Acted’s programming is guided by the motto “Think Local – Act Global”, reflecting the need for humanitarian, development, and environmental responses to be grounded in a deep understanding of the local context to identify and implement effective solutions to respond to local needs. In line with this idea and recognizing the limitations of top-down sectoral models that dominate the aid system, Acted, in partnership with its sister organization IMPACT Initiatives (IMPACT), developed AGORA, an approach anchored in local territories and local knowledge to better support people in crisis-affected contexts.
It puts local people and actors at the center by using territories as the basis for the planning and delivery of assistance and ensuring that action is guided by local knowledge and supports local structures and capacities.
From the perspective of the local population, AGORA recognizes and values the identification of the right territorial scale as the optimal level through which to engage in each context. This territorial focus is crucial because territories are where identities are shaped, local knowledge is developed and applied, and social bonds and connections are often at their strongest. Local territories are also an arena within which forms of governance can emerge to deliver effective action, especially in crisis contexts, as a coping mechanism helping people to re-establish a sense of agency and control. Appropriating, valuing, and using the “right territory” is therefore essential to harness these relations of proximity and deliver better tailored and appropriate locally owned solutions.
Equally, AGORA complements this central focus on determining the right territorial scale of engagement with efforts to understand the key elements of local knowledge and dynamics that influence affects, practices and behaviours, essential to inform program solutions that are adapted to the different local contexts.
To deliver on these objectives, the AGORA methodology is built around the following enablers:
- Operating at the right geographical scale by identifying local territories through the notion of “neighbourhood zones”.
- Relying on a strong evidence base, using assessments and research to understand local territories and capture local knowledge that is essential for contextualizing action.
- Providing an adaptable methodology for local engagement, participatory planning, capacity building, and community-based planning, delivery and monitoring.
- Facilitating network building between local and external actors to support the identification of locally suitable solutions and implementation of locally prioritized actions.
Over the last 30 years, from its work in crisis countries, Acted has used this approach to properly contextualize and tailor its local engagement. Informed by this experience, Acted and IMPACT formalized the creation of AGORA in 2016, and have piloted the approach in 19 countries through 26 projects since then, reaching approximately 2,5 million beneficiaries and supporting more than 1,900 organisations, to better conceptualize and qualify the notion of territory and local knowledge with the aim of developing a proof of concept replicable across different contexts.
These pilots have shown the value added and potential of AGORA for:
- Timely, more relevant preparedness, emergency, recovery aid delivered in a more accountable manner
- Delivering programs across the humanitarian-development peace nexus
- Access and security to compensate remote management set-ups
- Complement system-level data and information needs for better planning and, when relevant
- Supporting the operationalization of area-based coordination approaches.
AGORA strengthens territorial resilience and governance by enabling the implementation of programmes in several key areas: access to basic services and livelihoods, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaption, agroecology and natural resources management, fostering durable solutions for protracted displacement, the strengthening of local governance, and emergency response.
