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BUREAU FOR DEVELOPMENT, DEMOCRACY, AND INNOVATION
LOCAL, FAITH, AND TRANSFORMATIVE PARTNERSHIPS HUB
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Locally Led Development Initiatives |
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OCTOBER 2022: BUILDING ECONOMIC POWER
PHOTO CREDIT: MANJU TULADHAR. A LANDLESS DALIT COMMUNITY IN EASTERN NEPAL SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH USAID DURING A LISTENING SESSION (THIRD PLACE WINNER OF LOCALLY LED DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES 2022 PHOTO CONTEST).
Happy Cooperative Month! October 2022’s theme in the U.S. was Co-ops Build Economic Power, and we’ll use this opportunity to see how locally led cooperatives around the world are building economic power in their own communities.
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GUATEMALA AND PERU: COOPERATIVES STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMIES |
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 PHOTO CREDIT: USAID PERU. DULCE ESPERANZA'S CHOCOLATE ARTISANS EXAMINE DRYING COCOA BEANS ALONGSIDE LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS AT THE WOMEN’S PENITENTIARY IN QUILLABAMBA.
USAID’s Cooperative Development Program (CDP) supports locally owned cooperatives and credit unions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America by strengthening their market performance, governance, sustainability, and social inclusion. One program-supported credit union federation in Guatemala and an aspiring cooperative in Peru are developing national and local economies in meaningful ways.
In Guatemala, credit unions are legally prohibited from lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which employ nearly 75 percent of the country's population. SMEs must instead look to traditional banks which often offer high interest rates and are located far away in city centers. With technical assistance from the World Council of Credit Unions and CDP, Guatemala’s national credit union association, La Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito, and 23 of its member credit unions mobilized $5.1 million to fund the creation of a new entity known as a credit union service organization. Through this entity, SMEs can access a $2.3 million loan portfolio and credit unions can deliver financial services to SMEs for the first time in Guatemala’s history.
In Peru, 40 incarcerated women at the Women’s Penitentiary in Quillabamba are producing chocolate under the brand Dulce Esperanza to generate income and provide for their families. To become joint owners of their business, Dulce Esperanza is working to formalize as a cooperative with technical support from NCBA CLUSA, CDP, and local stakeholders. Since this partnership began, Dulce Esperanza sold chocolate at an international trade fair and finalized agreements to market their products through local retailers, hoping to increase their sales from 1,200 to 7,000 bars within the next year.
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THE PHILIPPINES: LOCALLY LED COOPERATIVE ADVANCING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY |
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 PHOTO CREDIT: MEGAN SMITH, USAID. CHAIRWOMAN ESPERANZA PROUDLY SHOWS HER COOPERATIVE’S OFFICE.
Esperanza became the chairwoman of her agricultural cooperative, Ilocandia Seed Growers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, ten years ago. Esperanza’s work was always motivated by her cooperative’s mission: promote better ways of farming, provide effective services to the cooperative members from her community, and encourage unity. Through a partnership with Agriterra and East West Seed, she led her cooperative to thrive.
Over the past several years, her cooperative has grown from 267 to over 1,200 members. Through scholarships and transportation ensuring education for children of farmers, workshops on best agricultural practices, needed supplies for a thriving farm, and more, the cooperative ensures its members holistically improve their quality of life. Chairwoman Esperanza now engages with other cooperatives at a national level, connecting with other female cooperative leaders through workshops and serving as the Ambassador for her region of Luzon with the National Confederation of Cooperatives over the past three years.
USAID’s Local Works program in the Philippines enabled this partnership between the private sector and cooperatives, showcasing how private companies' support for grassroot connections can lead to more sustainable outcomes for all. “We encourage [the cooperative] to dream, Boise of East West Seed shared. “The reason for success is because they partner with the farmers… the [Local Works] project took this to the next level.” The specific project, Generating Rural Opportunities by Working with Cooperatives (GROW-Coop), engages successful agricultural cooperatives, federations, and private companies to strengthen the capacity of smaller cooperatives and support their participation in robust value chains. Chairwoman Esperanza’s cooperative is one of six in her region of Luzon, along with two others in Mindanao, that works with Agriterra and their partners to continue strengthening the ways through which they can elevate the services to cooperative members. Smallholder farmers of the cooperative engage in a sophisticated value chain, enabling them to have a more global, profound reach that contributes to global food security goals.
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MALAWI: PARTNERING WITH COOPERATIVES TO ADVANCE LOCALLY LED DEVELOPMENT |
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 PHOTO CREDIT: THOKO CHIKONDI, LAND O’LAKES VENTURE37. A MEMBER OF THE MWAIWATHU PRODUCERS AND MARKETING COOPERATIVE LABELS A NEW BATCH OF THEIR MANGO ACHAR PRODUCT, A PRODUCT IN HIGH DEMAND IN MALAWI.
Cooperatives are uniquely positioned to undertake locally driven development activities all over the world since they are locally owned and operated businesses that exist to meet the economic and social needs of their members. In a new white paper, the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC), a Cooperative Development Program (CDP) partner, outlines why policymakers, governments, private sector donors, and U.S.-based cooperatives should partner with cooperatives to implement their localization agendas.
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Cooperatives are people-centered. Their main purpose is to help their members attain their economic, social, and cultural needs and goals. Jointly owned, locally run, and democratically controlled by their members, cooperatives are rooted in their communities and seek to create opportunities for all people, including women, youth, and other marginalized groups.
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Cooperatives are local private sector actors that foster economic growth in the sectors of agriculture, finance, energy, health, housing, and information technology. Because they are owned by their members and not external shareholders, the profits and social benefits generated by the cooperative stay within their local communities.
