Locally led development (LLD) has gained prominence as an approach that operationalises development effectiveness principles in practice. Over time, official development assistance from members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) reaching local actors has increased gradually, reflecting a series of policy commitments by the DAC across development, humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts. LLD is now widely recognised as a framework that places local actors at the centre of shaping and driving their own development trajectories.
Yet, for most DAC members, translating these commitments into consistent policies, programme design, funding practices and institutional behaviour remains a work in progress. Deep-rooted mindsets and operational, financial and institutional constraints continue to a varying degree to shape how development partners and their intermediaries allocate power, agency and resources to diverse local actors across the development system. Turning ambition into practice requires mobilising core institutional functions, such as human resources, procurement, finance and risk management, to align systems, incentives and behaviours with LLD objectives.
These practical guidelines aim to inspire and support DAC members to enable LLD more deliberately and at a greater pace, by reflecting on how their existing systems can evolve, where new approaches may be tested, and how collective action by DAC Members can respond to local actors’ calls to strengthen local agency, rebalance power and build a renewed culture of global solidarity to underpin the international development system. This includes examining how internal governance arrangements and decision-making structures may shape, and in some cases constrain, the extent to which locally led approaches can be meaningfully advanced in practice.
