Shifting mindsets and practices: The changing role of global development organizations

Global development organizations must reimagine their roles and strategies to advance locally led development. With the funding landscape shifting, international funders, partners, and projects are turning inward to reflect on how they work and their role in advancing equity and community-driven development. While there is general agreement that advancing locally led development is the path forward, many international organizations get stuck on the “how.”

Recently, practitioners from Unitaid, SAS+, PATH, and JSI shared their insights in Humentum’s “Shifting mindsets and practices: the changing role of global development organizations” webinar. Below are key takeaways from the discussion.

Unitaid: Equity as a guiding principle

Unitaid’s vision for equitable access to health innovations informs every aspect of its work. While equity has always been deeply embedded, Unitaid is increasingly making the focus on equity and local leadership more explicit.

For example, in a recent project in 10 countries, Unitaid invited people who inject drugs to participate in the research design process from the beginning. Together with a community advisory board, they provided input and feedback on the research protocols. The drafting process took longer as more people were involved, but the ethical approval process was faster. Importantly, everyone involved, including the World Health Organization and researchers, agreed that the protocols were better as a result of the community members’ input.

As a funder, Unitaid understands the importance of clearly communicating its commitment to equity, as this shapes the expectations and direction of the projects and partners it supports. Funders and organizations should take bold actions around locally led work, even if they don’t have all the answers.

SAS+: Building relational pathways for sustainable transitions

For eight years, the Stopping As Success: Locally Led Transitions in Development (SAS+) project has helped international actors shift power and resources to CSOs. SAS+ encourages international organizations to view transition processes not as a final step, but as a fundamental part of the work from the start.

These changes are relational and logistical, requiring time to build strong relationships and reflect on how power is shared. For many CSOs the transition doesn’t stop with them—they must also think about how to shift responsibilities so communities can lead. One successful example is the Nuru Collective which transitioned to a shared leadership model with ongoing collaboration and collective responsibility.

Not all outcomes look the same, and SAS+ has seen various transformations. For organizations ready to start this journey, SAS+ offers a resource library to help plan and implement the shift towards community-driven development.

JSI: Co-creating country-driven health solutions

JSI developed a Critical Shifts Benchmarking tool as part of its Reimagining Technical Assistance initiative. Building on a co-creation process with actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, the benchmarking tool identifies changes needed to move towards a more locally driven, coordinated, and equitable system.

It is designed to guide conversations between health actors—communities, CSOs, governments, funders, INGOs, and others—on achieving more equitable health outcomes with a common vision. Often these conversations don’t happen because they are difficult—emotions and power dynamics are at play. The Critical Shifts benchmarking tool provides a starting point.

At JSI, teams are adapting the tool to meet their project and partnership needs. That means evaluating the quality of technical assistance, reflecting on collaboration for project implementation, and documenting a project’s transition from JSI to local leadership. JSI hopes that others will use and adapt the tool to guide the conversations necessary to rethink strategies and approaches. To test the tool and share suggestions, contact reimaginingtawg@jsi.com.

PATH: Embedding equity in every step

PATH’s Strategy 2025 centers equity across all of PATH’s work, and to support the strategy, PATH developed the Equity in Programming Benchmarks tool. When starting a new project, teams assess 12 parameters to improve health outcomes for marginalized groups, prioritize community voices, and transfer leadership to local partners.

While PATH has seen gains in how teams assess themselves against the benchmarks, staff find the most value in the discussions the tool sparks. These conversations help teams break down broad concepts like equity into actionable steps and meaningful interventions. Although the tool provides a structured framework, the real impact comes from the ongoing process of how teams are shifting their thinking and, as a result, their work. PATH encourages other organizations to adapt the tool to their needs and use it with funders and partners to guide conversations about project implementation and scopes of work.

“We are at the table with a lot of donors, and we need to keep pushing to prioritize this. And we also have the opportunity to change our own mindsets and our own practices. Each of us can make incremental change and that will all have impact eventually,” said Vajra Allan, Associate Director of Project and Portfolio Management and Equity in Programming Lead at PATH.

Moving towards transformation

Meaningful change requires honest dialogue, patience, and a willingness to rethink established approaches. But organizations don’t have to start from square one.

Moving towards more locally led models takes time and money. One major challenge is limited funding for these efforts. Funders, especially those who say they are committed to locally led work, must prioritize resources and work with INGOs, CSOs, and governments to tackle larger structural barriers. INGOs and funders must also become more comfortable with risk and failure, sharing what hasn’t worked to help others avoid the same mistakes.

Despite the challenges, Unitaid, ​SAS+, JSI, and PATH struck an optimistic note. There is momentum as INGOs, CSOs, funders, communities, and other stakeholders work together toward locally led, equitable solutions.

“Sometimes we fail, and we acknowledge that it is okay to fail. As long as we build on it, then when we succeed, we celebrate and move forward,” said Kasungami.

Join us for part II of this webinar! As part of the Operationalizing Locally-Led Development Series, Humentum will host a second webinar on December 4 at 1:00 pm UTC. CSOs and local organizations will share their experiences as they make changes for greater impact in their work.

Register now