Opinion: A spotlight on last-mile localization in development

The hardest-to-reach are often invisible. With the emphasis on localization in development, a spotlight on how solutions can ensure reach to the most marginalized communities is direly needed. Last-mile communities are dynamic and complex settings. By definition, these communities fall through the cracks of blanket — and even targeted — development efforts and demand adaptable and tailored approaches through localization, using local expertise to customize interventions that cater to distinct community needs, challenges, and priorities. Although practitioners have long sought to build local competency and uphold a community-led approach, little consensus has emerged on how to deliver on localization objectives. The Reach Alliance examines how critical interventions get to those that are hardly reached. Successful efforts in Guatemala, Mexico, and Tanzania can provide a road map for localization in last-mile settings. Invest in building trust Trust is a scarce commodity when working with the hardly-reached. When engaging with groups that have been excluded from distributions of resources, power, and voice, practitioners should incorporate “nothing about us without us” in all project phases by identifying a community member or trusted partner who can bring legitimacy and uphold inclusivity. This is particularly key for localization efforts in communities that have nested mistrust and resentment for authorities or foreign partners. In Monterrey, Mexico, migrants from Querétaro have lived in irregular settlements and in limbo for 15 years due to their location under high-voltage cables. Requests to be relocated as a collective have not been realized due to changes in political administration and culturally insensitive attempts to separate this community, which threaten the irreversible loss of native practices, cultural alienation, and ineffective use of development resources. Innovation emerged at the last mile through community ownership. In response to precarious housing, floating houses were introduced as movable homes that the community had autonomy over. The community actively participated in the design and construction, and open Indigenous assemblies mediated the delivery of floating houses. The assemblies were consensus-based and transparently non-partisan, which was important for a community skeptical of government. This approach to localization invested in a trusted intermediary and allowed the community to dictate its terms of interaction. Adopt flexible and sustained cross-sectoral partnerships Last-mile development solutions can be enhanced by public-private partnerships, which combine sectoral comparative advantages: the market efficiencies and resources of the private sector, the public authorities of government, and the trust-bridging and implementation functions of NGOs. In public-private partnerships, a commitment to localization means that local communities should be in the driver’s seat, with the private and public sectors as capacity-builders and resource providers. Improvement of the medical supply chain in Tanzania is one example. Pharmaceutical delivery drop-off points were expanded from around 100 district-level drop-off points in the 1990s to 7,500 facilities today, extending medicine delivery to “last-mile” rural communities. This achievement was enabled by Coca-Cola’s logistics and route optimization expertise and consulting firm John Snow Inc., with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and long-term investment by the Tanzanian government. Some donor resources were directed by the community’s self-reported needs. Health committees composed of village residents verified pharmaceutical shipments and allocated flexible funds in the local dispensary. Localization of decision-making ensured the sustainability of change. Tanzania’s pharmaceutical supply chain optimization took place over three decades, and this consistent investment fostered the retention of institutional knowledge, human capital, political will and more, adapting delivery to local needs and bringing lifesaving medicines to the last mile. Toward full local ownership The idea of a staged rollout via adaptable small-scale implementation is not new. To reach the hardly-reached and realize localization, the missing puzzle piece is a deliberate local handover, or easing in complete community ownership. This involves an intentional power shift to community groups that concludes with sustainable local ownership. Consider the Healthy Pregnancy Project, HPP, in Guatemala, an external NGO-led initiative delivering portable prenatal care kits that reached 21,000 rural Indigenous women of Alta Verapaz and San Marcos, reducing maternal mortality by 35%. HPP’s success is driven by its staged rollout, centered on an eventual handover to the health care system. NGOs involved in HPP worked with communities to select regions of implementation and transfer operations to the government. An engagement letter per region outlining the handover date was signed between regional authorities and NGOs. HPP monitored operations to ensure long-run sustainability, continuing to offer capacity-building and facilitate adaptation to evolving local needs. Reaching the hardly-reached is a moral imperative underpinning the SDGs — leave no one behind. The incremental cost of delivering to a hardly-reached audience is high, and it requires deliberate and locally led adaptation. This costly endeavor makes project sustainability and effectiveness especially important. Localization maximizes the efficacy of development resources and makes development outcomes lasting and meaningful for the communities they serve. The insights presented above aspire to propel a shift from localization in theory to localization in practice, with a focus on reaching the “last mile.” Vulnerability as a result of exploitation and marginalization is a temporary and surmountable state, never a way of life. It can be changed through the acquisition of tools and autonomy, rather than the continued denial of the community's culture. This understanding is key to designing genuine and successful interventions that build bridges of trust with local communities. Orienting localization around the hardly-reached is long overdue. Now is the time to bring it to the forefront. We would like to acknowledge our fellow researchers and mentors at the Reach Alliance and those who supported the research process, especially our key collaborators in Tanzania, Guatemala, and Mexico. See the case study reports Reaching the Last Mile: Tanzania’s Medical Supply Chain, Healthy Pregnancy Project, and Struggle and Resilience of Migrant Indigenous Communities in Irregular Settlements in Mexico for details. The case study research was made possible through the Reach Alliance, a partnership between the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.