This Week in Global Development

Devex @ UNGA 79: What it would take to move the needle on locally led development


Listen Later

It’s no secret that promises to deliver more humanitarian and development funding to local and national organizations have not been fulfilled. 

During the high-level week of the 79th U.N. General Assembly, Devex caught up with Degan Ali, who heads the Kenya-based NGO Adeso. Ali is a leading voice in the aid decolonization movement, which seeks to decenter the voices of Western decision-makers and shift more power to local leaders in the global south. 


Ali discussed the lack of trust and credibility given to local NGOs compared to international organizations, challenges in meeting the 2016 “Grand Bargain” target of 25% funding to local organizations, and how bureaucracy and risk aversion in organizations like the U.S. Agency for International Development is hindering localization efforts.  


And while she gave USAID Administrator Samantha Power credit for elevating the localization agenda, Ali called the effort to get bilateral organizations to shift to locally led development an “impossible, impossible uphill battle.” 


“But where I do feel like there's hope and there's opportunity, is for the [international] NGOs to change and philanthropy to change, and those are the spaces where we need to put a lot of pressure,” she said. “And that's what we're trying to do at Adeso with the Pledge for Change with the INGOs, and the decolonizing philanthropy work that we're doing.” 


Devex Global Development Reporter Elissa Miolene sat down with Ali for a special episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

This Week in Global DevelopmentBy Devex | Global Development

  • 3.9
  • 3.9
  • 3.9
  • 3.9
  • 3.9

3.9

8 ratings


More shows like This Week in Global Development

View all
The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,936 Listeners

Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters by Global Dispatches

Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

309 Listeners

Explain It to Me by Vox

Explain It to Me

7,835 Listeners

The Gray Area with Sean Illing by Vox

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

10,687 Listeners

Sidebar by The Washington Post

Sidebar

4,525 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,562 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,166 Listeners

Capitalisn't by University of Chicago Podcast Network

Capitalisn't

526 Listeners

Today, Explained by Vox

Today, Explained

10,119 Listeners

Devex Podcasts by Devex

Devex Podcasts

15 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

6,751 Listeners

Post Reports by The Washington Post

Post Reports

5,420 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,174 Listeners

The Foreign Affairs Interview by Foreign Affairs Magazine

The Foreign Affairs Interview

413 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,451 Listeners