How USAID counts “local” will have a big impact on funding for local partners. Our new Metrics Matter report shows what difference it makes. Catch upon the launch, co-hosted with MFAN, and the discussion on the findings and their policy implications.
Almost as soon as USAID announced its target that 25% of its funding would go to local partners, the debate began over the definition of what counts as “local” and how to measure it. According to Publish What You Fund’s groundbreaking new research, the choice of methodology could determine whether more than $1.4 billion of additional funding is channeled to local actors each year.
Many donors have adopted targets to direct more funding to local organisations. But past efforts to track funding flows have often struggled to agree on a definition of local. In this blog we present an approach we’ve been testing for six months. Using USAID as an example, we’ve been working to understand, interpret and present existing data in a way that enables stakeholders to undertake analysis and track funding based on their own definitions of local.
