localization labs
South Sudan Localization Lab
Overview
The South Sudan Localization Lab (SSLL) was established by twelve (12) local and national organizations in 2023 and officially launched on July 18th, 2024. The SSLL aims to create a single voice to promote the localization agenda in South Sudan. In addition, the Lab seeks to identify ways to create solutions using locally led methods of humanitarian and development programming.
To date, the Lab’s focus has been on creating strong partnerships between local actors, creating an advocacy strategy to promote policy change on national, regional, and global levels to provide local actors with resources and more authority, piloting innovative, community-driven projects, and recording the Lab’s story through surveys and research methods.
Through this work, the SSLL has become a space for learning, creating, and advocating for more localization of aid in South Sudan within NEAR’s Strategic Plan 2024-2026.
Luate Joseph John
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Movement Building
Movement Building
Our movement-building work focuses on strengthening collective power among ourselves as local and national actors to drive locally led change in South Sudan’s humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding spaces and the communities we work with. We convene regular meetings of the lab monthly to update ourselves on our activities, challenges that we face in the sector, and lessons learned from different partnerships with INGOs and donors. The lab organises conferences, workshops that bring together both members of the lab and other actors. These conferences act as safe spaces for the local actors to strengthen their voices and to strategize on how to jointly advocate for localization and to into a shared platform for learning, collaboration, and influence.
Through these regular convenings, dialogues, and co-creation spaces, the lab nurtures a shared understanding of localisation, ethical leadership, accountability, and community-driven solutions, while building trust and solidarity among members who often work in isolation. The lab supports members to move beyond individual organizational agendas toward a common movement identity. This includes jointly developing visions, implementing projects, and governance frameworks; amplifying local narratives and evidence; and enabling collective advocacy on issues such as equitable partnerships, fair funding, and the transfer of power and resources to local actors.
Members share experiences, innovations, and lessons from practice, including community philanthropy, accountability to affected populations, and locally led humanitarian response. Our movement-building work aims to cultivate a strong, values-driven community of practice that is capable of influencing policies, shifting power, and sustaining locally led action beyond individual projects or funding cycles.
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Building Bridges
Bridges
Our approach to building bridges focuses on connecting local and national actors with communities, donors, INGOs, the UN, the government, and the private sector. We engage directly with decision-makers in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding sectors to ensure local perspectives are heard and taken seriously. We create spaces where lab members and other local participants can interact respectfully and honestly with INGOs, donors, the UN, government bodies, the private sector, national networks, and the media.
In recent years, the lab has organized roundtable discussions with donors, INGOs, the UN, the Red Cross, and other networks, co-hosted by SWISS Tukul in 2024. We have also held several bilateral meetings with INGOs, UN agencies, and government officials. These meetings allowed us to raise shared concerns, reflect on challenges, and explore practical solutions together.
The lab also co-organized the South Sudan Localization Conference in partnership with the South Sudan NGO Forum in 2025. Lab members played active roles in planning, implementing, and funding various conference activities, ensuring strong local leadership and ownership throughout the process.
Through ongoing dialogues, roundtables, joint workshops, and collaborative initiatives, the lab works to reduce power imbalances and build trust between local and international actors. These engagements have allowed us to clearly state our priorities, share evidence from our work, and influence partnership approaches and decision-making processes.
In addition, the lab acts as a link between communities and the broader aid system. We support communities in participating meaningfully in decisions about the support they need and in monitoring interventions through project management committees. This ensures that community voices are heard and respected. As a result, we have strengthened relationships, partnerships, and trust with the communities we serve.
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Solutions
Solutions
Our solutions are based on NEAR’s understanding of both financial and non-financial aspects. Through the lab, we help members work together to create responses based on personal experiences, community knowledge, and group reflection, instead of relying on outside models.
On the financial side, the lab has gathered resources through NEAR, including help from the Change Fund, to address disasters affecting refugee and IDP areas. With this support, the lab developed two integrated projects that combined WASH, Education, Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL), Health, and peacebuilding efforts. Lab members jointly designed and carried out these projects, showing how teamwork can lead to more thorough and community-focused responses.
On the non-financial side, the lab aims to strengthen systems and practices that support sustainable, locally led action. This involves putting in place governance and financial control systems that engage all members, paying special attention to the role of the host agency (convener). These systems foster trust, transparency, and accountability across the lab. The lab also encourages joint project design and implementation, allowing members to work together across different organizations and sectors while reducing competition and duplication.
By testing new and fair partnership approaches, the lab helps members transform shared challenges—like limited access to funding and unequal partnerships—into chances for collaboration, innovation, and collective impact.
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Learning
Learning
As an essential component of our lab’s work, Learning is a fundamental part of everything we do at the lab. Our primary means of continuing collective learning is through Monthly Lab Updates, which allow us to monitor our achievements and assess areas needing further development. Additionally, we gain insight through research and surveys completed with the help of NEAR through the Localization Flagship Report. By participating in this report, we contributed to a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of Localisation in South Sudan, what local actors experience as challenges in executing their roles, and what can be learnt for future actions.
To help lab members acquire first-hand information about both NEAR and the work of the Lab, we provide learning events designed for that purpose. The events provide invaluable opportunities for reflection, discussion, and skill building, while allowing members to remain informed and connected to the development of the sector.
Community engagement through listening to and working with communities is paramount for our understanding within the context of our learning framework. Before beginning any intervention with communities, we consult with them about their needs and priorities to identify what solutions would work best for them. Following project completion, we conduct monitoring and evaluation to assess how we achieved our desired results and learn lessons for the future.
By facilitating regular reflection sessions, peer learning exchanges, training, and research activities, we enable lab members to collaborate by sharing what worked, what did not work, and why. Community feedback, practitioner experiences, and evidence from the field all inform our ongoing response to the needs of the communities we serve.