Endogenizing Humanitarian Aid: Knowledge, Practices, and ALDEPA’s Mobilization in Support of Victims of Boko Haram in Cameroon’s Far North Region

This contribution focuses on the endogenization of humanitarian aid, emphasizing the Local Association for Participatory and Self-Managed Development (ALDEPA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) active in the Far North region of Cameroon. As a process of integrating and adapting elements from an external system, society, or culture, endogenization here sheds light on the conditions under which decolonizing aid in the Global South is constituted. The study examines the ways in which moral considerations, rooted in the history, values, and culture of the populations in the Far North region of Cameroon, shape the logic of humanitarian assistance at the local NGOs level, and particularly within ALDEPA. The interaction between these local logics and those linked to the global context reveals North/South power relations as well as the structural asymmetries that pervade the humanitarian field. By mobilizing the concept of moral economy, the study aims to demonstrate that ALDEPA’s humanitarian action is structured by values, emotions, and moral judgments, interacting with political, economic, and social logics. It highlights how aid decisions, resource distribution, and the definition of beneficiaries within ALDEPA are guided not only by technical or economic imperatives but also by conceptions of the good, the just, and moral duty. Thus, the main argument of this contribution rests on the hypothesis that mobilizing endogenous knowledge and practices within ALDEPA introduces a (gradual) paradigm shift, breaking with the universalist logic of humanitarian action. Aid endogenization within this organization is achieved through a combination of knowledge, discourse, and practices that beneficiaries identify. These endogenous knowledges interact with exogenous knowledge, producing a hybrid form of local humanitarian action. The methodological approach is qualitative and inductive, employing interviews, document research, and direct observation as data collection techniques.