The discussion of shifting power, or localisation, has increased in recent years as a response to growing criticism of the power dynamic in traditional aid. Development and humanitarian organisations have been changing how they work, shifting the centre of gravity closer to challenges on the ground. Localisation influences all aspects of the development sector and directly affects local organisations, funders and INGOs. For genuine commitment and progress towards balancing global architecture, power must be transferred from donors, traditionally sitting in high-income countries (HICs), to grantee partners, including civil society organisations and grassroots NGOs in countries impacted. There are multiple axes around which power can be transferred; including location of staff, loci of decision-making, and ownership. Despite the growing discourse, however, only a few organisations have successfully demonstrated such a shift. We also believe there is a reframing around “localisation” now needed.
At SRI Executive, we work with our clients and support them as they navigate what shifting the centre of gravity and power means for them. We focus on three core aspects as part of this process: instituting local ownership and decision-making, enabling mutual sharing of knowledge and capabilities and developing mechanisms for accountability.
Local ownership broadly speaks to decisions being made by, or in partnership with, impacted communities or those intended to benefit from the intervention. Local organisations design, develop and lead initiatives and projects. In this model, we see the role of INGOs and other development organisations from donor countries as partnering with local organisations and communities; this could be in facilitating funding flows or supporting the design and implementation of projects. The objective is to shift power to the local level, so the driving force of decisions are the needs of local communities.
The second aspect we support organisations in assessing is mechanisms for mutual sharing of knowledge and capabilities. Localisation recognises and values local and indigenous knowledge and works to bring together diverse types of skills, abilities, and expertise in service of greater or more sustainable impact. Historically, organisations from high-income countries have preferred a specific set of skills and abilities in their funding or partnership requirements, for example, fluency in English, international networks, or familiarity with sectoral terminologies and jargon. While these skills serve a purpose, a disproportionate focus on these undermines other complementary skills, values and knowledge possessed by grassroots organisations. Organisations need to assess partnership and funding mechanisms to understand assumptions around skills being valued, as well as the capacity assumed to navigate complex and time-intensive processes. Where possible, it is helpful to provide resources and support (e.g., unrestricted funding, training and networking opportunities) to share knowledge with grassroots organisations where they could benefit. For example, support for developing a multi-year strategy and resource deployment plans or language and translation support to access international funding applications. Concurrently, in the spirit of mutual learning, it is also important for INGOs, philanthropies and government development agencies to learn from indigenous knowledge and practices of grassroots organisations and create space to embed them in measurement and implementation.
In close connection to knowledge sharing, the third aspect we support organisations in is their commitment to developing accountability mechanisms. For there to be success in shifting the centre of gravity in the development sector, organisations must develop robust mechanisms to hold themselves accountable to their commitments. In practice, this may translate to breaking down “intention” into smaller goals that can be integrated into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) targets. For example, a philanthropic or development aid organisation could commit to allocating a certain percentage of funding to organisations with leaders from impacted countries, creating separate funding avenues for local organisations to eliminate competition with INGOs, or ringfencing a certain percentage of funding for local organisations. In this example, by incorporating easily measurable goals, organisations can develop practical steps to breaking down barriers to funding, translating into higher levels of funding and grants to local organisations.
One area where we see INGOs and other international development organisations making commitments and progress is the composition of their staff. Employing staff members in LMICs who bring their own lived experience and contextual understanding to their role and, importantly, creating clear and defined career paths for these individuals to progress and acquire decision-making positions can be a means of internal change. The accountability that comes with a commitment to reshaping global architecture cannot occur in a vacuum; if local organisations are building and expanding their capabilities, funders and organisations based in the HICs, in parallel, have a responsibility to broaden their understanding of what is needed.
As an Executive Search and Consulting organisation, we at SRI Executive are undergoing our own reflection on how we “walk the talk” internally and with our clients. While founded in Ireland, over the last 25 years, we have continually expanded our team worldwide to include staff members from 27 countries who speak 31 languages. We have developed partnerships with other consultancies to strengthen contextual knowledge and experience where we are not best placed to work with clients independently. We continue to reflect on our role alongside our clients as they develop their own approaches and embed them into their strategies, organisational structure and design, governance, and staff.
We have deployed various tools internally and externally (with INGO clients in particular) to support these organisational reflections. Some examples of how we could support your organisation with a custom approach to shifting power include:
- Facilitating a “Stop and Think” workshop to create a dedicated space to define what localisation means for your organisation and steps you can take to shift the centre of gravity internally (within your organisation) and externally (with partners)
- Capability mapping & recruitment services
- Map current skills and their location in the organisation to assess where capacity and ownership sit today and where there may be gaps;
- Identify key internal talent and create clear and articulated career progression processes;
- Offer new approaches to hiring talent using unique additional “cultural nuance tools”. This supports the traditional technical and behavioural skills assessments by ensuring a fully holistic path of candidate selection;
- Review of organisational development, including strategy, people and processes
- Support an assessment or mapping of where ownership and decision-making happen today through an organisational diagnostic process;
- Review values and how they connect to or reflect localisation goals and aspirations
The Baobab Institute and SRI Executive will host the first in a series of virtual webinars entitled: “Reframing Localisation” on the 23rd of January 2024 at 13:00 GMT.
We aim to explore the impact and operationalisation of localisation, specifically within African-based organisations. The series will delve into the concept of localisation, its unique implications in the African context, and strategies for successful implementation.
