Devex Newswire: Psst, what does localization actually mean?

“A massive buzzword that's actually a bit of a fig leaf.” That's how one expert sums up localization in the aid sector — the term that everyone uses, but to what ends?

Also in today’s edition: The world's latest hunger numbers, and “interesting” possible end times for a cash-strapped development stalwart in Brussels.

+ Devex Pro Week continues today with an event exploring USAID’s progress on localization. Join us at 10 a.m. ET (4 p.m. CET) to hear NGO leaders and experts crunch the numbers and deliver their verdict on the agency’s localization credentials under the Biden administration ahead of a pivotal election.

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Loco for localization

We told you recently how USAID went backward last year on its goal to direct a quarter of its funding to local organizations by 2025 — it's currently at 9.6%, down from 10.2% in 2022.

But, as Devex contributor Andrew Green writes in this compelling long read today, the localization agenda is falling short in other ways too.

“Under the guise of localization, international NGOs have shifted their headquarters to cities in the global south and filled more jobs with people from the countries in which they work,” Andrew writes. “But they have stopped short of the transformational change” that many expected, or at least hoped for.

Chilande Kuloba-Warria, managing director of Warande Advisory Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, tells Andrew that she has the impression donors and international nongovernmental organizations still retain control over the ideas and funds.

For Allison Kelley, a health economist whose résumé includes running Results for Development’s African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions, localization is both a “buzzword” and a “fig leaf,” capable of meaning “everything and nothing.”

In our latest story for Devex Pro Week, we get into why some are calling for the word to be replaced completely.

Read: What does localization really mean? (Pro)

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Local by law

Meanwhile, one of the lowest-income countries in the world, Malawi, is taking a hard-line approach to localization: Proposing legislation that would require international NGOs to partner with and allocate at least 30% of their country programming to local NGOs.

In 2023, NGOs in the southern African nation received a total of 589 billion Malawian kwacha but only 4.4% of the income was obtained from partnerships.

The changes, currently under review by Malawi’s Ministry of Justice, have drawn a mixed response.

Some warn the law may be too restrictive and could interfere excessively with NGO operations, and that some local NGOs may lack the capacity to absorb such funds and the accompanying compliance requirements.

Others, like Moses Chabuka, executive director at Neno Active Youth in Development — which is currently benefiting from Save the Children funding — tells Devex contributor Madalitso Wills Kateta that capacity-building workshops for local NGOs can help bridge this gap.

Read: Malawi is considering a local funding law. Will it help or harm INGOs? (Pro)

Related: Building Malawi's disaster response capacity through localization

Hunger by the numbers

The G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro proposed a new Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty on Wednesday, pitching it as a way “to gather funds and knowledge towards implementation of public policies and social technologies proven effective in reducing global hunger and poverty.”

It comes amid what Jutta Urpilainen, the European Union's top development official, called “the backsliding worldwide in our fight against poverty and hunger.”

The United Nation's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, out Wednesday, found that:

• An estimated 2.33 billion people were moderately or severely food-insecure last year — or almost 29% of the global population.

• The number of those facing hunger in Asia (384.5 million) has stayed relatively unchanged.

• Levels are on the rise in Africa, with hunger affecting 1 out of every 5 people.

One bright spot is Latin America, which has reduced hunger to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Economist Máximo Torero tells Devex Senior Editor Tania Karas that South America in particular has well-developed institutionalized social protection systems, “which helps them to respond quicker and to target better.”

“The progress that we see in South America and some subregions of Asia tell us that we have that capacity” to move forward, he says. “If we keep this rate of 5 million less people [experiencing] hunger in two years, it’s possible that South America will achieve SDG2.”

Read: More than 700 million people went hungry last year, says UN report

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Interesting times

The 79-member Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States was once one of the main conduits for the European Union’s development and trade relations with the rest of the world. No longer.

As we’ve been reporting, the group has suffered a dramatic drop in influence in recent years as the European Commission increasingly deals bilaterally with low-income countries.

A roughly 50-person OACPS secretariat is still in Brussels. However, no one, including the commission, is quite sure what they do or what purpose they serve. And now they are running out of money. African, Caribbean, Pacific states are millions in arrears on their membership dues, and the commission this year cut off its funding (which has long sustained the group) over concerns of financial mismanagement — think staffers traveling with tens of thousands of euros in cash, and millions poured into a building renovation that never happened.

This week, Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Smith is in Brussels to try and clean up the mess, chairing the Council of Ministers meeting of representatives from OACPS countries.

“It is, ah, it is an interesting time for the organization,” she said in a video message on X, adding there was, “a lot of work to be done to deal with some of the challenges.”

The head of the commission’s development department (who holds the purse strings) posted about his meeting with Smith, welcoming her “sense of purpose, professionalism and a real partnership attitude” — a fairly thinly veiled swipe at the current OACPS leadership in Brussels.

With the commission money tap turned off, OACPS countries face a choice: Either reinvest and reinvigorate the organization, or watch it go off a financial cliff. We’ve asked Smith for an interview to discuss all of the above, but are yet to hear back. Stay tuned.

ICYMI: EU rebukes African, Caribbean, Pacific org ‘not aligned with reality’ (Pro)

In other news

The United Arab Emirates’ ALTÉRRA invests in a fund backing fossil fuel despite “climate solutions” pledge. [Climate Home]

The U.N. and its partners launched a flash appeal for drought-affected Malawi, targeting critical aid in food security, agriculture, water, health, and nutrition for the hardest-hit districts. [UN News]

A new report links rising child poverty to increased mental health issues in youth in the United Kingdom, urging benefits system reform as poverty rates climb to 4.3 million children. [The Guardian]

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