Every time I explain the story of the Indonesia Humanitarian Coordination Platform (IHCP), I usually begin with a simple image: a Ferrari and a truck.
For years, Indonesia’s humanitarian coordination ecosystem revolved around the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). In many ways, the HCT was like a Ferrari, an extraordinary machine. Luxurious craftsmanship. Meticulously engineered over decades. Highly sophisticated. Fast. Efficient. Beautiful. Everyone wanted to be near it.
The driver was almost always the same: the international humanitarian system, led by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). The passengers were mostly international actors: UN agencies, the Red Cross movement, and sometimes major international NGOs.
As local organisations, many of us viewed participation in the HCT as a privilege. If we were lucky enough to be invited into the Ferrari, we could sit inside and enjoy the ride. But we were still passengers. Never drivers. Nobody ever handed us the keys.
Then, almost suddenly, the humanitarian landscape changed.
The global humanitarian system began to experience increasing pressure: shrinking funding, geopolitical tensions, competing global crises, donor fatigue, institutional restructuring, and growing questions around the future sustainability of international humanitarian operations. At the same time, the localisation agenda, long discussed in conferences, policy papers, and donor commitments, started becoming unavoidable reality.
And then came the moment many local actors had anticipated for years, but perhaps few were truly prepared for. We were told: “It is now your turn to drive.”
Not the Ferrari.
A truck.
A very large truck.
A truck carrying hundreds of organisations, diverse mandates, competing priorities, local complexities, operational expectations, and enormous responsibilities.
Unlike the Ferrari, this truck was built not for exclusivity, but for inclusion.
Everyone needed to be on board: local NGOs, faith-based organisations, women-led groups, disability organisations, professional associations, volunteers, academia, local responders, community organisations, private sector actors, and government partners.
And suddenly organisations like Indonesia Society for Disaster Management (MPBI), together with Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), found ourselves being asked not merely to participate in the humanitarian system, but to help lead it.
That transition was not smooth.
When the keys were handed over, many of us naturally asked:
- How do we drive this thing?
- How do we maintain it?
- How do we pay for the fuel?
- What systems are needed?
- Who carries the risk?
- What happens if something goes wrong?
And the uncomfortable truth was this: many actors, including our international colleagues, did not fully know the answer either.
Because for decades, the global humanitarian architecture had primarily been designed around driving Ferraris.
This is why I often jokingly call the emergence of IHCP: “this is localisation on steroids.” Not because localisation itself is wrong, quite the opposite. Localisation is necessary, overdue, and morally important. But because the transition happened at extraordinary speed.
For years, local actors around the world advocated for greater leadership, greater trust, and greater decision-making power. Yet too often, localisation conversations revolved in circles. The rhetoric grew stronger each year, but the actual transfer of power moved painfully slowly. Many discussions appeared supportive of localisation in principle, while remaining hesitant when it came to genuinely sharing leadership, resources, risks, and control.
Indonesia experienced something different.
We did not gradually transition from passenger to driver through a carefully staged roadmap over twenty years.
Instead, we were suddenly driving the truck while still learning how the engine works.
And we were expected to keep moving.
Fast.
The timing could not have been more challenging.
At a moment when many international humanitarian organisations including parts of the UN system were themselves facing financial uncertainty and institutional strain – and then there is the “humanitarian reset“, local actors were simultaneously being asked to scale up coordination, maintain operational credibility, ensure accountability, and sustain nationwide humanitarian leadership.
Yet despite all these challenges, something remarkable happened.
People showed up.
Organisations came together.
Trust emerged.
IHCP did not grow in isolation. While the transition toward nationally led coordination was filled with uncertainty, many organisations and individuals stepped forward to help nurture and strengthen the platform during its early stages. We are deeply grateful for the support, solidarity, and partnership from colleagues across the humanitarian community, including UN OCHA Indonesia, Penabulu Foundation, Center for Child Study and Protection (PKPA), Humanitarian Forum Indonesia, Save the Children, Mercy Corps Indonesia, CBM Global, and UNICEF Indonesia. Their contributions — whether through technical support, accompaniment, advocacy, operational collaboration, or simply the willingness to walk alongside local actors during this transition — have been invaluable in helping IHCP evolve into what it is today.
The IHCP was born not because conditions were perfect, but precisely because we understood that Indonesia could no longer afford to wait for perfect conditions. What began as an uncertain transition has gradually evolved into one of Indonesia’s largest locally led humanitarian coordination platforms. As of May 2026, IHCP brings together around 80 member organisations, including national and local NGOs, UN agencies, Red Cross organisations, universities and think tanks, private sector actors, and international NGOs. The platform also works closely with government counterparts, particularly National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Kemenko PMK), and other ministries and agencies through existing cluster coordination mechanisms. While still evolving, IHCP reflects an important shift toward a more collaborative, nationally rooted humanitarian coordination ecosystem in Indonesia.
As locals, we know one thing very clearly:
we are not temporary actors in humanitarian response.
We are not deployed into Indonesia.
We live here.
When disasters happen, we do not rotate out after six months.
We remain long after international attention fades.
We are here before disasters happen, during the emergency, and throughout recovery.
And unfortunately, in a disaster-prone country like Indonesia, we know there will always be another emergency requiring collective action.
That reality became painfully visible during the response to Tropical Cyclone Senyar in November 2025, which impacted Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra — one of the most complex and widespread disasters Indonesia has experienced in recent years.
The scale of the response required coordination across 3 provinces, 52 districts, with over 2 million people displaced, and hundreds of organisations delivering aid. The operational pressure was immense.
But IHCP demonstrated that locally led coordination is possible. Not perfect. Not easy. But possible.
The response was made possible through the trust, solidarity, and support of many partners. We are deeply grateful to organisations and institutions that believed in this journey, including Oxfam, Penabulu Foundation, Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR), the Australian Government, and the Switzerland Government.
Their support was not simply financial.
More importantly, they demonstrated trust in local leadership.
That trust matters.
Because localisation is not simply about transferring responsibilities downward while retaining control elsewhere.
True localisation means sharing power, sharing risks, sharing resources, and investing in long-term institutional capacity.
And this is where the global humanitarian community now faces an important choice.
If the world genuinely believes in localisation, then local coordination platforms like IHCP cannot be treated as temporary experiments or symbolic initiatives.
They must be strengthened seriously.
That means:
- sustained investment,
- institutional development,
- operational support,
- coordination financing,
- leadership development,
- information management systems,
- accountability mechanisms,
- and long-term accompaniment.
Building a nationally led humanitarian coordination platform is not cheap.
It is not simple.
And it cannot survive purely on goodwill and volunteerism.
The truck needs fuel.
It needs mechanics.
It needs infrastructure.
It needs people who are willing to stay on the difficult road together.
Ten years on from the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, I remain hopeful. Hopeful because despite all limitations, Indonesian civil society continues to demonstrate extraordinary solidarity. Hopeful because more organisations are willing to collaborate beyond institutional egos. Hopeful because communities themselves continue to show resilience, compassion, and mutual support in moments of crisis. And hopeful because IHCP represents something much bigger than a coordination platform.
It represents a shift in humanitarian history.
A recognition that local actors are not merely implementers of humanitarian action, but architects of it.
We still have many people to convince.
We still have many systems to improve.
We still have a very long road ahead.
But one thing is certain:
We are here to stay.
We are locals.
And we are not going anywhere.
Image reference:
https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/48168251-ferrari-488-car-with-white-background-illustration-cartoons-clipart-line-art-design-ferrari-488-car-illustration-with-white-background-perfect-for-cartoons-clipart-and-line-art
