Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims to express the collective voice of marginalized local community leaders especially in indigenous and remote settings in the global South and in particular, to demonstrate how local humanitarian action is perceived as an extension of an individual's sense of "ubuntu" or "umoja," a loose translation of collective oneness or humanity originating from an African faith-based or spiritual duty towards collective growth and sustainable development.

Paper long abstract:

A socially-constructed idea of ubuntu as a spiritual call to action in local humanitarian crises will be central in the presentation through a folktale curated and reimagined for a global audience. The story will challenge the colonial biases that sometimes direct international humanitarian response using evidence to show that local humanitarian response emerges from a spiritually-inspired communal experience. Further deconstruction of the folktale will reveal how community members respond together as part of a "higher" calling tied to a need to maintain and sustain the population's survival. Discussions will reveal how global narratives of "helplessness" distort images of local response efforts and undermine local humanitarian action. The presentation will offer different tools and approaches to form a more collaborative response between local and international actors based on shared objectives and outcomes to promote peace-building, security, and progressive development for the communities at risk of disintegration. Finally, the concept of global citizenship as a shared humanitarian identity will help to showcase how a non-hierarchical collaborative response is achievable through an open and respectful knowledge-sharing experience and exchange of diverse ideas helpful in effectively meeting different humanitarian crises.