‘As local as possible, as international as necessary’

International humanitarian response, assistance following disaster, has recently seen a turn towards localization. Localization underlines the need for the humanitarian system to move away from top-down, externally lead interventions, to a shift of power and resources to local and national actors who can respond to disasters in their locale. Some of these local and national actors will also be faith-based. This chapter analyzes the various definitions of international, national, and local faith actors in order to identify who should benefit from trends towards localization. The chapter also identifies, however, the current difficulties with localization, particularly as it relates to local faith actors who have been widely overlooked in current debates.