How Traditional USAID Partners Can Support New Local Partners

In her November 2021 speech, “A New Vision for Development,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced two ambitious goals. One, that USAID will provide at least a quarter of program funds directly to local partners by the end of FY 2025. Second, that 50 percent of USAID’s programming by 2030 will place local community partners in the lead to set priorities, co-design projects, drive implementation, or evaluate the impact of programming. 

Considering that by 2022, only 10.2 percent of USAID funds were being obligated to local partners, much work needs to be done to achieve those goals.

USAID has worked for many years to channel additional funds to local partners, however, these partners struggle to overcome key barriers to receiving and implementing government funding. To start, getting in the front door with a sound proposal that satisfies U.S. government (USG) procurement processes is difficult for local organizations. And if that roadblock is overcome, a partner will then face onerous reporting and regulatory requirements before and during its project period. Not only do many local organizations lack the necessary staff experienced in finance and contracts to satisfy these requirements, they also don’t have in-house staff with the range of varied skills they need to successfully implement a USAID project—such as project-specific technical skills and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) skills to track project indicators and impact. All these barriers make it difficult for local organizations to become direct implementers for USAID.

While implementing more than $80 million worth of project funding for USAID over the past six years, DAI’s Digital Frontiers project has encountered these barriers in many countries and has tested approaches to help local organizations overcome them. Below we have described some of the strategies Digital Frontiers has employed to strengthen the capacity of our local partners.

Lowering the Bar to Entry

Dividing a grant solicitation into multiple phases is a strategy Digital Frontiers has tested out several times through USAID’s WomenConnect Challenge and the South Asia Regional Digital Initiative (SARDI). In Phase I, a call for proposals, we request that a concept note or short slide deck is submitted for appraisal. This is a much lighter lift than a full grant proposal. Applicants with the most promising concepts are then invited to a capacity-strengthening symposium.

One example was the SARDI Strengthening Symposium, an event designed to strengthen finalists’ capacity to apply for USAID funding and implement USAID-funded projects. The symposium included sessions on “Navigating the USAID Grants Process,” “USAID Communications,” and “USAID Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning” led by DAI experts with years of experience in managing USAID projects and grants. Finalists left the event with concrete knowledge on how to update their applications for Phase 2.

One participant wrote in a post-event survey: “I just wanted to say thank you for running this. We have done work with other governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), development finance institutions (DFIs), [and] banks through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process and really appreciate you taking the time to step through everything and set expectations, give insight into what you’re looking for. I feel like, oftentimes, grants are awarded to much bigger organizations simply because they know how to navigate the process and through this symposium, you have made it more equitable for other organizations to participate.”

Strengthening Onboarding for New Partners

It’s not over once the funding is awarded. For first-time recipients of USG funding, managing those funds along with USAID contractual and financial reporting requirements can be an unanticipated administrative burden. This is why it’s important to prepare partners for this in advance. A few strategies Digital Frontiers recommends when working with local and nontraditional partners are:

• During contract negotiations, discuss the time burden of reporting requirements. Ensure the partner has budgeted sufficient time and resources for their personnel to manage financial, programmatic, and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) reporting needs.
• Determine early on if the partner needs help understanding USG-compliant financial reporting requirements. If they do, schedule trainings as part of the onboarding process.
• Try to identify different organizational processes that could be barriers for the partners early on. For instance, for the USAID Microsoft Airband Initiative, which worked with local internet service providers and technology companies in five countries, most local partner staff didn’t fill out timesheets as part of their regular human resources (HR) processes. However, personnel timesheets can be required for reimbursements on USAID-funded projects. This is why getting aligned on processes as early as possible is crucial—it will prevent delays and confusion once implementation begins.

Embedding Advisors for Tailored Support

What do you do if a local partner is best-positioned on the ground to implement a project, but they don’t have the full package of skills you know are needed for implementation? In these situations, Digital Frontiers has tried to offer tailored advisory support to the local partners. What does this support look like?

• If compliance and operations are an issue for the partner, we have provided dedicated one-on-one assistance from our grants team or utilized in-kind grants to support partner procurements.
• If a partner does not have the capacity to spend down the full amount of a grant, we have dedicated a portion of the funds to capacity development initiatives for the local partner. For instance, providing advisory support on the local organization’s strategic planning and helping them strengthen the capacity of their staff and leadership.
• When there is a gap in the partner’s technical knowledge or M&E skills, we have embedded a technical advisor to provide capacity strengthening and mentorship to the local team. The advisor can meet with a local partner weekly and track progress on delivering project objectives.

Sometimes, you have to get creative to fill gaps in a local partner’s capacity. But if you’re willing to go the extra mile, you have the opportunity to strengthen a local partner’s ability to have an impact on the ground and to help position that organization to better influence how USAID programming is being implemented in their community.

A Way Forward

Local partners are often best placed to implement a development project—but they are held back by bureaucratic barriers. While efforts are being made to break down these barriers within the government (such as resources provided on WorkwithUSAID.gov), without changing cumbersome solicitation, management, and reporting practices, it will remain difficult to reach the localization goals set forth by Administrator Power. However, if we come together to share what has—and hasn’t—worked in strengthening the capacity of our local partners, then we’ll be one step closer to placing local communities at the forefront of their own development.

Author: Stephanie Creed is Associate Director of Communications and Engagement on DAI’s Digital Frontiers Project.

DAI’s Digital Frontiers project works closely with USAID Missions and Bureaus, the private sector, and international and local development organizations to identify successful and sustainable digital development approaches and scale their impact globally. For more information about the project, visit the Digital Frontiers Resource Library (digitalfrontiersdai.com).