Promoting increased agency of local actors for effective development co-operation is not new but is gaining political traction. Calls for challenging deeply rooted development co-operation norms, biases, colonial legacies, and power imbalances have been stressing the need for system-wide change. At the same time, crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have disrupted traditional development co-operation delivery models and highlighted the importance of increased effectiveness and local relevance, and pivoted attention towards increasing the agency of local actors, including beyond governments in framing, design, delivery, learning and accountability of development co-operation.
Despite some progress, Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members continue to encounter significant challenges in advancing locally led development co-operation. On the outside, they are facing shifting geopolitical dynamics, increased conflict and fragility and evolving crisis response across humanitarian development and peace modalities, all in a context of global economic instability and budget constraints. On the inside, political, administrative and systemic barriers to change include definitional issues hindering shared understanding, limited human resource capacities and restricted flexibility to adapt to local contexts. DAC members are also grappling with politically sensitive issues linked to differing values and local power dynamics, including issues of legitimacy and representation, as well as risks such as elite capture. Another major obstacle is the fact that DAC members are channelling a limited share of their budgets directly to local actors, relying on the support of intermediary organisations. In sum, to promote locally led development effectively and reshape the power dynamics of their co-operation, providers are challenged to fundamentally revise their policies and practices and create more equitable spaces for local actor agency, including for local intermediaries.
This peer learning synthesis report aims to help DAC members promote more effective locally led development co-operation by collating new and existing good practices. It identifies several enablers, for which it provides an overview of contextual influences and challenges, and highlights good practices.
Establishing policy and institutional frameworks with clear definitions and expectations. Defining shared goals and commitments provides direction and political support to address key barriers. This can be supported by learning processes led by internal champions to establish shared definitions across different teams, sectors and geographies. Decentralised decision-making in partner countries, emphasising leadership from local staff, and fostering a diverse range of skills and cultural sensitivity among DAC member staff can create new space for local agency and perspectives to weigh in.
Strengthening financing mechanisms. Funding that is not conditioned to specific activities but can be reallocated as needs evolve enables local actor agency, especially when directed to national and local governments, grassroots organisations and women’s groups. Emphasis is placed on long-term, core funding that aligns with local priorities, ensuring sustainability and organisational independence. Efforts also target international intermediaries to pass on overhead costs and provide quality funding through clear, criteria-based agreements, utilising diverse and cost-effective modalities such as local intermediaries and rapid grant funding.
Promoting collaboration and equitable partnership mechanisms. Reshaping power dynamics by placing mutual trust and co-creation at the centre of the relationship is central. Good examples of such approaches vary, from triangular co-operation to mobilising international intermediaries that pass-on quality funding and decision-making authority. Other enablers include transferring responsibility and ownership of an organisation or programme from an international to a local organisation, as well as recognising and facilitating the central role of local coalitions, the private sector and local governments. Partnerships become more equitable when capacity strengthening and sharing respond to long-term organisational needs expressed by local actors, build on existing strengths rather than project needs identified by providers, and facilitate peer learning.
Adapting management processes and delivery practices. Listening to and enabling diverse local actors, including communities, is key to taking their knowledge, innovation, and priorities into account. This includes developing participatory, multi-stakeholder processes for collective accountability and mutual learning reinforced by locally designed accountability frameworks. By simplifying risk management and compliance processes, DAC members can facilitate direct access to quality funding. Promoting a broader understanding of risk –beyond fiduciary risks– within DAC member oversight bodies can help overcome concerns associated with locally led development and secure support for a renewed approach to risk management.
Measuring progress and providing a layered measurement framework. Tracking progress towards locally led development co-operation provides incentives for change. It enables DAC members to identify areas for improvement and performance gaps, so that strategies can, in turn, be modified. This also supports internal and external accountability. Process for measurement matters as it should not add new reporting burden on stakeholders but needs to include the voice and perception of local actors.
This report emphasises the importance of context-specific, sequenced, and locally defined approaches for DAC members, rather than prescribing a singular pathway. It underscores the need for systemic change, acknowledging that this transformation will take time. The report highlights the significance of starting with policy and institutional frameworks: these first steps will facilitate shifts in funding and partnership mechanisms, allowing new modalities for diverse actors to collaborate equitably. This approach can then support management practices centred on agency, knowledge, and collective accountability. Each DAC member's unique starting point necessitates tailored sequencing, recognising the time required to make progress.
Systemic change takes time. Achieving successful locally led development co-operation requires building on existing good practices of DAC members, which are not always labelled as such. Concurrently, it demands broader systemic changes, requiring sustained political will and a co-ordinated approach built on shared definitions and understandings from peer learning. Negotiating diverse priorities among local and international actors coming from different perspectives, and implementing changes in policies, mechanisms, and practices are essential to shifting power dynamics and behaviours.
