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Good Practice Toolkit

Commitment 2.1:
We seek to reduce power imbalances and invest in locally-led development and humanitarian initiatives.

Compliance Indicators

Compliance with the Commitments will be assessed against the following Compliance Indicators. All of the applicable Compliance Indicators must be met by every ACFID Member to be considered compliant with the Code. Each of the Compliance Indicators has one or more compliance Verifiers. Verifiers are the description of evidence that is required to substantiate compliance with each Compliance Indicator. Guidance is also provided.

2.1.1 Members demonstrate an organisational commitment to locally-led action.

Policy, statement or guidance document that commits the member to locally-led action. 

Evidence of naming and addressing power imbalances in organisational relationships relevant to the member’s development and humanitarian initiatives. 

Guidance

Members are required to have strategies, operational plans, policies and guidelines that clearly demonstrate an intentional organisational commitment to supporting local leadership of ​​giving ownership of development and humanitarian activities, with the recognition that local actors are best placed to understand and respond to the priorities of their communities.  

For example, a member’s project cycle management tools and templates, there could be an explicit recognition of power dynamics as a core element that needs to be understood and addressed within partnerships. And the need to shift these power dynamics to achieve locally led action and a focus on positioning local actors as the agents to shape and drive the development agenda.  

2.1.2 Members contribute to locally-led action in their development and humanitarian initiatives.

Evidence of the voices and decision-making of local actors is consistently captured in: 

  • Design or planning framework, tools, templates or approaches. 
  • Monitoring and evaluation framework, tools, templates or approaches 
  • The allocation of resources (time, funds and people) throughout the project cycle 
  • The design and evaluation of feedback and complaints mechanisms 

Guidance

Members have design templates, processes and procedures could allow ​​adequate time and space for meaningful dialogue and consultation, genuine participatory community engagement and joint decision-making.  

Members could also co-create with local actors reporting requirements and performance measurement indicators that reflect both local and international actors’ requirements and expectations regarding outcomes, risk management, learning and accountability. You could take efforts to align reporting requests with other partners to minimise the burden on local actors. 

Locally led action is likely to require additional resources in the short-medium term. Members should consider allowing flexibility in funding timeframes to match the size and complexity of the change being pursued. Members also should work with local actors to understand their own indirect cost recovery and decide whether to increase the level of administrative and support costs for them. Members are encouraged to also include an agreed core funding which is provided directly to local actors for the building of long-term capacity and sustainability.  

Members are required to support the development and implementation of locally developed feedback and complaints mechanisms based on a better understanding of and mitigation strategies for risks inherent in specific contexts, empowering local actors to take proactive measures.    

2.1.3 Members have mechanisms in place to ensure primary stakeholders can contribute their ideas and feedback and influence decision-making about the initiatives that affect them.

Development and humanitarian initiatives consistently show evidence of the influence of primary stakeholders in planning, decision-making and evaluation. 

Guidance

Primary stakeholders could be supported to construct and test program assumptions and pathways. Partners may need to be supported in identifying and including relevant local actors and voices into their own ways of working, to ensure appropriate representation of marginalised people in their programs and decision making.  

Members could design shared governance arrangements to promote local decision-making.  

Members should also adopt a locally led monitoring, evaluation and learning approach and provide support for performance indicators and their collection, management information systems, and the use of local data sets for decision making and policy dialogue. Where evaluations are planned, these could assess progress with enhancing locally led development in line with development objectives and outcomes. 

Good Practice Indicators

The following Good Practice Indicators describe a higher standard of practice than that set out in the Compliance Indicators. While Members do not need to meet the Good Practice Indicators to be considered compliant with the Code, they will self-assess against these indicators once every three years. This provides a clear pathway for Members to strengthen and improve practice over time.

  • Program and organisational information is accessible, in relevant local languages and in appropriate forms. 
  • Training for staff, volunteers and partners on primary stakeholder participation in the development process and techniques to enable this participation in relevant ways is provided. 
  • Resources (time, funds and people) are allocated to building the capacities of primary stakeholders to implement and lead their own capacity strengthening and development initiatives. 
  • The representation of primary stakeholders in local leadership roles is promoted and supported. 

Good Practice Guidance

Here are some practical suggestions for your organisation to further deepen and improve practice over time.

Organisational

  • Use project design tools, such as a stakeholder priority matrix, for in-depth analysis and to prioritise primary stakeholders
  • Assess the level to which primary stakeholders have been involved in the initial planning of the program and the level of consultation and engagement with various community groups and the local government
  • Train staff in relevant issues such as participatory processes, accountability and empowerment and increasing the voice and engagement of primary stakeholders
  • Train staff in how to carry out power analyses as a basic step in the preparation of any development activity
  • Facilitate conversations at all levels of the organisation which start addressing the issues of power, colonial practice and the importance of locally led approaches in order to come to an agreed commitment which helps guide policy and practice.
  • Working with donors and supporters to raise awareness of the importance of local approaches and the associated costs, to ensure they are included in funding proposals

Partners

  • Seek to work with partners that have a commitment to the empowerment of local people and communities, and to accountability
  • Ask partners how local people will be involved in the design of the program
  • Encourage and support partners to have good relationships with local government and officials where this is possible and appropriate
  • Train partners in participatory processes, empowerment and democratic ownership
  • Encourage and support partners to prioritise the recruitment of local people.

