Legatum, the Dubai-based private investment group behind the Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, and the End Fund, has announced it has secured more than US$30m in commitments for a new humanitarian initiative to support frontline NGOs. 

By delivering micro-grants to grassroots organisations working on the frontline of crisis response, the Resilio Fund seeks to shift power to frontline responders and build long-term resilience and autonomy within communities, subverting the traditional top-down approach of humanitarian funding, which is often hostage to bureaucracy and external controls.

Coming at a time when many international donors are cutting their overseas aid budgets, the Resilio Fund is a bold statement.

“It feels like both a good time to be doing this and the right thing to be doing at this time,” said Guy Cave, president of the Legatum Foundation, which is providing US$10m to Resilio. The other anchor donors are the Vitol Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, and the Irene M Staehelin Foundation, with more to be announced shortly, Cave said.

“It’s not just about doing the good humanitarian community-led work,” he explained. “But it is also about getting to such a scale that the humanitarian system kind of takes note, that this is actually possible to get behind what communities are doing and to do at scale.”

The official launch of Resilio comes after a four-year pilot across seven countries, in which more than 1,000 micro-grants were distributed to communities by local NGOs, reaching more than 500,000 people in Sudan, Myanmar. Somalia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Lebanon.

These grants enabled communities to rapidly restore essential services and build resilience against future shocks. From mending wells and clearing roads to distributing seeds and tools, money was spent quickly and efficiently, and respected the dignity and agency of the  affected people.

Federico Motka, Head of Emergencies and Humanitarian Portfolio, Vitol Foundation, said Resilio was “setting a new benchmark for humanitarian response” by putting communities at the heart of crisis relief.

“By empowering hyper- local groups - those who are first to respond and best understand their own needs - Resilio will ensure aid is fast, effective, and rooted in dignity and agency. … At this critical time of the humanitarian reset the Resilio Fund shows us the way forward, ensuring that support reaches those who need it most, when they need it most.”

Cave said Resilio would continue to work in the countries where it had run pilots but was also looking closely at Francophone West Africa.