Thank you. So, oh, I think I heard Paul. So, so September is a very busy month for international meetings and convenings. So this call, our September monthly call, we're going to hear a little bit about the UN General Assembly and the Summit of the Future, which are happening in New York City this week and last week. And we're going to hear from some MCLD members who participated in events there.
We will also hear some updates on the guidance note, which is on how to make international convenings more inclusive and accessible to local leaders and majority world actors. This is a document that many, many of you contributed to sharing experiences, offering recommendations, giving edits to it. And then lastly, we'll spend a majority of the call thinking about what happens next after events like these or after initiatives like these. After all the effort has been put in and commitments have been made in these cases by international funders and conveners, how do we know that those promises are being put into action?
What does accountability to those promises look like? What should it look like? And we will...
have some breakout rooms and some discussion to collectively brainstorm what we think that accountability needs to look like. But before we do that, over to Sarah to give us our regular MCLD intro to those who are new. And I know there are some new folks on the call today. So John, you can go to the next slide and Sarah over to you. Thank you, Natalie.
Hi, everyone. I'm Sarah with MCLD. Like Nellie said, to give a brief overview, the Movement for Community-Led Development is a dynamic, majority-world-led network of networks dedicated to ensuring that every person has a fundamental right to voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
We were launched in 2015 on the same day as the Sustainable Development Goals when a group came together with their belief in the power of community. We currently have over 2,000 local community-based organizations and over 30 INGOs as members and are active in 17 countries through our national associations in various stages. And those folks are the real heart and soul of our movement. They are really organic groups of local organizations and the country offices of NGOs that came together towards this common goal of putting communities. front and center in development.
So another warm welcome to those of you on this call from our national associations. John, if you don't mind going to the next slide. At MCLD, we recognize the imperative to move beyond conventional development paradigms, embracing a transformative model based on equitable partnership and placing communities at the forefront of their own progress.
The ultimate goal of the movement is to bring community-led development to scale everywhere that it's needed. And we have five goals with that in mind. The first is voice and agency for women, youth, and all marginalized groups.
Second is adequate community finance. The next three are on the next slide, John, if you don't mind. Thanks. Number three, good local governance.
Four, quality public services. And five, resilience. And the real work on those goals happen again in our 17 countries.
The next slide, please, John, has our theory of change. So we believe that the SDGs can only be achieved by facilitating a fundamental systems change that shifts power and resources to accountable, responsive, and effective local institutions. So this diagram outlines the theory of change process, which begins with the formation of two types of partnerships for collective impact. advocacy and facilitation. We have advocacy partnerships that really try to mobilize public policy and policymakers around the need for devolving funding and decision-making to the local levels.
And then actually, John, we have the same slide in French, so maybe we can skip to that while you're talking. Thanks. We have facilitation partnerships where we support communities, support community-based organizations really to be able to take action towards the goals that they set.
for themselves. And when these two things happen together, we believe that we'll be able to achieve all of the sustainable development goals. And then we have one last slide with this in Spanish.
So we'll just show that one. Through global policy advocacy, mutual capacity strengthening, and forging partnerships with like-minded organizations and networks like those of you on this call, we work to achieve all of our goals. Thanks, Nellie. Back to you.
Thanks, Sarah. And just before we... move over to some of our members to talk about the UN events.
I'm actually going to hand it over to Gunjan just for a couple minutes before she has to leave to share some updates. Thanks, Nellie. And hello, everyone.
As I introduced myself in chat, but for those of you who don't know me, I'm Gunjan Beda. And I have the pleasure and honor of serving as the Global Secretary for the Movement. I just wanted to, I am currently at the European Evaluation Society conference, where I have the opportunity to share some of the fantastic work that MCLD has been doing along with our members on community-led monitoring and evaluation.
So I'll be brief, but I did want to share a couple of quick things here. One, the fact that we actually did not have a global call last month. And I know these calls are very important.
