The Movement for Community-led Development

Youth Task Force

Who: Youth ages 15-35 who are committed to CLD from countries with or without National Associations. More specific guidelines on how to apply and nominations are available if interested. 

Purpose: To integrate youth perspectives into the work of MCLD and ensure youth voices from different National Associations are represented, including by:
– Aligning with other youth networks
– Developing a Youth Charter
– Creating space for youth within MCLD to exchange and build partnerships 
– Identifying key issues facing youth and potential advocacy points for local communities

Estimated time commitment: 4-6 hours/month

Working Group members will collectively design the Terms of Reference for each group, including specific goals, activities and expectations. Below is broader information on who each Working Group is targeted towards, the purpose, and estimated time commitment.

Each of these will need a Chair and Co-Chair from different member organizations. If you are interested, please contact Nelly Mecklenburg at nelly@mcld.org.

CLD-Congruent Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

Who: Open to MEL professionals or people who undertake/lead MEL-related activities across all member organizations in any National Association.  
Purpose: 
– Build awareness of CLD-congruent MEL practices and principles
– Adapt existing MEL tools and methodologies to be more CLD-congruent, including by drawing on learning from the (Un)Learning Labs and members’ own experiences
– Create new toolkits to help MCLD members and other organizations be more CLD-congruent in their practices
Estimated time commitment: 4-6 hours/month

US Government and Hill Advocacy

Who: All MCLD-US members
Purpose: Ensure US Government policies and Hill advocacy on Locally-Led Development are shaped by the views, voices and aspirations of Majority World actors, including by:
– Identifying/creating opportunities for National Association members and Majority World actors to feed into Hill and US Government advocacy, and that their views are reflected in it
– Identifying links with existing Hill/US Government advocacy networks and campaigns
– Designing and hosting/co-hosting advocacy events
Estimated time commitment: 2-6 hours/month

Global Advocacy and Communications

Who: All MCLD members across National Associations
Purpose: Build momentum across National Associations that reflects CLD perspectives on a few different international advocacy days (e.g. International Youth Day, International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, etc.) by:
– Coordinating on messaging 
– Aligning activities
– Co-hosting virtual or in-person events, etc.
Estimated time commitment: 2-6 hours/month

CLD in Practice

Who: Program professionals across all member organizations in any National Association
Purpose: Expand the global toolkit of CLD practices to help organizations integrate and deepen community-led approaches in their work. This includes by:
– Documenting CLD practices
– Collating and creating practical tools for CLD
Estimated time commitment: 4-6 hours/month

If you are interested in starting a Working Group on any of these issues, let us know and we will work with you to form it.

Risk and Compliance

Who: Business development, finance and operations officers/managers, especially for members of MCLD-US but open to members of all National Associations.
Purpose: Many funders express concerns or limitation due to compliance and finance risks/implication related to locally-led and community-led development. This Working Group would share learnings and develop guidance on how to practically address these issues, through changes to bureaucracy and mindsets, to expand the funding landscape.

Elections

Who: All MCLD members across National Associations
Purpose: Countries representing half the global population will have elections in 2024. Given this, the Working Group would share learning and develop guidance on how to navigate the risks and disruptions this could pose to CLD programming, as well as to articulate and advocate for the importance of CLD in the face of them.

Wellbeing

Who: All MCLD members across National Associations, and especially team managers and Human Resources personnel 
Purpose: There is a great deal of burn out, stress and trauma within the development and CLD sectors, among both team members and community partners. There is increasing attention on the need for self-care and team-care. This Working Group will consider the tools and spaces that are needed and realistic to help manage and mitigate this. 

• Covid-19
• Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus
• Evaluation
• Research