Last year, one of the very top priorities for the aid sector was localization — the transfer of power and resources to organizations based in the country where development work took place.
Since then, many of those organizations have seen existential threats to their funding or even their legal right to exist. But foundations are sticking to their localization commitments despite those challenges, a new Council on Foundations, or COF, survey has found.
The survey, released during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, polled a small group of global grantmakers, including those that signed onto a donor pledge to advance locally led development in 2022. While much of the development landscape has become unrecognizable in the two years since the pledge was released, the survey confirmed that, at least among its voluntary respondents, the commitment to channel more resources and decision-making power to local players has not wavered.