Participants consistently recognised the need to prioritise and support locally-led development initiatives. Locally-led research and development has an effectiveness value, in that it ensures that evidence is culture- and context-specific and enables research to target user needs. It also has an efficiency value, often representing the most cost-effective route to evidence production. Further, encouraging locally-led development holds an intrinsic value in that it allows for a redistribution of power and facilitates the shift from a supply-driven to a demand-driven model of evidence production. Meanwhile, buy-in from local partner countries is increased if they are encouraged to take the lead on research and evidence on behalf of their constituents, increasing the likelihood of evidence uptake.
“Supporting locally-led development should involve giving up power to people to make decisions that we wouldn’t make.”
Opportunities for change. Despite the advantages of locally-led approaches, evidence production remains largely driven and financed by large organisations based in the global north, with only a limited movement observed towards supporting local development actors. However, contributors identified resource scarcity and shrinking global ODA budgets as presenting an opportunity to shift attention towards programmes that empower local actors. Meanwhile, geopolitical change in major Western nations offers a chance for researchers to creatively frame policies that support locally-led development as efficient, sustainable, and able to reduce reliance on donor countries in the long term.
Barriers to locally-led development. Contributors highlighted a number of challenges to the enhancement of locally-led development. Institutionalisation was flagged as a potential obstacle, with participants noting that evidence uptake in partner countries is likely to be substantially heightened only if the consideration of evidence is baked into that country’s policymaking processes. Capacity-building was also earmarked as a priority, with training for local researchers and decision-makers key to ensuring data quality and fostering evidence-led ecosystems. Examples of successful programmes designed to provide targeted training were offered, however, participants cautioned against imposing ideas derived from the global north about what research and evidence should look like upon those in the global south and placing an additional burden upon organisations whose capacity is being built. Participants also recognised the need to balance the importance of locally-led research and development with the value of external expertise, and to weigh the requirement for context-specific local evidence against the ongoing need for data on what works at a global level.
Supporting local and sub-national actors. Participants felt that local research communities and policymakers are ready to be engaged, and that it is the responsibility of researchers in the global north to help facilitate this via greater investment in locally-led evidence production and national evaluation systems. The importance of supporting evidence generation and use at the sub-national level was also highlighted, a goal which may be advanced by embedding evidence requirements into budget allocation and review procedures and communicating effectively with local leaders. The need to facilitate creative research that incorporates indigenous, context-specific methods was also discussed, while participants were encouraged to monitor and share progress in supporting locally-led development.
Strategic development. There was general agreement that it would be beneficial for organisations to develop a clear strategy on locally-led development that defined the benefits and motivations of taking this approach. The framework presented at Wilton Park describing the intrinsic, effective, political goals of locally-led development and offering recommendations on how to drive forward this agenda was felt to be helpful in the formulation of such a strategy. Further details of this framework can be found here.