Ownership Workshop

According to the TEC Synthesis report, “the TEC studies identified a number of
constraints faced by international organisations, many related to national and local
capacities. … Despite these impediments, international organisations have illustrated
that local and national ownership of aid programmes can be supported through
patient, discerning, context-sensitive approaches.” Yet clearly this is not either easy
or consistently done, and there are ways in which performance can be improved.
ALNAP has been working on an area that is crucial to this theme for several years
already, that is the participation of crisis-affected people in humanitarian response.
This is an essential but not sufficient practice that cannot lead humanitarian agencies
as far as giving ownership of assistance programmes to local and national
communities and structures.