We know that local leadership and ownership are essential for long-term, sustainable and effective change. Link Education’s national teams have always worked alongside local government officers to design, monitor, adapt and deliver quality education programmes.
Below is evidence of our strong progress towards locally-led delivery:
- Link Malawi and Link Uganda are independently constituted national NGOs governed by their own Board of Trustees.
- The International Management Team – representing all countries where Link works – forms the leadership group with responsibility for setting and implementing the strategic direction of Link.
- Link prioritises south-to-south learning which it sees as critical for the sharing of contextualised knowledge, experiences, and best practice. It fosters mutual understanding empowering partners to address shared challenges more effectively.
- Relocating key strategic functions to the countries of delivery, starting with the Knowledge and Impact Manager based in Uganda with responsibility for supporting Link-wide Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning.
- Enhancing representation from the Global South, by prioritising attendance and presenting by colleagues from Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda at international conferences ensuring they have a voice at the table.
- Establishing a series of locally-led internal online webinars called ‘Linkages’ to ensure that voices from the countries of operation and beyond are included in the humanitarian and development debate in general and into Link’s programming specifically.
Link is committed to continue strengthening our locally-led delivery. Our next steps include:
- Further embedding participant voice across all our programming from co-designing and monitoring to adapting and evaluating interventions.
- Building a Global Board to benefit from diverse and relevant expertise
- Developing capacity across the Link teams
- Educating donors on how best to support excellent programme delivery in our target countries