Our principles of locally led development
We know from decades of experience that local leadership and ownership are essential to fostering sustainable results across development and humanitarian assistance work. For this reason, FHI 360 embraces six principles of locally led development as the foundation of our work.
These principles represent our commitment to formalizing locally led development as central to our decision-making and ways of working. We are committed to observing these actionable principles — and measuring ourselves against them — so that all communities can effectively address complex challenges, respond to shocks and achieve thriving futures.
Staff: We delegate technical and managerial decision-making to the location of work and grow staff careers nationally, regionally and internationally.
Diversity: We recruit staff, seek partnerships and engage stakeholders to represent the diversity within the countries and communities we serve, paying particular attention to behavioral and structural power dynamics and inclusion of marginalized groups and identities.
Organizational development: Understanding that all organizations and institutions, regardless of location, size and experience, require ongoing capacity strengthening and organizational development, we assist organizations to be effective and sustainable to achieve their objectives.
Program life cycle: We collaborate with and consult local stakeholders at all stages of the proposal and program life cycles, including for measurement of performance and outcomes.
Knowledge: We inform research, programs and advocacy with ideas, knowledge and evidence from the appropriate local, regional and international sources, acknowledging that global forces often affect local challenges.
Whole-of-society approaches: We prioritize whole-of-society approaches that incorporate governments, nongovernmental organizations and civil society, the private sector and communities to achieve locally sustainable outcomes.