That's one of the few occasions that we all come together. But as Nellie mentioned, it's been not just a very busy September, a very busy summer, as you may have seen summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Southern Hemisphere, depending on where you are, as you may have seen from our wonderful newsletter that Sarah brings out on a monthly basis. But one of the few things that we have been able to do over the last couple of months that I really wanted to share and invite everybody to be a part of is that for the first time we have been able to meet together in person as an MCLD team with some of our national association leads in Benin last month and one of the things that we have been doing is that we were taking forward the strategic planning process that all of us started together in May and many of you have had you know have been involved in it either at their national associations or at other forums and I just wanted to share that we will have in October one last session on strategic planning which will be open to all MCLD members even if you're not a part of a national association because we know that there are you associations in only so many countries and our members are from all over. So if you haven't had an opportunity to participate in our strategic planning process and would like to, and we definitely, definitely want you to, because we want to make sure that our strategic planning reflects the views, the ambitions, the values, and the aspirations of as many of our members as possible. It is our collective plan and we really want to develop it collectively.
So please look out for the invite in October where we will be doing a special strategic planning session for members who have not been able to participate in the strategic planning through their national associations. All MCLD national associations either would have or will be in the process of organizing one of these sessions with membership. So that was one thing I really did want to share. and to invite everybody here to be a part of that process. MCLD has come a very long way since we started in 2015. And it's come this way because of all of you, because of our members.
The fact that we have so much influence today that we were able to, you know, forge this global solidarity with so many other networks and hold a wonderful session at UNGA that you will be hearing about, where... UNGA is the UN General Assembly. Apologies for the abbreviation.
But we were able to do this. The fact that we have so many funders coming up and listening to us, the fact that we have currently, you know, events being planned in different countries for community-based organizations and local organizations to meet with funders and directly tell them what needs to be done to transform the system is because of the collective commitment grant of our members. So I really want you urge, request, encourage all of you to be part of the strategic planning process to the extent possible. The last thing I want to say is that I was at UNGA, at the UN General Assembly sessions, especially at the Summit of the Future just recently, which was held over the weekend. And one of the remarkable things for me, this was my first time actually attending an event and going inside the United Nations.
as somebody coming from the majority world, that is not something I ever thought I would get to do, but it was. And one of the most remarkable things was to just see the number of young people, the youth who were there this year, but also at the summit of the future, the direction that some of the conversations were taking, recognizing the need to change the international financial systems. and mechanisms that put countries under so much of debt and create so many problems.
But for the first time the recognition of how a lot of the colonialism continues through these practices was there and I think to me that was really a highlight to all the people who were leaders after point at the new architecture. But thank you, everyone. I will have to leave today, but I hope that, and I know this will be a very productive discussion, and I look forward to looking at the recording and learning what people are talking about on accountability measures. Thank you, Nellie.
Over to you. Thank you, Gunjan. So yes, next we're going to hear a little bit more about the UN General Assembly and the Summit of the Future that Gunjan started to speak about.
These are some of the most high-level... Events where world leaders from government and civil society meet and discuss the state of global governance, peace and development, coordinate their efforts and make commitments, at least theoretically. This year, MCLD, Gunjan mentioned this, also works with some of our partner networks to organize a side event at the Ford Foundation. John, by the way, I think we're just seeing your...
Okay, now we go. There we go. Organize a side event at the Ford Foundation, looking at how funders are putting their promises to be more locally led into practice and how they're being held accountable.
So I'm going to hand it over to some of our colleagues to tell us more about their experience at the United Nations these past few days and side events, as well as to tell us more about the event that MCLD co-organized. So first. We'll hear from John Kunrod, who many of you know, and is the chair of the board of MCLD-US now. Then we'll hear from Aline Klute from Outreach International.
Then Dr. Rebecca Dali, who leads CEPI and is from MCLD-Nigeria. And last but certainly not least, from Peter Jaguna from MCLD-Kenya and who is director of the St. John's Community Center. So, John. over to you to share some of the key themes that you heard and saw at the UN, as well as a bit more about the MCLD event. Wonderful, Nellie.
Thank you so much. And I, as Gunjan said, you know, this was a very important, as they described it, a once-in-a-generation event. I've been attending the UN meetings for 40 years, and this is the first time I've ever heard them talk.
about seriously transforming their organization, transforming the UN itself, which is the whole point of the Summit of the Future. Can the UN actually create a UN that is trusted, more democratic, and more effective? In addition to the government meetings, there were more than 500 meetings going on around New York City for the UN.
