Exceeding the Grand Bargain’s 25% localization funding target, PADF strengthens its commitment to equitable partnerships, quality funding, and locally led humanitarian action across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) directed more than $8 million in humanitarian funding to local organizations in 2025, exceeding the Grand Bargain’s localization target of 25%.
Building on its commitment to locally led humanitarian assistance, PADF announced its endorsement of the Collective Action Platform for the Grand Bargain (CAP4GB), supporting a renewed global effort to translate humanitarian commitments into measurable results for local organizations and the communities they serve.
The Grand Bargain, established in 2016, brings together donors and humanitarian organizations to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability of humanitarian assistance. Its new Collective Action Platform places greater emphasis on country-level implementation, equitable partnerships, and locally driven solutions.
“Localization is about more than transferring resources. It is about ensuring that local organizations have the funding, institutional capacity, and decision-making power to lead humanitarian responses,” said Katie Taylor, Executive Director of PADF. “Our commitment is to strengthen these partnerships and ensure that global humanitarian priorities translate into lasting results for communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Turning commitments into measurable results
A Grand Bargain signatory since 2023, PADF endorsed three key Outcome Statements in 2026: Funding for Localization, Quality Funding, and the Role of Intermediaries.
These commitments reflect PADF’s approach to humanitarian assistance, emphasizing the central role of local organizations in program design, implementation, and decision-making.
In 2025, PADF’s localization efforts included:
- More than $8 million in humanitarian funding provided directly to local non-state actors, representing 26% of PADF’s total humanitarian funding.
- More than $2.2 million in funding directed to local and national women-led and women’s rights organizations.
- Continued investment in strengthening local partners’ institutional capabilities and incorporating community feedback into humanitarian programming.
- Partnership practices supporting funding flexibility, including simplified program adjustments, budget flexibility, and pre-financing or simplified fund disbursement.
Together, these efforts reinforce PADF’s commitment to ensuring that local organizations have the resources, institutional support, and opportunities to contribute meaningfully to humanitarian decision-making.
Strengthening local leadership and equitable partnerships
As an international organization working throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, PADF recognizes that effective humanitarian action depends on the leadership and expertise of local organizations.
PADF’s institutional localization strategy prioritizes partnerships with local actors, strengthens organizational capacity, promotes local partner visibility, and incorporates the perspectives of affected communities into program design, monitoring, and evaluation.
PADF also recognizes its responsibility as an intermediary organization to foster equitable relationships between international donors and local partners.
This includes promoting greater participation by local organizations in program development and decision-making and funding models that respond to local realities.
In the spirit of continuing to work towards more flexible, quality funding and equitable partnerships with local organizations, PADF is in the process of gathering feedback from its local partners to incorporate into improved policies and greater accountability.
Advancing locally led humanitarian action in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Collective Action Platform for the Grand Bargain represents a new phase of international collaboration, shifting the focus from policy commitments toward practical implementation and accountability at country and global levels.
PADF welcomes the platform’s strengthened role for National Reference Groups (NRGs), which connect global commitments to local priorities through dialogue, evidence generation, and collective problem-solving.
PADF intends to engage with the Colombia National Reference Group and stands ready to support the emergence of additional locally led accountability mechanisms across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Through these mechanisms, PADF seeks to better understand how humanitarian funding reaches local organizations, identify barriers to equitable partnerships, and document the results for affected communities.
“Effective humanitarian partnerships must be built on mutual accountability, trust, and the recognition that local organizations are essential decision-makers, not simply implementers,” Taylor added. “By connecting international commitments with local expertise, we can build a more responsive and sustainable humanitarian system.”
PADF will continue working with donors, civil society organizations, humanitarian partners, and other Grand Bargain signatories to advance practical approaches that improve funding quality, strengthen local capacities, and expand opportunities for local leadership.
For PADF, localization is not simply a funding target. It is a commitment to ensuring that the organizations closest to communities have the resources, influence, and capacity to shape their futures.