Locally-Led Dev: Thry - Pract

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

For decades, there has been a near consensus within the international development community that good development is locally led development. Since the 2005 Paris Declaration, effective development policy and practice has been a key feature of the international cooperation agenda. Moreover, the concept has been embraced by successive USAID administrations, NGOs, humanitarian non-profits, consulting firms, industry associations, and academics alike. Few concepts seem less controversial than shifting power to and sharing it with local actors who take charge of setting the agenda, making decisions, and designing, managing and implementing programs. At the same time, dynamics within low and middle-income countries are independently driving localization. More so now than ever, aid recipient countries and local actors have access to finance and expertise to increasingly direct their own resource allocation and decision making. In light of these trends and in recent years – especially in the wake of the COVID pandemic, the global DEI movement, and a collective reconciliation of international development’s colonial past – there has been a renewed push toward better defining what exactly is meant by and required to achieve locally led development. The question goes beyond the capacity of local actors, although that is certainly an important consideration. In this new paradigm, fundamental questions are arising about the nature and role of international donors themselves, how they view and manage risk, if their procedures and requirements are fit for purpose, and whether they are the ones with capacity gaps that must be filled. And what are the implications for international Implementing Partners (IPs) – i.e., NGOs, consulting firms, humanitarian focused non-profits, university centers and the like – and must they start redefining their role and adapting their operating models? This 7-week module course will explore the complex dynamics at work both within the international community, as well as within aid recipient countries themselves, surrounding locally led development, localization, or local ownership (all terms heretofore used interchangeably). The course will seek to better understand where localization comes from, how it is defined, what it will take to put it into practice, and where are its limits. Working individually and in teams, students will gain a practical understanding of locally led development, and obtain skills in influencing the on-going policy debate, as well as the inevitable programmatic, technical, and operational transitions of various actors in the system. Students will challenge assumptions and examine successes, failures and track record of locally led development policy and practice. Class discussion will center on real-world reading material from international development policymakers and practitioners – i.e., policy statements, analytic and diagnostic reports, case studies, toolkits, operational documents, program evaluations and other grey literature. Students will gain practical skills to analyze arguments, assess challenges and make recommendations on key policy issues, and develop an actual localization strategy for a client organization.