In reality, this means the loss of key humanitarian officials and of the traditional emergency aid coordination mechanism known as the cluster system. There were at least 28 locations with UN-led humanitarian coordination systems before this year’s cuts began. The precise meanings of terms like “accelerated transition” or “deprioritisation” are also unclear, causing confusion and fear among ground-level humanitarians. Against this backdrop, local aid workers say they were excluded from the discussions around how the reforms would affect their work and thrown into confusion by the flip-flopping policy changes that followed. “Traditionally, local NGOs have not been given space to shape how the humanitarian response should be.