by Merve Erdilmen, published in Third World Quarterly
This study sheds light on the often overlooked relations between local actors in the localisation of humanitarian assistance. It examines how local NGOs and refugee-led organisations (RLOs) in Turkey approach humanitarianism and localisation. By focusing on RLOs led by three distinct displaced communities—and their visions of humanitarianism rooted in faith, justice, and rights—the article offers a fresh perspective that highlights how refugees themselves shape humanitarian responses in similar displacement contexts.
Abstract
Two of the main recent trends in humanitarianism have been the increasing focus on decolonialisation and localisation of humanitarian assistance. Donors have committed to raising funding for local actors, especially to refugee-led organisations, with the hopes of tackling colonial power inequalities in humanitarianism and empowering local actors. Yet, the narratives used to maintain the hegemonic understanding of humanitarianism in localisation efforts and dismiss refugee-led organisations have not been comprehensively studied. Drawing on 130 interviews with refugee-led organisations, non-governmental organisations, international organisations and state officials in Turkey, this article shows that by characterising refugee-led organisations as charities with an assumed religious agenda, instead of humanitarian actors, national non-governmental organisations disparage these actors. I argue that the preconceived idea that refugee-led organisations do not adhere to traditional humanitarian principles fuels other non-governmental organisations’ labelling of refugee-led organisations as charities, but this dismissal is also driven by worries about competition in the humanitarian sector. Adopting a decolonial framework, I assert that the reluctance to shift more power and resources to refugee communities is not only about ideology but also about political economy, an under-examined factor in the literature to date.”
Recommended Citation
Erdilmen, M. (2025). Against the charge of charity: refugee-led organisations, localisation and decolonising humanitarianism. Third World Quarterly, 46(13), 1543–1564. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2025.2540523