The people closest to a challenge understand it best.
We work to move the world's development capital and decision-making power toward them.
This is locally led development.
The people who live with a challenge should be the ones who decide how to solve it. Too often, decisions about how to help communities are made far away, by outsiders. Locally led development flips that, putting the knowledge, the money, and the decisions in the hands of the people closest to the challenge.
When Communities Lead
In September 2023, war displaced more than a hundred thousand people in Armenia. The organizations best placed to respond were the Armenian ones already working in those communities. They shifted to running door-to-door needs assessments by the second day. They knew what was needed before the central government and most international organizations did. And because we had worked with these local organizations to design programs that trusted them to lead, they could help immediately, rather than waiting for someone far away to decide.
What we do
Reimagine the system.
New policy, new approaches to financing, and new thinking about what comes after traditional aid.
Put ideas into practice.
Testing new models for getting money and decision-making power to local organizations, including new ways to move private capital directly to locally led enterprises.
Help funders make the shift.
Advising the donors who want to fund differently, and helping them actually do it.
A rare moment to get it right.
Aid and philanthropy are changing. What comes next must put communities in the lead. When the people closest to a challenge are trusted, they build what lasts.
What we’re thinking
