2026 Seminars

Humanitarian action in the Middle East is shaped by extreme volatility, protracted crises, and rapidly shifting political, security, and socio-economic dynamics. Across contexts such as Lebanon, Yemen and the wider region, overlapping crises, including economic collapse, displacement, and escalating conflict, have placed immense pressure on humanitarian systems. In these environments, local and national organizations have consistently remained at the forefront of response, delivering essential services while navigating complex and uncertain operating conditions.

Local actors play a critical role not only in ensuring continuity of assistance, but also in facilitating access, maintaining community trust, and adapting programming in real time. Their proximity to affected populations and deep contextual knowledge position them as indispensable contributors to effective and accountable humanitarian response. However, despite global commitments to localization, local organizations continue to face structural barriers, including unequal access to funding, compliance burdens, limited decision-making power, and exposure to disproportionate risk.

At the same time, the Middle East response highlights both the challenges and opportunities of operationalizing locally led action in highly constrained environments. Questions persist around how partnerships can shift from transactional to equitable, how risk can be more fairly shared, and how international actors can provide meaningful, flexible, and sustained support without undermining local leadership.

This panel session at AidEx Geneva will center partner-led perspectives from the Middle East response, bringing forward the voices and experiences of local organizations such as AMEL or the Tameed Youth Foundation. The discussion will explore how local actors navigate evolving political, security, and operational realities, while reflecting on what is needed from global partners to enable more effective, principled, and sustainable locally led action. The session will aim to bridge policy commitments on localization with lived realities from the field, identifying concrete steps to strengthen partnerships and support systems in protracted and volatile contexts.