Publisher: Alliance for Peacebuilding

Authors and Acknowledgements: Liz Hume, AfP’s Acting CEO & President, and Leslie Mitchell, a consultant who has over 20 years of local capacity building expertise in senior positions at Pact, are the primary authors. The AfP team also significantly contributed to this work including Megan Corrado, Director of Policy & Advocacy and Jessica Baumgardner-Zuzik, Senior Director of Learning & Evaluation. We are grateful for additional substantial consultations from many experts and AfP members including CDA Collaborative, Counterpart International, FHI 360, IREX, Peace Direct, Search for Common Ground, and Saferworld. These contributions greatly enriched this work, but the final content is solely AfP’s responsibility. Finally, we would like to thank Humanity United for their generous support to make this report possible.

Publication date: May 2022

Abstract: The concept of locally-led development has been gaining traction in recent years. While some progress has been made, significant cultural, operational, and policy challenges remain and require a tectonic shift in donor culture and operations to overcome existing barriers. If donors are serious about implementing locally-led peacebuilding, which is vital to reducing and preventing conflict and building sustainable peace, then donors must implement operational and cultural reforms.

Recommendations:

1     Establish risk-tolerant and flexible procurement mechanisms for local organizations.

2    Increase organizational support funding for local organizations.

3     Commit to strengthening the capacity of local peacebuilding actors.

4     Develop, fund, and implement effective and consistent feedback loops between donors and local partners to support joint accountability and foster adaptive management.

5     Requests for proposals should require the partnership of local CSO partners in the proposal development process.

6 Donors should continue to invest in, test, and provide more evidence on the effectiveness of “Grounded Accountability,” as well as “Collective Action and Impact.”

7 Monitor and effectively respond to closing civic space.

8 Encourage, seek out, and incentivize Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and private sector investment in LLPB.

9 Ensure elevated local leadership efforts in the implementation of the Global Fragility Act (GFA) and other peacebuilding and conflict prevention-oriented laws and policies.

10 Prioritize and integrate the effective use of data and adaptive strategies to develop evidence-based and intentionally developed approaches to DM&E for locally-led peacebuilding programs.