Summit for the Future and the General Assembly and then Climate Week with more than 8,000 people, folks like us and Peter and Dr. Rebecca attending these meetings. No one can attend them all, but anyone in the world with the internet can watch UN sessions, both the plenaries and the events, either recorded or online. in all the official UN languages. So when we send out the next newsletter, I'm going to include a few links to some of my favorite parts of these meetings. The outcome document, let me...
Go to the next slide. So the outcome document is called the Pact for the Future, designed not only to fulfill the SDGs, but to transform global governance. And it's not terribly long, and it's in all of our languages.
So it's something we should learn about. The pact also includes a global digital compact. And that compact commits to an open, free, and secure digital future for everyone, focusing digital technologies like AI on how they can be better for humanity, not worse for humanity.
And so the other is a declaration on future generations. So those of us who are alive now, what are our obligations to future generations? And that's laid out in this declaration on future generations. And it emphasizes not only promoting peace, but actually putting mechanisms in place to ensure peace and also to protect equality and to protect cultural diversity and indigenous rights.
So it ups the level of official commitment to those really critical issues. There's only one. standing ovation that I heard at the UN, and that was from the Prime Minister of Barbados.
And so if it works, I'm going to show you three minutes of her talk, because it really sums it all up for me. Opening words of this Charter, we heard from the young people yesterday, we the peoples. If we cannot provide for the peoples the basic rights as reflected in the SDGs, then we have banished them to another generation of failed souls at the very time when the world has more to offer them than it has ever offered them.
I want us to leave here. with a pep in our step and with a commitment to the principles that can truly bring harmony and a shared mission to save planet and people. There will be much that we can call upon to show the divisions and there is much that we can do to fuel hate.
But above all else, if we succumb To those divisions and hate, we will forever be condemned because at this inflection point, we have the ability to come together as human beings to save the people and to save the planet. It does mean adjustment. It does mean hard work.
It does mean sacrifice. But above all else, it is built on a heart of caring. and a creative capacity that our minds have, that if we don't use it, then we will lose it.
Let us, therefore, defend the path for the future, but more importantly, bring others to understand what it is, what it means, and what is the win-win for every human being. Will we get all? Probably not. But our failure to try and our failure to press ahead is what we will be condemned for. And I pray that even at this moment of great challenge, of great, great disruption, that we as human beings will show why we on this earth are a resilient species, and why we have within us the capacity to do right and to be the right person for the time.
by advancing not just our individual interests but recognizing our common destiny i am because you are i am because we are thank you okay so um i love her and we'll get the link to the whole speech. She's really quite something. So let me just mention three other events. in addition to ours that happened that are important to our work. So this one is the Local 2030 Coalition, which coordinates the efforts of all UN agencies to work not only with national but with local governments to achieve the SDGs.
They finally recognize that 65% of the SDG targets can only be met in communities. So this is Ana Clodias, the new head of Habitat based in Nairobi. That's the group that really focuses on cities and towns. And the Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohamed, who is everywhere always. She is the hardest working woman in the UN, I think.
As was mentioned, one of our sister organization networks, UnlockAid. had a wonderful event and it really expressed the enormous number of youth and energy of youth that were attending this year's meetings. They focus on social entrepreneurs and as you can see these young men and women are very entrepreneurial and it was truly inspiring to see the the power of this new generation taking over. And then the third one was also organized by one of our sister networks, WINGS.
And this was brought together a lot of the philanthropies, a lot of the foundations to address those very questions that we're going to be discussing in our breakout groups. But I have to say the language there has been totally transformed. Everybody, last year I went to this meeting and people were struggling to even think it would ever be worth. giving foundation money to networks.
This time it was completely moved a light year ahead. Everybody was talking about investing in the ecosystem and particularly for local actors to figure out, analyze, and build on the culture of giving that exists in every society so that local action can increasingly be funded by local philanthropy. because every person on earth wants to be a giver. And so finding ways to channelize those local funds, and it's something I think we in our strategic planning can really devote more energy to. How can we build local philanthropy into all the communities where we work?
