Voices from ALNAP’s first 25 years | Arbie Baguios: “In my work focusing on localisation and the ethics of aid, I’ve used ALNAP’s research to find concrete examples in various contexts where local actors have made the difference in responding to crises”

Arbie Baguios, Researcher and Founder of Aid Re-imagined, on how ALNAP has impacted his work and how his views on how ALNAP can help shape the future of humanitarian action. Read more testimonials from our 'Voices from ALNAP's first 25 years' blog series.

ALNAP continues to provide the aid sector with important and rigorous research that serves not only to inform and improve real-life humanitarian projects, but also push forward the thinking in humanitarian action. In my work focusing on localisation and the ethics of aid, I’ve used ALNAP’s research to find concrete examples in various contexts where local actors have made the difference in responding to crises. At the same time, I’ve drawn particularly from ALNAP’s State of the Humanitarian System to look at wider trends and changes (or sometimes, lack thereof!) within the aid sector.

ALNAP’s research will be more valuable than ever, especially in providing the empirical work needed in rethinking the aid system, and using evidence to allow those in the sector to pose challenging questions that can shape the future of humanitarian action.

Over the last few years, it’s clear that aid workers are finding themselves at a critical juncture, where calls for reform – including on anti-racism and decolonisation in aid, and on critically looking at what “performance” and “effectiveness” means in light of ethical considerations – cannot be ignored. And ALNAP’s research will be more valuable than ever, especially in providing the empirical work needed in rethinking the aid system, and using evidence to allow those in the sector to pose challenging questions that can shape the future of humanitarian action.