The field of international cooperation (aka development cooperation or development aid) is currently undergoing a major shake-up.

Even though it may not be easy to tell the difference from the outside, development and humanitarian aid are quite separate in terms of processes and key players.

As a result, interesting initiatives in the humanitarian field go largely unnoticed (at least in Germany) in the international development spave. One of them is the Grand Bargain . #FutureOfCooperation

The Grand Bargain is an agreement between major donors and aid organisations, launched at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit and updated for 2023-2026.

It aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian aid through measures such as increased multi-year and flexible funding, harmonised reporting and greater transparency.

A central pillar of the Grand Bargain is its focus on localisation, which aims to bring decision-making and financial resources closer to affected communities by committing to channel at least 25% of humanitarian funding “as directly as possible” to local and national responders.

This localisation effort aims to reduce transaction costs, strengthen local capacities and ensure that humanitarian action is both responsive and context-specific, embodying the principle of making aid “as local as possible and as international as necessary”.

This could be an excellent area for exaptation (radical repurposing) if the international cooperation sector is genuinely interested in a change of its own making. Otherwise, there is a considerable risk that it will continue to be subject to (radical?) transformation.