To achieve real sustained change, local organizations must drive solutions for their own communities. Community-based organizations understand the complex community dynamics, cultural needs, and power structures that inform how they tackle the most important challenges.

Professionals in the international development and humanitarian aid sectors have been talking about the need for localization for decades, but funders haven’t met their own goals and promises. Local organizations are still hugely underfunded.

We need to shift this dynamic.

It’s time for funders to follow through on their commitments to localization and community-led development. Our communities deserve solutions beyond  aid workers and beneficiaries. Funders must recognize the expertise that already exists in local communities and invest in this knowledge to drive durable social change.

With the world at an inflection point, we can reshape aid and make a real difference for communities and global development.

It’s time to localize aid.