Has Localisation Reached Its Next Stage? Share Your Views
By Keith Kibirango
For more than a decade, localisation has reshaped international development. It has strengthened leadership, improved governance, built organisational capability and shifted power closer to communities. Across Africa and the wider Global South, there are now thousands of capable organisations ready to lead.
However, with numerous capable organisations in the Global South, why do we still struggle to realise the benefits of localisation fully?
Here’s the puzzle. Across the Global South, organisations tell us they are stronger than ever. Yet, many continue to struggle to access strategic partnerships, investment and long-term relationships. At the same time, foundations and philanthropic organisations tell us something remarkably similar. They want to diversify beyond their existing portfolios and work with more locally-led organisations. But they often struggle to identify credible, trusted partners confidently.
As a result, many return to the same organisations. Not because they think they are the only capable partners, but because they are familiar organisations. Better the devil you know! That should concern all of us, as for years, we’ve assumed that stronger organisations naturally lead to greater opportunity. Increasingly, that assumption is being questioned.
As New Global Markets, we believe that international development has over-invested in organisational capability and under-invested in the infrastructure that converts capability into opportunity. We also believe that the next era of localisation will not be defined simply by who receives resources. It will be defined by whether capable organisations can access the partnerships, markets, opportunities and investment those resources create.
The first decade of localisation was about building capable organisations. The next decade must be about ensuring those organisations can actually access opportunity. That is the conversation we believe the sector needs to have.
Before proposing solutions, we want to listen. At New Global Markets, we have launched a short survey to understand what organisations across Africa and the Global South see as the biggest barriers preventing capable institutions from accessing opportunity and what needs to change. If you lead or work with a locally-led organisation, we’d greatly value your perspective.
Click here to complete the survey, and also share it with organisations in your networks.
If thousands of capable organisations already exist, the next question is no longer how we build stronger organisations. Perhaps it is how opportunity reaches the organisations we’ve already helped build.
I’d like to know whether others are seeing the same shift.
#Localisation #LocallyLedDevelopment #InternationalDevelopment #AfricanNGOs #GlobalSouth #SystemsChange #Philanthropy
(Keith Kibirango is a fundraising and philanthropy expert, and Founder & Chief Executive of New Global Markets Consulting)
