The Council for NGOs in Malawi in collaboration with NGO Regulatory Authority with support from Self Help Africa, Save the Children and Plan International, organised a Localisation Conference that took place on 26-27^th November 2024 at Sigerege Boutique Hotel in Lilongwe. The much awaited Conference saw different stake holders gathering together to have a candid conversation around the Localisation Agenda in Malawi. The stakeholders which included, local NGOs, International NGOs, Development Partners, Donors, Private sector and the Government Ministries, contributed to the conversation around the localisation agenda with some diverse definitions of the Localisation.

While some understood localisation as meaning promotion of partnerships between the INGOs and the LNGOs, others looked at it as the building of local knowledge, capacity and ownership by increasing involvement of local actors in development.

The UN Resident Coordinator Office described it as not only sub granting but upscaling local led solutions that require strategic approach. This was emphasised by the UN Resident Coordinator’s representative, Bernadette Makonyola. Makonyola pointed out that legal framework for operations of NGOs in Malawi mandate all actors to be transparent and accountable in order to confront challenges like poverty, Climate Change, Gender injustice through the local led solutions. She asked actors in development to make localization more inclusive by supporting the youth with resources and skills while putting gender equality at the centre of the agenda. The UN Resident Coordinator representative added that Partners need to invest in technology and innovations to help measure the impact of the effort of localization through community feedback. She further indicated that localization is about transforming systems, form partnerships, align development work to National and Global aspirations like the Malawi 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with its principle of leaving no-one behind.

It was very clear at the Conference that different stakeholders understand and implement the Localisation Agenda differently too. The purpose of the Conference was to deepen the understanding of Localization drive among local partners and draw a localization road Map in Malawi through discussions.

Ministry of Local Government pointed out that Government is committed to promote the agenda by creating enabling tools like policy framework such as the National Decentralization Policy (2^nd edition) which ensures that efforts are done in collaboration with all development implementers and described decentralization as the transfer of power from Central Government to local authorities and from local authorities to people and this confirms Government commitment to promote localization agenda. They stressed on the need to focus on decentralisation agenda within the local district councils as a carrier of localisation agenda.

So, all in all, what different stakeholders mentioned to define localisation actually constitutes the core elements of Localisation.

Topics that took centre stage at the conference included the following;

1. What is localization? The role of Local and International Organizations in promoting localization
2. Strengthening partnerships and financing for effective localization-leveraging partnerships for localization.
3. Moving from theory to action-best practices in localization.
4. Financing localization.
5. Resources for localization.

Some of the challenges faced by local NGOs that came out from the conference in implementing the Localisation Agenda included;

1. Financing for strategic plans.
2. Competitive Grants which do not favour Local NGOs
3. Local NGOs compete with one another.
4. Lack of collaboration among local NGOs to form consortium.
5. INGOs poaching Human Resources from LNGOs.
6. LNGOs have not embraced Digital space because it requires a lot of resources to invest.
7. INGOs birthing LNGOs to implement on the ground.
8. Bottom up approach is missing among most NGOs.

At the end of the Conference stakeholders agreed to proceed as follows;

1. Documenting what is working this far and what is not
2. Established a Committee of Practice with the following as members; Tilitonse Foundation (Chair), Save the Children, YONECO, Local NGO Forum, INGO Forum, Ministry of Local Government, NGORA, CONGOMA, NICE, MISA Malawi, USAID, Public Universities, MCCCI, National Local Government Finance Committee and NPC and the following are the core administrators of the core group CONGOMA, NGORA, Save the Children, USAID and NLGFC.
3. The meeting noted that there are informal groups that are advancing the similar agenda and it was agreed that CONGOMA should write them about this well formalized Localization group.
4. Make more awareness of the localisation agenda to the stakeholders
5. Get more and more players involved in the Localisation conversation

The Conference, which was the first of its kind was organised by CONGOMA in collaboration with NGORA, Save the Children, Self Help Africa and Plan International.