Partners

  • Do a comprehensive analysis of the program’s context, including barriers and constraints to social change as expressed by primary stakeholders, on which to base project design
  • Conduct research to identify the enabling factors and barriers for participation and empowerment of local people
  • Use participatory processes for strategy and program design, implementation, evaluation, and accountability
  • Design mechanisms for ensuring participation of, and accountability to, marginalised people such as women, girls, children, indigenous peoples, workers, people with disabilities, refugees and displaced populations, religious and ethnic minorities, people with different sexual identity and migrants.
  • Ensure in-country staff are able to interact and communicate with in-country stakeholders in local languages and are able to prepare key documents in local languages
  • Regularly monitor – using feedback forms, focus groups and surveys – the satisfaction level of local people and partners with the program
  • Create safe opportunities and spaces to hear from a diversity of stakeholders including primary stakeholders
  • Establish local committee structures for the local governance of programs or activities
  • Encourage and create opportunities for women to take leadership roles
  • Recruit, where appropriate, project staff from among stakeholders.
  • Hold public meetings to share project information, and seek feedback when appropriate
  • Document program information and make it easily accessible to stakeholders
  • Communicate program progress regularly to stakeholders
  • Structure feedback mechanisms into programs and activities
  • Clearly establish and publicise a complaints process to be used by stakeholders
  • Undertake project monitoring and evaluation in collaboration with stakeholders and ensure project results are communicated widely

ACFID Resources

ACFID Locally-led Development Resource Hub

This resource is an ACFID-developed curation of locally-led approaches, tools, and case studies of ACFID members. This is suitable for all organisations as the resources are categoried by its relation to locally-led action across all 9 Quality Principles. This is relevant to the Code because a commitment to locally-led does not operate in a silo.

ACFID Locally-led Development Toolkit

This resource is supports ACFID members in progressing their commitment to locally-led action. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because members must show evidence of naming and addressing power imbalances in organisational relationships.

Actionaid International Accountability, Learning and Planning System

This resource is an example of Actionaid International in naming and addressing power imbalances in organisational relationships. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because to comply with its organisational commitment to locally-led action.

Actionaid International Code of Conduct

This resource is an example of Actionaid International in naming and addressing power imbalances in organisational relationships. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because to comply with its organisational commitment to locally-led action.

Guidance for the Development of a Locally-Led Action Policy

Each organisation is unique in its purpose, structure, and impact model. Because of this, writing an organisational policy, statement or guidance document is not a simple process. While constraints exist and may differ among member organisations, the intention to redefine the role of international NGOs and other actors, and to move consciously toward an evolved model of international development cooperation, is universal.

Locally-Led Action | ACFID Code of Conduct Topic Guide

This ACFID resource outlines all the requirements in the ACFID Code of Conduct related to locally-led action. It is suitable for all organisations to strengthen their compliance with the Code.

Palmera: Approach to Development

Palmera Project's Approach to Development policy sets out an overarching philosophy and guiding principles that is built on three foundations: sustainability, human rights and inclusion. This example is suitable for all organisations in evidencing planning frameworks, tools, and approaches on inclusion of those who are in vulnerable positions and those who are experiencing marginalisation and exclusion in context-specific ways.

Promoting Voice and Choice

This resource was developed by ACFID’s Development Practice Committee (DPC) to explore Australian NGO accountability for development effectiveness - that is 'strengthening the voice and capacity of local actors'. This is suitable for large organisations building their practice on research and evaluation. This is relevant to the Code because compliance requires evidence of the voices and decision-making of local actors.
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Other Resources

Becoming Locally Led As An Anti-Racist Practice: A Guide for INGOs

This resource is about collating and synthesising the existing knowledge to support INGOs to take actions on locally-led development and humanitarian action. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because it builds on the learnings from other organisations and contributes towards the wider effort to decolonise development.

Charter4Change statement on Grand Bargain localisation process

This resource is about Charter4Change's recommendations on ways forward for localisation. The Charter 4 Change is a set of 8 principles set out for localisation - these principles have been endorsed by over 640 National and Local Organisations from 57 countries across the world. This is suitable for all organisations wanting to codified the implementation of locally-led development and humanitarian actions. This resource is also available in French.

Community-Based Inclusive Development – Top-Down Frameworks, Bottom-Up Mobilisation

This resource is a poster explaining the framework for Community-Based Inclusive Development - how it happens and who is involved. This is suitable for all organisations that would like to use a framework to underpin the inclusion of primary stakeholders in planning, decision-making and evaluation. This is relevant to the Code because members' are required to comply with the revised standards on locally-led development.

Localisation in Practice – a Pacific Case Study

This resource is a case study from the CARE/Live & Learn partnership on delivering a locally-led response in Fiji. This is suitable for all organisations seeking practical examples of locally-led solutions. It is also suitable for organisations seeking to contribute to wider debates within the Pacific around localisation of aid. This is relevant to the Code because initiatives need to consistently show evidence of the influence of primary stakeholders in planning, decision-making and evaluation.

Localisation Performance Measurement Framework (LPMF)

This resource is the Localisation Performance Measurement Framework (LPMF) developed by NEAR. This is suitable for small to medium organisations. This is relevant to the Code in evidencing members' progress towards achieving localisation commitments This resource is also available in French, Arabic, Spanish, Bangla and Japanese.

Mango’s ‘Accountability to Beneficiaries Checklist’

This resource is a self-assessment checklist, to help NGO staff gauge how accountable they are to local actors ('beneficiaries'). This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because members' are required to evidence of the voices and decision-making of local actors.

Power Awareness Tool

This resource is a tool for analysing power in partnerships for development. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because members must show evidence of naming and addressing power imbalances in organisational relationships. This resource is also available as an Excel document.

Using human-centred design methodologies with communities – a case study

This resource is a small movie by Farzad Yazdanparast of The Fred Hollows Foundation. It is a case study on an innovative approach to inclusive development – using human-centred design methodologies with Filipino communities. This is suitable for all organisations. This is relevant to the Code because it shows a practical approach on how primary stakeholders can meaningfully participate and contribute to the participation that affects them.
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