USAID continues to emphasize the value of collaborating with local actors and global stakeholders, utilizing practical approaches tailored to real-world contexts in strengthening local organizations. The recently released summary of the six-day forum held in October highlights essential lessons that have been learned over the decades and remain relevant:
Key Lessons from the Forum:
- Understand Local Capacity Holistically:
- Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) tools are often focused on transactions and compliance, without considering the broader organizational goals of a potential partner and how they manage their own priorities.
- Link Performance Measures to Local Actors’ Goals:
- Engaging partners respectfully in project work—whether through a “participatory approach” or “co-creation”—is essential. Performance improvements, as with any development objective, take time, and expectations must be managed accordingly.
- Move Beyond Training to Layered Capacity Strengthening Initiatives:
- Training needs to be reinforced with direct coaching and on-the-job support. This report can be used to justify adequate staffing for this function in proposals.
- Expand the Range of Actors Included in Capacity Strengthening Support:
- A common adage among USAID COs is that the surest way to put a local NGO out of business is to give it a USAID grant. A local entity survives and succeeds on its network of support, which must be considered as it expands to take on USAID work.
- Create Opportunities for Reciprocal Feedback:
- The importance of listening is a lesson that never gets old but can be overlooked amidst the cacophony of award negotiations, monitoring performance, reviewing invoices, getting approvals, and generating reports.
Review the report on the outcome of the forum here.
