Two US organizations end work abroad in favor of local partners

Two international organizations have said they will close operations abroad and step aside in favor of locally led partners, as part of a push to transfer power to the global south. Health Alliance International, a Seattle-headquartered public health NGO, said last month that it had transitioned all its programs and most of its staff to locally led organizations, in order to help shift leadership to the global south. In a similar statement issued earlier this month, Fintrac, a Washington-based company that provides training to smallholder farmers in Africa, announced plans to phase out its operations by 2023 because it believes that in-country partners are better placed to deliver. HAI, which had a yearly turnover of more than $12 million, according to its most recent filings, said it has now “fully transitioned our global operations and active programs to locally-based, locally-led NGOs.” It plans to formally close in April. “This transition — unanimously supported by HAI’s Board of Directors along with headquarters and in-country leadership — represents a shift away from a pervasive practice in global health that centers decision-making authority and donor relationships outside of the Global South,” the statement said. “INGOs like HAI are being justifiably asked to make the case for maintaining expensive, global systems of operation following years of local capacity building efforts. This is especially true when decision-making authority about how funds are employed is concentrated in headquarters offices, located outside countries of operation.” HAI said funding for its Côte d’Ivoire programs had come to an end in 2021, and this had led its leadership to think about what should happen to the organizations’ other programs. More than 90% of staff have been locally hired and are working in-country. It said that with the support of its funders, it had transferred its programs and staff in Mozambique to a local NGO, Comité para a Saúde de Moçambique, and its programs and staff in Timor-Leste to another local NGO, Asosiansaun Hamutuk Nasaun Saudavel, known as HAMNASA. Meanwhile, Fintrac — which said it had trained more than two million smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean over the last three decades, and is currently supporting more than 800,000 farmers across four continents — announced it would phase out its operations by the end of 2023. “We believe the next generation of small businesses, in-country implementing partners, and agribusiness entrepreneurs are best suited to providing services to client farmers and collaborating with them in tailoring local solutions to local challenges,” the company said in a statement published on its website, adding that it hopes to serve as an example to others of how to “gracefully exit this space.”