By local, the author of this article for Stanford Social Innovation Review means people who live in the country or region that is the target of assistance.
Humanitarian groups used to be largely led and staffed by Westerners who wanted to do something to help poor countries. Increasingly, these organization are promoting and hiring the people who live in and truly know the community they seek to help:
For an international organization, having a truly international workforce can be seen as a matter of fairness and equity. And those are important perceptions and commitments for agencies fighting poverty, disaster, disease, and injustice. But increasingly, hiring talent with deep knowledge of local problems and challenges is also seen as a way to build effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.
