Solidarity, not reform, will guide what comes next for local leadership

I have sat in too many meetings over the past decade where localization was spoken about as if it were inevitable. As if we were on a shared journey, moving steadily in the right direction. Commitments were made, language evolved, frameworks multiplied. And yet, when those meetings ended, the people I kept thinking about were not shaping the decisions being made.

They were the local and national leaders I speak with regularly — often late at night, sometimes quietly, usually under pressure. People who are navigating shrinking civic space, political interference, and constant uncertainty about funding. People carrying responsibility without authority, risk without protection, and expectations without trust.

What they describe is not a system failing to understand change. It is a system struggling to let go.