By Muhammad Amad
Muhammad Amad is member of the Central Executive Council of the National Humanitarian Network from Pakistan. As an independent and vibrant network of national and local NGOs in Pakistan, NHN is committed to promoting humanitarian values through advocacy and capacity building.
The post-World War II humanitarian architecture is unraveling. When aid access becomes a political bargaining chip and international teams are still calculating risks, local organizations are already on the ground pulling people from rubble. This reality drove seventeen organizations across the Asia-Pacific to stop asking for a seat at someone else’s table and start building their own.
On 21 August 2025, during the Asia-Pacific Local Leaders‘ Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, we launched the AASHA Fund. Aasha – meaning hope – is our response to the precarious humanitarian situation. It is not wishful thinking; it is organized preparation.
The AASHA Fund is a locally managed pooled fund. These are funding mechanisms in humanitarian and development contexts where financial resources are collected (“pooled”) from different donors and then managed at the local or community level. Instead of international agencies or large international NGOs being the main decision-makers, local organizations, networks, or community representatives decide how funds are allocated and used.