As aid dries up, Plan International accelerates support for women

It hasn’t been an easy year for any organization in global development — and even less so for those that focus on women and girls. Ninety-percent of women’s organizations were hit by global funding cuts, and in a survey conducted by UN Women last year, 47% of those groups are expecting to shut down by 2026. Against that backdrop, Plan International is rethinking how it delivers support for girls and women — accelerating a shift toward local partners, private funding, and shared operations with other nonprofit groups. “How do we change our model to show the value that we can bring?” said Reena Ghelani, chief executive officer of Plan International. “That’s more of an investment model, and that’s how Plan is thinking.” On the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, Ghelani broke down Plan International’s approach further, first explaining that the organization is continuing to push toward localization. It’s nothing new for the development sector, and it’s nothing new for Plan, which today directs about 30% of its funding toward local partners. But in the months ahead, it is planning to expand that share significantly, Ghelani said. “We’re going to start defining much bigger targets much faster, because there is not going to be development unless we actually develop those local organizations and be able to transition out,” she added. In part, that will be through ramping up support for its Equality Accelerator — a funding platform that provides flexible funding directly to grassroots organizations led by girls and young people. In its five years of existence, the organization reports that the accelerator has distributed $1 million to over 240 local groups. Plan International is also working with other international aid agencies to consolidate procurement and programming, Ghelani said — something that is far from easy, but may help organizations maximize the little funding that they now have. “Why do we all have to have back offices in every country?” she said. “These types of things can be done. They’ve been complicated in the past, but it’s necessary now.” Ghelani described how Plan International is conducting pilots with large nonprofits in the sector, and looking at ways the groups can share basics, such as vehicles and licenses, and consolidate the complex, like global health supply chains. “It’s a very complicated area, and there are some who have speciality knowledge about it, so why not join forces with them instead of trying to build our own capacities all over the place?” she said. “There’s a lot of money that can be saved in systems that can go back to the communities in those areas.”