When Samantha Power, the U.S. Agency for International Development administrator since 2021, made localization the flagship policy of her tenure at the development behemoth, it seemed set to transform the sector.
The new approach came with measurable indicators, including two major goals: by 2025, the agency would channel 25% of its funding through locally led organizations and, five years later, 50% of USAID projects would have local leadership. But across the global south, localization seemed to promise more than new money and new jobs.
From her position in Nairobi, Chilande Kuloba-Warria, managing director of Warande Advisory Centre, said localization was seen as an acceleration of the “slowly growing momentum around powershifts on the continent. This was the come-to-Jesus moment for people thinking about unfair practices in development in the past and how to devolve power.”