In recent years we’ve seen growing geopolitical polarization, increasing violent conflict and humanitarian crises, and tightening restrictions on civic space. These challenges, on top of the global pandemic and an outcry for greater racial justice and equity, have fueled the existing call for a fundamental balancing of the global development ecosystem, demanding greater effectiveness and efficiency.

The movement to “shift the power” from the global minority to the global majority has gained traction alongside donor commitments to reorient the sector through “localization.” While often divergent in their definitions of “local,” these donor commitments reflect a general understanding that to make global development more effective, donors and other stakeholders must, “recognize and enable local actors’ agency in the framing, design, delivery, control, and accountability of the local and operating contexts where they work.”

INGOs and CSOs, too, have been reassessing and reimagining their roles in this increasingly fluid environment.

This report identifies the practical steps the sector is — and should be — taking to cultivate a more equitable, resilient, and accountable ecosystem for the years ahead.