Locus

On October 1, 2018, Locus and the Movement for Community-led Development (CLD) merged to advance our shared goals of promoting integrated, locally-led solutions to global development challenges.

The merger will strengthen our collective voice for integrated, locally-led development by more strategically linking Locus’ leadership on designing and evaluating integrated approaches to CLD’s policy expertise and advocacy for locally-led solutions.

Locus’ advanced thinking and dialogue on integrated development — what it is, how to use it, and how to evaluate the impact — has been integrated into CLD’s mission and manifesto. CLD national chapters will carry out a powerful, coherent, multi-stakeholder campaign of advocacy and capacity building to transform the paradigm of development from top-down, siloed approaches to bottom-up, locally led, participatory decision-making, which will demand integrated solutions.

Over the last several years, Locus has made key strides in advancing integrated development, including:

  • A Prioritized Research Agenda on Integrated Development
  • Lessons Learned the Hard Way anthology
  • Ending Extreme Poverty is Local: Community-led, Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Development” panel co-hosted with The Hunger Project and the Movement for Community-Led Development at the 56th UN Commission on Social and Economic Development, 2/5/2018.
  • The 72nd UN General Assembly with the SDG Philanthropy Forum and Skoll Foundation event “Local Impact, Global Solutions: Scaling Solutions for Systems Change”, 9/19/2017.
  • “Re-tooling For Integration: Do We Have the Courage to Transform Ourselves in Order To Achieve the SDGs?” panel held at The InterAction Forum, 6/22/2017.
  • “Integration and Local Ownership: Pathways to Sustainable Development” full-day event in Nairobi with more than 22 local organizations or affiliates from Kenya, resulting in establishment of an 8-member Task Force dedicated to supporting the launch of a Kenya chapter of the Movement for Community Led Development, 4/27/2018.
  • Workshop on a priority question on the Locus Research Agenda, resulting in recommending 7 Questions to Guide Decisions on Integration in programming, 2/21/2018.
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning workshop in partnership with The Bridge Collaborative, a meet and greet between 11 organizations with 14 presentations on multi-sector programs advancing knowledge around questions on the Locus Research Agenda on Integrated Development, 3/7/2018.

We are now in the next phase of action. Building on a community of practice formed over the past four years, Locus is building a bridge from practice and learning to advocacy by merging with the Movement for Community-Led Development.

The merge will position the global network of Locus and CLD members to advocate for locally led, integrated approaches to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, from the grassroots to the highest levels. Together, our collective voice for integrated, locally-led development is now stronger, more coherent, and more influential.

Resources from the former Locus Coalition website