NEAR (Network for Empowered Aid Response) is a Global South-led movement that wants to flip the humanitarian and development system on its head: less top-down, more locally driven. It brings together national and local NGOs pushing for partnerships that actually share power across the aid sector.
Building More Locally-Led Aid Ecosystems: 2025 Insights from Global South Civil Society is NEAR’s first major research output: a synthesis of interviews, member surveys, a literature review, and four country case studies. It makes the case for what locally led aid actually requires, built from evidence gathered by the people doing the work.
Visualising a locally-led aid system
NEAR needed a visual language that could sharpen and support the arguments of a flagship report and the social media campaign around it. We built a creative direction around interconnected pathways and figures in motion: a visual metaphor for communities navigating and reshaping the aid system from within.
The report itself had to work as a PDF, a digital read, and a print document, while handling dense survey data, interview quotes, and four country case studies. We also worked alongside NEAR’s research team on the manuscript, tightening language and structure. To push the findings beyond English-speaking audiences, we produced standalone executive summaries in Arabic, French, and Spanish, each carrying the same visual identity as the full report.
A campaign built around the launch
Alongside the report, we developed a hero video and social media assets that translated key findings, quotes, and statistics into content built for sharing. Every asset distilled the same core argument: locally led aid is not a future ambition, but a reality being built by Global South organisations right now.
***
