Charting the new norm? Local leadership in the first 100 days of the Sulawesi earthquake response

This practice paper provides a rapid analysis of the disaster response following the September 28th 7.4 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The paper found that localisation of humanitarian aid is an emerging new norm in the Asia-Pacific region. Now that national governments are increasingly setting their own localisation agendas, and national and local organisations assume more prominent roles, international actors are forced to step to the side and reconsider their traditional humanitarian roles.

The Sulawesi response takes us closer to understanding this new norm and provides lessons for how humanitarian actors need to adapt. As a collaborative project, drawing on the insights of a variety of international, national and local actors, this paper aims to capture these lessons and the implications for future responses in this region.