In joining hands with forward-thinking institutions in the pursuit of improving the International Aid system to be more responsive, efficient and dignified, CPD is a member of the “Towards Greater Effectiveness and Timeliness in Humanitarian Emergency Response” Programme (ToGETHER) which promotes the localization of humanitarian action. It combines the efforts of 40 local and national humanitarian organizations from Bangladesh, Colombia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Somalia along with four International organizations from Germany (Caritas Germany, Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and Malteser International).

The 40 Local Humanitarian Partners (LHPs) and the four International consortium partners create a space for complementary partnerships and promote local partners’ roles as leading actors in the humanitarian response of their countries, putting localization – understood as transformation – into practice.

Under the leadership of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), Centre for Peace and Democracy (CPD) along with four other humanitarian partners run the in-country ToGETHER Programme of Somalia. The partners have been able to jointly develop and undertake capacity-strengthening measures, exchange evidence-based learnings, foster continuous dialogue on greater localization of humanitarian assistance, and respond to urgent humanitarian challenges e.g., the current severe drought situation in Somalia.

CPD is a member of the ToGETHER Country Steering Committees (CSCs) and also has a Programme Focal Point – two bodies which offer strategic leadership and guidance to the programme design and implementation. Through this structure, CPD has been playing a critical role in realizing strategic priorities of the programme, providing leadership role of local actors, capacity strengthening and sharing, funding for Innovation and Implementation of Humanitarian Action and exchange, as well as learning and advocacy.

With the support of the ToGETHER programme, CPD responded to the 2022 drought emergency in Abudwak District in Galmudug State, Somalia, through the Humanitarian Operation and Innovation Facility (HOIFA). CPD also participated in and contributed to the ToGETHER Global Conference on Localization of Humanitarian Aid in Bonn, Germany in October 2022. During the conference, the CPD team along with their colleagues from Somalia played a crucial role in the organization and facilitation of a couple of sessions including the ‘role of intermediaries, SWOT analysis, and Program Advisory Committee (PAC) sessions.

CPD further participated in a 7-day workshop on the development of Somalia’s advocacy strategy for the localization of humanitarian aid in Nairobi in early July 2022. The advocacy strategy is a stepping stone for planned in-country advocacy initiatives that will focus on humanitarian localization. Alongside this, the team is also coordinating with other 8 countries to develop a global-level localization advocacy strategy that will be implemented from 2023 onwards.