The Movement for Community-led Development

CLD Benin members work across five thematic areas: Governance; Agriculture and Nutrition; Climate Change and Environment; Health and Wellbeing; and Local Economic Development. In 2025, members also organized awareness campaigns around nutrition and volunteerism.

CLD Benin members are also dedicated to furthering the use of our Participatory CLD Assessment Tool, and continued to explore its applicability locally and regionally. 

2025 was a year of strengthening foundations for MCLD in Burundi. The impact of mindset shifts around community-led action has become evident as membership has grown throughout the year to 50+ members. Members focused on exchanging ideas and collaborating towards the legal registration of CLD Burundi. 

MCLD in the Central African Republic have focused on network building and collaboration across the country. This has included capacity strengthening in advocacy activities to spread the Association’s collective voice, establishing dialogues with communities, and strengthening collaboration with ministries and local governments.

MCLD Ethiopia has been bringing together local civil society organizations who have been previously working independently to combine their commitment and expertise to create greater impact in grassroots communities. In 2025, Ethiopia members focused on fiscal decentralization for the SDGs, policy dialogues between members and local government, and local leadership. After conducting research on fiscal decentralization in 2024, members took action in 2025. 

MCLD Kenya has focused on advancing policy-centered devolution since 2019. In 2025, the Kenya School for Devolution and CLD celebrated two years of impact in Makueni County, where Poverty has dropped almost 30% in the last five years.

We have trained 35 government officials and 100+ CSO participants. MCLD Kenya has also built partnerships with Taita Taveta, Kisumu, and Vihiga counties. 

As we grow into the Latin America and Caribbean region, our members have committed to sharing their experience and knowledge. In 2025 we welcomed new members in Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina. Members built connections with other networks, including GlobalGiving and TerritoriA Colombia. Members have established their new regional axes and have been engaging through two working groups: human rights defenders and collective fundraising. Stay tuned for the launch of the climate change school in Colombia in 2026. 

Members from Colombia are pictured to the left.

MCLD members in Liberia are united by their dedication to sustainable change, particularly in agriculture, resilience, and self-reliance. Members have in the past mobilised communities to pool together land for climate resilient agriculture, this year continued to focus on agriculture and food security. In 2025, members focused on amplifying community voices in decision-making. 

In 2025, MCLD Malawi focused both on strengthening member collaboration and introducing community-led development to broader audiences.

The National Association established regional structures to ease coordination across the country, while members began initiatives to introduce CLD curricula to universities in the country. Malawi members engaged nine district councils to build their understanding of community-led practices. 

SACD-N, MCLD’s presence in Nigeria, is a strong voice for community-led change.

Synergy across 30 members has led to extremely impactful collective action projects. In 2025, members organized a campaign around the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence that reached over 50 million viewers across TV and radio in six states of Nigeria. 

Community-led development discourse is being elevated in Rwanda through MCLD members’ focus on eradicating gender-based violence.

In 2025, MCLD Rwanda members conducted research across five districts of the country to develop a policy paper for local governments. 

MCLD grew to 20 members in Sierra Leone in 2025 and launched their new strategic plan in November.

Members have been training on leadership and community-led development, and the National Association ended the year on a high after acquiring a microgrant from the Mortenson Family Foundation.

MCLD Togo, known in the country as DPC Togo, strengthened member collaboration in 2025.

Members pooled ideas to raise funds across the membership, aiming to further their reach by mobilizing together. Members are working on project plans to strengthen CSO capacities, empower women, and further skills in agriculture. 

Nutrition and WASH continue to be focuses of MCLD Uganda. 2025 saw the close of the Dutch funded Right2Grow project which has encouraged communities to champion their own development and enact their priorities. Since 2024, MCLED-U has strengthened community-led advocacy, influenced the adoption of community-led WASH practices by local governments in all 10 districts and supported 37+ member organizations. MCLD Uganda’s other priorities in 2025 included governance and leadership, and strengthening the capacity and self-reliance of members.

MCLD US engaged in both operational changes and ways to better engage across the country in 2025.

We newly opened our membership to individual members and began building bridges with new partners to grow our reach with academia, domestic community-based organizations, and colleagues in INGOs. We organized events with a range of partners from Save the Children to American University.