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Cooperatives are values-based. Unlike traditional businesses, cooperatives are not only motivated by profit. They are driven by values which help to ensure long-term sustainability and prosperity, such as self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.
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Cooperatives are democratic. Each cooperative member has a say in the direction of the businesses through equal voting rights regardless of their leadership position or how much they contribute to the cooperative.
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NEPAL: TRANSFORMING LAND TO CULTIVATE CROPS AND COMMUNITY |
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In Nepal, Hom leads community farms in his village, dedicated to bettering their future in the face of food insecurity. Before the global evacuation of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) due to COVID-19, he worked closely with his fellow farmers and a PCV to further establish the kitchen garden and fruit tree orchard in his community through the Small Project Assistance Program (SPA), a partnership between USAID and the Peace Corps. Over the past two years, Hom continued engaging through SPA’s virtual peer support and building on his work, Hom collaborated with women’s groups and other community members to grow a community nursery cultivating seasonal vegetables, boosting their health and income. They’ve worked together to diversify their crops, transforming barren land into orchards of citrus, orange, and black cardamom and then selling seeds to earn additional income. To celebrate these achievements, Hom led the design and dissemination of leaflets, a brochure, and social media videos, used in three other communities for government initiatives modernizing agriculture. Photo credit: Peace Corps Nepal.
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INTRODUCING: USAID’S NEW LOCAL CAPACITY STRENGTHENING POLICY |
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USAID’s new Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS) Policy provides USAID with a tangible vision for effective local capacity strengthening that builds on consensus across the development landscape, feedback from local actors and partners, and years of implementation experience and evidence. This new vision is grounded in a commitment to partnerships based on mutual respect and reciprocity through which local actors from all backgrounds and cultures have their voices heard, exercise their unique capabilities, and lead their country’s development. This landmark Policy represents a mindset and culture shift towards embracing capacity strengthening that supports local actors' ability to deliver and sustain development results rather than focusing on their capacity to qualify for and manage awards.
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🏆 LOCALLY LED DEVELOPMENT
CHAMPIONS OF THE MONTH 🏆
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PHOTO CREDIT: USAID/BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. ELA, HARIS, AND SELMA ARE BEAMING LOCALLY LED DEVELOPMENT CHAMPIONS!
Selma, Haris, and Ela’s deep belief in locally led development shows through their consistent thoughtfulness, creativity, and flair. USAID’s Local Works program in BiH kicked off in 2018 through a six-month long listening tour, where the team held intentional, inclusive dialogues with local actors across the country. Selma had the ingenious idea to engage in informal listening by stopping at a hair salon in every community they visited to “hear people’s real concerns, observations, and even their solutions to their problems,” she shared. “When you really want to hear what people think, use non-traditional ways of communication and step out of your comfort zone.” From the listening, the team sought to find how local priorities “[connect] to the entire Mission portfolio,” and continued to “[support] Local Works programming with full heart and its holistic approach,” Ela shared. Now, their locally led programming enables local organizations, most of whom had never worked with USAID, through a new funding model facilitated by Local Works. Haris, who previously managed a local organization, brings his multi-faceted background to inform his work at USAID: “Ultimately, I try to infuse all my relationships with the values of integrity, accountability, excellence, diversity, and, above all, sincere kindness.” The knowledge they gather from their programming and intentionally share across USAID helps to provide models for locally led development, especially around strengthening local networks and capacity, and facilitating a stronger enabling environment for local philanthropy. Meanwhile, small investments make big impacts in local communities.
Their advice?
“Take a risk, have trust and open mind to ideas coming from local partners. They also want to see your country leading its own development.” - Selma
“You know your country and you love your people, both sides are looking to meet each other to work together.” - Ela
“Have an open mind, and an even more open heart.” - Haris
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USAID POLICY UPDATES
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Wondering what USAID’s Local Capacity Strengthening Policy looks like in action? Find out through examples from Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ukraine on the Policy’s webpage.
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Open for public comment: The draft USAID Policy for Localization of Humanitarian Assistance is now open for public review to inform its finalization. It outlines USAID’s phased trajectory for advancing the localization of humanitarian assistance over the next five years, from 2023 through 2028. Read more here.
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PARTNERSHIPS
- The Local Works program is accepting Mission Letters of Interest until February 10, 2023. The Local Works program offers an opportunity for Missions to apply for funding and technical support to implement and advance the Administrator’s localization agenda, the Agency’s new Local Capacity Strengthening policy, and more. View submission guidance here. Questions? Join our November 15 Q&A webinar at either 8am E.T. or 12pm E.T., or email localworks@usaid.gov.
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REPORTS AND ARTICLES
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How do USAID Missions measure the results of their local capacity strengthening activities? performance, or the exercise of capacity. Read this new blog on USAID Learning Lab that shares three key lessons from Missions that are measuring organizational performance improvement.
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Locally led development is not a new idea at USAID. Globally, individual champions in USAID Missions are exemplifying how USAID genuinely values and respects the knowledge, commitment, and integrity of local actors. With USAID’s renewed commitment to localization, we looked to staff from USAID Missions that receive Local Works funding to hear their experiences turning a vision for localization into reality. Read now.
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Locally Led Development Initiatives are part of the Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub.
The LFT Hub focuses on strengthening USAID’s ability to partner with non-traditional and diverse actors including local, faith-based, and community organizations; schools and hospitals; foundations; diaspora communities; cooperatives; and volunteer organizations. Learn more about how LFT is harnessing the power of partnerships through the following:
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