Backing local leaders

From the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, communities are grappling with overlapping crises: Economic uncertainty, climate shocks, shrinking civic space, and deepening gender inequality. These challenges are systemic, and yet too often, our responses are not.

For decades, philanthropy and aid have focused on short-term projects - patching holes rather than repairing the foundations.

The result? Cycles of dependency, weakened democracies, and persistent inequities. Despite global commitments, only 0.6% of international funding flows directly to local and national actors. That statistic should stop us in our tracks. It signals a profound disconnect between where resources go and where solutions live.

Recent rollbacks in international aid funding have created a pivotal moment for philanthropy. Traditional models – too often fragmented, top-down, and focussed on short-term projects - are proving inadequate for today’s complex realities.

Philanthropy cannot and should not attempt to fill every gap left by declining foreign assistance. But it can do something far more transformative: pivot from charity to collaboration, from treating symptoms to addressing root causes.

This means centering locally-led solutions and recognising that those closest to the challenges - women and historically excluded groups – are best positioned to drive lasting change.  

These leaders understand the nuances of their systems, the cultural dynamics, and the political realities. What they lack is sustained, flexible funding and strategic support.

At Co-Impact, we use pooled funding to enact systems-level change, enabling work at the scale of the challenge through three key principles.

First, pooled funds allow philanthropists to share both resources and risk. Rather than dozens of funders each supporting small, isolated projects with conflicting requirements, collaborative funds can provide the substantial, long-term backing that systems change requires.

When multiple donors pool their resources, they can support initiatives that any one donor alone      simply cannot tackle alone.

Second, it’s vital to create communities where donors and local leaders learn and act together. Too often, philanthropy operates in silos, with      donors making decisions in boardrooms far removed from the communities they aim to serve.

Real change happens when we break down these barriers, fostering ongoing dialogue between funders and grassroots leaders who understand their local contexts intimately.

Third, and most critically, these partnerships are built on trust, with those closest to the challenges leading the way. Rather than imposing predetermined solutions, philanthropy should provide long-term flexible funding and strategic support that allows local organizations to adapt their strategies based on what they're learning on the ground.

Such small shifts can unlock huge changes in outcomes. But what does this look like in practice?

One example in Nigeria that we have supported is The Gender Mobile Initiative, which has embedded anti-harassment frameworks in over 125 institutions nationwide. Rather than creating parallel structures, the initiative worked within existing educational and workplace systems and conducted dialogues with local leaders who understood which institutions were ready for change. This approach is now driving policy reforms that could protect millions of women and girls. 

In Indonesia meanwhile, the organization PEKKA (Women Headed Family Empowerment) has supported over 85,000 women-headed families, advancing their education, economic, legal, and social rights, and has successfully driven policy changes, such as the recognition of women as family heads in civil registration law.

Finally, in India, the organisation ARMMAN is transforming how India's healthcare system serves pregnant women. Co-Impact's support of ARMMAN's program to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality has unlocked over $250 million in funding from India's Ministry for Health to scale the program nationwide, impacting over 70 million women and children.

These examples share a common thread: they centre women and marginalized communities who have been systematically excluded from traditional development approaches.

Their success reminds us – if we needed reminding – that gender equality is a moral imperative.