Please click here for Zoom link to attend the session remotely Diaspora Emergency Action & Coordination (DEMAC) proposes to lead a panel focusing on diaspora and local actor partnerships and collaboration as a good practice for enhanced localization in humanitarian responses. Nearly seven years after the launch of the Grand Bargain, the international humanitarian community is still striving to achieve the localization agenda. While institutional actors still grapple with challenges such as how to allocate funding to or coordinate with local actors, diaspora actors work closely with local actors to respond quickly to crises and can serve as an example for how international and transnational actors can support local leadership in humanitarian responses. Despite this, diaspora organizations are transnational in their nature and cannot usually be considered as local actors, which can also pose challenges for localization. The panel will include representatives from Syrian, Ukrainian and Afghan diaspora and local organizations; in all three contexts, diaspora and local actors have jointly responded to humanitarian needs quickly and targeted geographies and vulnerable populations that other actors could not reach. They will present best practices, discuss challenges, and explore opportunities for improving partnerships and collaboration between diaspora and local actors and enhancing coordination between diaspora, local actors, and institutional humanitarians. The conversation will focus on concrete examples of joint humanitarian action by diaspora and local actors, highlighting ways in which they are complimentary in their humanitarian responses and what institutional humanitarian actors can learn from their collaborations. This panel aims to provide a forum that invites the speakers and the audience to jointly reflect on different actors and ways to work together in the humanitarian ecosystem, while enhancing local leadership and recognizing each other for their unique added value. Objectives 1. Share lessons learned from diaspora and local actor joint humanitarian responses in the context of Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan: how have diaspora humanitarian organizations partnered and worked in collaboration with local actors to strengthen locally led humanitarian responses? 2. Present feasible steps that enable an improved engagement between diaspora organisations, local organisations and institutional humanitarian actors: What are the challenges for joint diaspora and locally led actors when collaborating in humanitarian responses? What best practices and lessons learned from diaspora and local partner collaborations could institutional humanitarian actors draw on to improve their collaboration with local actors? Panelists: · Ukrainian Diaspora representative · Syrian Diaspora representative · Afghan Diaspora representative - Local organisation | 
