Six years ago at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, some of the world’s largest humanitarian funders pledged to provide 25% of funding to locally led organizations — a goal that was recently echoed by Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
But USAID and signatories to this “Grand Bargain” have a long way to go. A 2020 target under the Grand Bargain was missed, and USAID funding for locally led organizations actually went down in the previous fiscal year.
Leaders of African NGOs are skeptical.