Funders International Network for Development – International Cooperation and Local Partnerships
The first webinar of the “Evolving Practices of International Cooperation” peer-learning journey will take place on 16 October exploring “International Cooperation and Local Partnerships”, organised by the Funders International Network for Development (FIND).
The inequality of power between Northern-based funders and Southern-based civil society organisations has long been a topic of reflection. Over time, the recognition that effective development requires ownership by local organisations and rights holders at all stages and levels of the process has gained traction.
Despite the increasing attention to local ownership, the global development financing system is still largely obstructing, or at least not actively facilitating, this idea. At the highest level, development agendas are still predominantly set by actors working in the North, after which they begin to engage actors in the Global South. At the same time, major bilateral donors have been consistently moving away from providing core funding for organisations and towards project-and-activity-based funding, thus treating many rights holders as providers, rather than co-creators working towards shared outcomes. Moreover, some funders have been imposing stricter compliance requirements while simultaneously reducing funding for institutional capacity to meet these demands and thus perpetuating imbalances between funders and partners.
All together, these trends have set off a chain reaction which compromises the flexibility and capability of local organisations to articulate and advance locally-defined agendas about what needs to happen and the best approaches to finance these desired changes.
The first webinar of the peer learning journey will kick off with a presentation by CivSource Africa on grassroots-focused, community-driven and power-shifting grantmaking. The presentation will be followed by a discussion where participants can begin imagining how to create transformative, horizontal, and human-centred international collaborations through their own work.
This webinar is part of the “Evolving Practices of International Cooperation” peer-learning journey dedicated to reimagining traditional philanthropic models and exploring new forms of international cooperation tailored for the 21st century.
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