Afghan Women's Educational Center (AWEC) a women-led national NGO, describes its experience in DAWAM as “a compelling and practical demonstration of localisation in action”. From the outset, AWEC felt they were treated as an equal partner, actively shaping strategic decisions and contributing to consortium-wide policies.
One standout example was a flexible capacity-building grant provided under DAWAM. “Rather than prescribing how funds should be spent, the consortium allowed AWEC to determine its own capacity needs”, Kochay Hassan, Executive Director of AWEC, explains. This led to hiring embedded advisors and recruiting interns, strengthening both leadership and future workforce pipelines.
The results speak for themselves: As a direct result of delivering high-quality WASH interventions in the eastern region, AWEC successfully secured two additional WASH-focused grants funded by the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund through the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This achievement reflects AWEC’s growing reputation as a reliable national partner in humanitarian response. “Feedback from communities and local authorities has been overwhelmingly positive,” they report. “We’re proud of the ripple effects—where initial success unlocked further opportunities for scale and innovation”.
THE INGOS: LISTENING, TRUSTING, AND SHARING POWER
"The most unique thing about this partnership is its emphasis on localisation,” says Simon Wankuru, Head of Programme at ActionAid Afghanistan. “It’s not just a buzzword - it’s a way of working that puts Afghan organisations in the lead”.
Rather than imposing plans, the INGOs have focused on ongoing processes of listening, responding, and refining activities through trusting and constructive dialogue, in the spirit of burden-sharing. They’ve supported AWEC, Nai Qala, and AADA to make decisions, lead implementation, and shape strategy. “We’ve seen that when local organisations are trusted, they deliver better results,” says Brighton Mapiye, Project Director at World Vision Afghanistan.
The INGOs acknowledge that localisation requires humility and flexibility. It means sharing decision-making, adapting plans, and sometimes stepping back. But as evidenced in the stories from each NNGO, the results speak for themselves: Communities are healthier, services are more responsive, and local NGOs are stronger and more confident.
To date, Afghan NGOs have reached
People
through the DAWAM project
