At this year’s Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW), the ToGETHER Program hosted two sessions on “Reimagining Humanitarian Leadership: Strengthening Emergency Response through Locally Led Peer Mentoring.” The discussions brought together representatives of eight local humanitarian partners from across ToGETHER’s eight countries to reflect on how peer mentoring is helping strengthen local leadership, organizational capacity, and humanitarian coordination in practice.

The first session, held online on 2 March 2026, introduced ToGETHER’s peer mentoring approach and shared examples from different country contexts. The second session, held in Geneva on 12 March 2026, built on this exchange by looking more closely at how peer mentoring can support localization efforts and contribute to ongoing discussions on humanitarian reform. Across both sessions, participants highlighted a common point: local actors already hold knowledge, experience, and leadership. What is often missing is the institutional space, support, and recognition needed for that leadership to grow and shape the wider humanitarian system.

Peer mentoring in numbers

From commitment to practice

Experiences from the countries

The examples shared during the two sessions showed what this approach looks like in practice across ToGETHER countries. In Colombia, peer mentoring helped local peer organizations move from more limited and reactive participation towards a stronger role in preparedness, coordination, and community accountability. Through the process, partners strengthened internal governance, clarified roles and responsibilities, and built greater confidence to engage more strategically in humanitarian spaces.

“Peer mentoring helped us move from being invited to coordination meetings to actively shaping discussions about how humanitarian responses should reach our communities.”

Dina López, Asociación Red Alianza entre Mujeres, Colombia

In Bangladesh, Jannatul Mouwa, Executive Director at Bindu Nari Unnayan Sangathan and peer partner in ToGETHER, reflected on how the process supported a women-led grassroots organization to take stock of its own strengths and challenges, strengthen internal systems, and engage more directly with international partners. Through self-assessment, follow-up support, and exchange with peers, the organization developed policies, improved its management structures, and accessed funding opportunities for the first time.

Strengthening local leadership ecosystems

Across the eight ToGETHER countries, similar patterns are emerging. Peer mentoring is strengthening organizational readiness, supporting the development of leadership, and enabling greater participation of local actors in humanitarian coordination. It is also contributing to stronger collaboration among local and national actors, while opening more space for local organizations to engage as decision-makers rather than only implementers.

At the same time, participants emphasized that strengthening local leadership takes time. Trust-based relationships, sustained engagement, and flexible funding are essential for translating capacity strengthening into lasting institutional change. The discussions also pointed to a broader challenge: the issue is often not a lack of local capacity, but the systems and structures that continue to limit local leadership, representation, and access to resources.

From peer mentoring to system change

A key focus of the second session was how peer mentoring connects to the wider Humanitarian Reset. Participants reflected on what it would take to move towards a humanitarian system that is more locally led, globally supported, and shaped by those closest to crises. In this context, peer mentoring was discussed as a practical way to strengthen local leadership, support collaboration among local actors, and expand their role in coordination and decision-making spaces.

The personal exchange also brought in perspectives from audience members, including participants from Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Turkey/Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who shared related experiences of peer-to-peer accompaniment and locally led approaches in their own contexts. These contributions highlighted that similar practices are already emerging in different settings and reinforced the relevance of locally led peer mentoring as part of a broader shift towards more locally grounded humanitarian action.

Participants also raised questions on how peer mentoring can be evaluated, documented, and sustained over time. The discussion pointed to the importance of structured processes, including self-assessment, jointly defined milestones, and regular review. At the same time, there was a clear emphasis on strengthening institutional capacity, so that knowledge and practices remain within organizations beyond individual staff or project cycles. Sustaining the approach will depend not only on funding, but also on continued collaboration through country-level platforms, local networks, and the wider ToGETHER partnership.

Looking ahead

The two HNPW sessions pointed to several priorities for donors, international partners, and local actors alike. These include recognizing peer mentoring as a viable approach to strengthening localization, increasing access to direct and multi-year flexible funding for local organizations, and simplifying due diligence processes to reduce administrative barriers.

As localization continues to reshape the humanitarian landscape, peer mentoring offers a practical way to strengthen local leadership, build resilient organizations, and ensure that humanitarian responses are increasingly shaped by those closest to crises. Across both sessions, one message remained clear: the challenge is not whether local actors can lead, but whether humanitarian systems are ready to support them in doing so.

Peer mentoring contributes to this shift by creating space for exchange, mutual learning, and collaboration between local actors. Rather than transferring capacity, it is about sharing existing knowledge and experience, thereby supporting approaches that are grounded in context and shaped by the realities of the communities affected.