Movement for Community-led Development: Localizing the SDGs May 2017 Thanks so much for this opportunity to share with you a civil society initiative to seize the opportunity of the launch of the SDGs to increase international focus on the importance of empowering communities to take charge of their own development.

For those of us working to end poverty and hunger, this is especially true. This young mother from Mozambique lacks access to all basic services, and has no voice in the decisions that affect her life. The radius of her universe is 10 km - the distance she can walk to and from basic services with her baby on her back. So - if there are no reliable services within 10 km, they do not exist for her at all.

To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be built up and allowed to unfold... At the launch of the SDGs, the Pope made a similar statement. This is a process of empowerment that must be built up and allowed to unfold.

Development is Local This is why a growing numbers of experts are pointing out that - for the transformation envisioned in the SDGs, there is “no transformation without localization.” By our assessment, at least 12 of the 17 goals requires integrated solutions at the community level. And - too often - that big blue circle in the middle - the social infrastructure at the community level is ignored. [click to reveal the gears] The social environment in which poor people live is often characterized by little or no meaningful government, corruption, gender discrimination, social exclusion, economic exploitation and a deep sense of dependency, hopelessness and resignation.

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions ...build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. One breakthrough of the SDGs that many of us advocated for was a goal for good governance - and particularly those three little words - “at all levels” that includes the community level.

34: “...investments in sustainable development are being devolved to the subnational level, which often lacks adequate technical and technological capacity, financing and support. We therefore commit to scaling up international cooperation to strengthen capacities of municipalities and other local authorities. “ In the run-up to the SDG launch, the Financing for Development conference committed specifically to invest in strengthening local governance.

Definitions CDD: “an approach that gives control over planning decisions and investment resources for local development projects to community groups.” CLD: is the process of working together to create and achieve locally owned visions and goals. CLD works to achieve systemic change rather than short-term projects. There are two very distinct but sometimes overlapping approaches to community development: Community-driven development – which focuses on community-decision-making about projects – and CLD (defined). The literature and terminology for CLD is fairly recent – primarily developed in Canada and New Zealand for strengthening indigenous communities.

NOT just community-based projects Transformation of Mindset – not the “B” word Principles and Values Structured Process Mobilize volunteerism – develop leadership Strengths and vision – not problem solving Multisectoral / Integrated Approach Builds local government and civil society Self-reliance / Exit strategy Here are 8 ways CLD is different from community-based projects

For 20 years, my organization - The Hunger Project - has pioneered methodologies for strengthening communities in Latin America...

...in India and Bangladesh...

And in 125 epicenters across 8 countries of Africa.

We are pleased to share these integrated approaches with everyone We are pleased to share these integrated approaches with everyone. And we know that other organizations have strategies from which we can learn.

On the SDG Launch day, our president (right) was one of 3 civil society speakers to address the session on Hunger and Poverty, where she announced the creation of this movement. We loved her positioning - in the row with the CEO of Unilever, and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Mobilizing Communities at Transformative Scale Lots of Advocates Lots of Mobilizers Big Donors & Gov’ts CLD If we want Community-Led Development everywhere it is needed [click] we need lots of civil society groups working in concerted action the way they do it in the Philippines - not just with a few projects, but like a vaccination campaign: coordinate with the local government ministry, lay out the map, figure out how to deploy human resources and mobilize every communities. [click 2] That will require real policy and financial support from major donor agencies and governments, which [click 3] in turn will require an effective, sustained advocacy campaign.

Progress on our goals Raise profile of CLD Shared language/analysis Gather and disseminate evidence Share best practices. Build the movement. Advocate policies & funding. Take it to scale. ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ At our launch, we set 7 goals, and here is how we’ve rated ourselves on progress: We’re pretty good at raising the issue - at this year’s UN General Assembly, we had a panel of major organizations including UNDP saying how committed they are to this approach. We collectively developed a shared framework of analysis that is on our website We’ve just begun compiling evidence on our website We’ve held some great webinars where groups present their CLD methodology The movement has grown (see next slide) We’ve seen USAID change key policies in the direction of CLD this year We have our first agreement - with the government of Malawi - to go to national scale.

Growth of the Movement Currently we have 42 members with collective revenues of US$4b/y, and 10 Plus chapters growing in BF, BJ, CL, DE, HI, KE, KM, MC, MX, NL, NP, SN, UK

A shared analytic framework Principles and Values Structure and Process: Mindset Capacity Impact Sustainability Community -Led Development Gender Vision Strength/ confidence/ assets Social Mobilization Leadership Governance Skills Group Formation Linkages Social Cohesion Participatory Planning Social accountability “Data for the people” Legal existence Resilience Graduation/Exit Strategy We’ve begun discussions to disaggregate the kinds of practices and interventions required to facilitate community-led development.

Partnership with UNDP and South Korea One advantage of raising the profile of CLD is that other initiatives find a home - South Korea attributes all its wealth to its CLD program of the 1970s, and is working with UNDP to modernize and spread their experience.

Where MCLD Members Work Our members have staff and activities in 92 countries - giving us a platform for growth - our current goal is to establish 50 national chapters, and UNDP has agreed to co-host meetings with ministries of local government.

Investing in Communities at Scale: Korea Philippines Indonesia Brazil Ethiopia Afghanistan... And they’ve been taken to scale in numerous countries.

Regional Strategies to Foster Country Programs Champions build MCLD chapters Advocacy by MCLD chapters: parliament, bureaucracy Finance Minister asks for CLD funds IFIs provide funds (WB, IsDB, AfDB, ADB, IDB) CLD program: Community Block grants; Funds for facilitators We’ve learned more details about our Theory of Change. Successful national CLD programs include flexible mechanisms for community funding plus funds for capacity building. The IFIs are willing to fund these if the finance minister asks for it. This requires advocacy with both the parliament and the ministry staff, which all requires a charming champion to bring people together. So a key next step is to find national champions.

Action to take together! Find more allies Share best practices Create advocacy objectives Find more evidence Develop messages In liberating the power of every woman and man, and ensuring every community has it’s fair share of public resources, we can realize our vision of a world free from hunger and poverty. Thank you!