Giving Compass' Take:

•  Pape Gaye, writing for Forbes, describes challenges for NGOs to adapt to localization of global development issues, as well as some ideas for innovative solutions. 

• How can donors help NGOs with global aid solutions?

• Read about achieving local impact using the SDGs. 

The entire field of global health and development is shifting. Major funders, such as the U.S. government, are pushing ahead with an approach called localization, wherein countries manage their own foreign aid, mobilize their own public and private revenues, and eventually become self-reliant.

As NGOs adapt to localization, they can also help transform our outdated model of development and move us toward the goal of universal health coverage, including services that are affordable, accessible and acceptable to all, no matter their social status or where they live.  NGOs can help localization succeed. But we will have to overcome five big challenges to do it.

  1. An Outdated Model Today’s development model favors a top-down approach — large global associations identify the big issues, set the global agenda and pass those priorities down to individual countries (the sustainable development goals are a great example).
  2.  Trust Issues I’ve found that most low- and middle-income countries today are not directing their own development resources. NGOs can help to change this.
  3. A One-Size-Fits-All Approach We cannot realistically expect localization to take hold everywhere on the same timeline. For instance, some countries have a critical mass of civil society and private-sector organizations ready to take the lead on development projects, while others don’t.
  4. The Rise Of Nationalism Nationalism and ultranationalism around the world threaten global health and development. It’s also been argued that they serve as a tinderbox for disease.
  5. Time And Vision Localization is part of how we as a global community will achieve sustainable development. But it begins with a shift in mindset, a belief that such a goal is possible despite the challenges and the time it will take to overcome them.

Read the full article about hurdles to localizing global development by Pape Gaye at Forbes.