Barriers and Sources of Resistance to Achieving Locally Led Development

This review focuses on highlighting the key barriers and obstacles towards achieving locally led development^[1] and localisation. While these terms are used interchangeably, the term ‘locally led development’ is more typically used in the international development literature, while localisation is more common in humanitarian circles. There are some issues around the lack of a globally agreed definition and consensus, such as how the lack of definition creates confusion among donors and stakeholders to approach and implement locally led development/localisation.

There are no universally accepted simple definitions of terms such as ‘localisation’, ‘locally-led development’, or ‘local actor’. For the purposes of this report, we have adopted an unofficial working definition suggested by the OECD (2023, pp. 3–4): locally-led development is ‘an ongoing development process where local actors have agency in framing, designing, delivering (including control over funding), accounting for and learning, with or without the support of international development co-operation'.