, and collective responsibility in strengthening the effectiveness
