Opinion: Why we should look at localization through a talent lens

Shifting resources, decision making, and power from “north to south” are now key considerations in global development, under the umbrella of “localization.” Yet instead of arguing about definitions and percentages of resources from the global north that should be spent locally, we should spend more time listening to the next generation of leaders in the countries and communities targeted by development initiatives. They tell us to look at localization through a talent and leadership lens and remove the barriers that exist for them to make a difference as leaders at home and abroad. To succeed, we need to be intentional about connecting the dots with our existing tools and approaches. In the last two years, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with young talented professionals from the global south who are committed to making a difference in their home countries and toward global challenges. They have all been part of leadership development and intercultural exchange over the past two decades. I heard many success stories about the impact of international experience and leadership development. There are three main factors that these young professionals point to as helping them succeed on their leadership pathways: 1. Access to work experience outside their home country and culture. 2. Skills to lead themselves and others in local and global teams. 3. A network of peers and mentors that support their journey and open doors for them. I believe that we can remove barriers to these three factors for young professionals across the globe who are driven to have a positive impact on their community and beyond. It will make an important contribution both to achieving localization and to solving our biggest challenges. “Every grant or contract agreement between funders and local partners could include elements of identifying mission-critical staff with leadership potential.” --— The young people, tools, and approaches we need are already here — but we need to be intentional about connecting the dots. To see how much we could all benefit from investing in diverse talent and their pathways into leadership roles, here are three suggestions for global development institutions to instigate and scale, based on proven solutions: 1. Create talent journeys for mission-critical leaders from local partners to gain experience outside their home country. 2. Use development funding and resources for cultural and educational exchange to identify talented professionals for local leadership pathways. 3. Embrace youth engagement and participation as an investment in future talent. 1. Intentional talent journeys for mission-critical leaders When I joined Save the Children in 2013, the vast majority of country directors were white and male. In response, senior leadership working with the new chief people officer from the private sector, implemented talent journeys and regular benchmarking of local talent based on a new leadership framework. They also added quarterly reviews and specific stretch assignments and placements outside their country of origin. Since I left the organization in 2021, the majority of country directors and senior leadership are now made up of female leaders and almost half country directors are from non-OECD countries. The result: Save the Children International increased its programs fourfold as an implementing partner for its federation members, from $338.3 million in 2012 to $1.261 billion in 2021. Creating intentional leadership pathways is actually what the most effective organizations have been doing for decades with mission-critical roles. Leadership growth happens when you are stretched in new roles outside of your comfort zone and experience. “Without the intentional investment the organization’s leadership placed in my career path, I would not be where I am now”, said Wang Le, who started her career as a program manager in Save the Children’s local Tibet office in 2007. Through intentional stretch assignments, she progressed into a country director role in Kenya and Madagascar and is currently Save the Children’s global UN representative, leading an office in New York City. Why don't we apply this intentionality of talent journeys and stretch assignments to invest in the leadership of local partners? Every grant or contract agreement between funders and local partners could include elements of identifying mission-critical staff with leadership potential in the countries and communities where the development initiatives are being delivered and creating talent journeys and stretch assignments outside their country of origin. In the United States, for example, the existing J-1 exchange visitor visa is a great tool for such talent journeys. With a leader development exchange program, staff from partner organizations visiting the U.S. can co-create with U.S.-based teams to deliver on programs. The U.S. Agency for International Development flagship New Partnerships Initiative could be a great way to pilot this approach together with philanthropic partners in the coming years. Just looking at the global map of USAID’s Local Works projects could give you a sense of the possible scale. Use development funding and resources for cultural and educational exchange to identify talented professionals for local leadership pathways. 2. Cultural and educational exchange resources for local leadership pathways Every year, the development sector invests billions of dollars in young people all across the globe. In the U.S., we have also invested hundreds of millions in international exchange: After 75 years of cultural and educational exchange, there have been 1.7 million young people who are exchange alumni, 660 of whom have been or are heads of state. There are 2,243 foundations giving to nonprofits in the international cultural exchange category, with assets of $1.04 trillion. Lawrence Yealue, who took part in a 12-month trainee fellowship in a U.S. nonprofit, now leads the Accountability Lab in Liberia, a global network of organizations fighting for good governance and transparency. He credits the access, skills, and global connections he got during that time with where he is today: “I came from the local private sector, from business development. Through this international fellowship experience, I became committed to build a governance organization back home in Liberia. When I look back, the training and experience that I received and the network to people sharing the same values from across continents, helped me immensely.” Even if we can only engage a fraction of these young people, we would be tapping into a talent pool in the tens of thousands. Since Atlas Corps’ founding in 2006, we have built a pool of over 2,000 young professionals from over 117 countries. They have either spent a year as a trainee in a U.S. nonprofit or corporate team, have gone through our six-month virtual leadership development training, or have been pre-vetted and interviewed as a skilled professional in one of the five key skill areas of demand that international nonprofits are asking for. We also partner with local alumni organizations through grants in Pakistan. Our alumni lead offices for international accountability and governance organizations, such as the Accountability Lab in Liberia, Nepal, and Pakistan. What if we took this approach to scale? For example with the tens of thousands of Fulbright and other exchange professionals who are returning to their home countries? This talent pool already exists, but we need to connect the dots in our partnering and hiring practice. 3. Youth engagement and participation as an investment in future talent In my experience, global development leaders and decision-makers often treat issues such as youth engagement, participation, and volunteering as a nice-to-have. Today, 1.8 billion people are between the ages of 10 to 24, the largest generation of youth in history. Close to 90% of them live in low- and middle-income countries, where they make up a large proportion of the population. For example, 70% of sub-Saharan Africans are under the age of 30. With these figures, it’s clear that in the case of the U.S., most of the $60.4 billion the American taxpayer is investing in foreign help and diplomatic engagement is reaching young people. Yet even with USAID’s youth policy stating investment in youth must aim for them to be “actively involved in shaping development interventions,” including in their upskilling and education, global development faces huge challenges in finding talent. In a 2022 Devex survey among international development professionals, 4 out of 5 believe there's an SDG talent gap, and 71% said they have a talent gap at their own organization. We’re trying to achieve ambitious localization goals in the development sector, but some argue that we struggle to enable the right capacity in local partners and organizations to deliver at scale. That means while we are spending billions “for them,” we are not yet engaging enough “with them” to address this challenge. So many philanthropic partners are supporting incredible youth networks every day. We could be leveraging them in smarter ways that connect to our localization efforts. The African Philanthropy Forum’s Start Point Africa and other initiatives could be an excellent vehicle for the effort to make youth engagement and participation a platform for the future talent pool for local organizations. I have met amazing young leaders of youth councils in Somalia and worked with young colleagues who started out as aid recipients in refugee camps. We need to move from anecdotes to leadership pathways. Talent journeys should become the norm, not the outlier for the tens of thousands, if not millions of people delivering humanitarian and development aid in their own countries and communities. These three suggestions are not the only solution for achieving our localization goals as a philanthropic community and development sector. However, an intentional reframing of the way we look at localization can help us use existing tools and approaches in an effective way. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Max Planck, once said that “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Let’s apply that framing to youth development, cultural exchange, and local development partnerships. Our localization efforts could benefit. And organizations looking for the next generation of leaders to solve our biggest challenges beyond the local level will do so as well.