Of course, the best event of all the events was our event. And- This is a photo taken by Dr. Rebecca of a lot of all the funders who were there along with Gudjun. And so I'm going to pass it back to, I guess, to Eleni now to tell us about her impressions.
We're actually first going to go to Dr. Rebecca, who made time to join us despite having another meeting to go to. So. Right.
There she is. Yeah, exactly. On the screen, we'll hear a bit more about the framing of what MCLD's event was, but you spoke specifically about the initiative that we've done with Peace Direct and Civicus, another one of our sister networks, to make international events more locally led. So we'd love to hear a little bit more about what you shared on at the panel and just what stood out to you about the event in general. So over to you.
Oh, Dr. Rebecca, you're muted. I see you're speaking, but you're muted. Thank you. I'm really honored and privileged to go there and to speak. I was given the opportunity to speak specifically on this draft.
We majority wall actors, how to organize international event and conveyance a guidance not from local actors. So, uh... We were on panel. with other MCLD among one from Kenya and one from CA that is Central African Republic and so I'm really very very happy and I started that although the name was from The name of the organization was SEPI. I'm from SEPI, but I'm there to speak basically on community-led development.
And I started by giving the brief summary that there was a letter. written and we signed all this letter and the letter was organized by MCLD, CVCUS and then Peace Direct. Why?
Because they observe there was a meeting and several meetings that talk about community-led, community-led, but then as usual they choose few representatives and even the few representative is like a sub-headers notice so I I said I know that every majority world person who is in this room now know how difficult it is to attend an event like this. I know many of my colleagues, especially Pascal from Benin, could not come here because of visa. And it is very difficult because mostly this organization.
have been done the meeting in America, Europe, Canada. So it's very, very difficult for us to attend. So yet it is very, very important meeting because it's discussing about local organization and community.
So, but with the local, we can't reach. And it is really frustrating. So out of this frustration, thousands of the majority war actors wrote open letter and 2,000 of the organization and all this sign. And in that letter...
It was written in five languages because I showed them, and as we all know, that not every one of us speak English. So we lay five principles in that letter. And so, as I said, MCLD, Civicus, and Peace Direct facilitated the process.
And so the principles are there. Ensure local actors at the table. So move beyond a few representatives. Second, ensure we have access at the table.
And then third, respect our participation. Provide. support, scholarship and everything, sponsorship, speak in the language that we can understand and set the agenda with us so that we can co-create and all this. And we are very happy because 33 organization who are founders and international NGO and then networks, they committed to it. And even USID, they inform.
their mission that okay they are going to uh they sent later to all uh their places but uh then they asked again okay how can we do it so when the how can they organize the event that will respect the majority war and uh The three organizations, as I mentioned again, including MCLD, they involved in a co-creation process which 300 out of the 2,000 participated. And so they brought this wonderful how to make the events. And also, I said I'm very proud to be among them and some Nigerians.
So we have the draft on the table because we put every table, we have this draft of the guidance document. So through this, we local and community organizations are telling you how to organize events. if you truly want to support locally led action. Because to support locally led action, you have to hear from the local actors and how to do it. So you either have to come to our countries or you have to organize events where we can participate meaningfully.
meaningfully and it is possible because I said when I was given a UN award the Swiss government they wrote to Nigeria to their embassy in Nigeria and within one week they gave me visa with my husband to come because they want me to be there to receive the award in 2017 so I said it is possible and I felt respected because they consider I did not explain all where is how much do you have because usually if you are getting visa from Nigeria they will ask you do you have millions of naira in your account where can I have million of naira I have nothing in my account so so when INGO and founder said they want to support community and to support local actors. I believe them. I believe also that perhaps you have been doing it all wrong because you don't know how. Through this document, we are providing you with guidance. Now, if you are truly serious about locally made, locally led, please implement these guidance.
And I use an analogy my own, I concoct it. I said, ensure we are at the table, because without being there, we will not see the things you prepare for us or the food you prepare for us on the table. Second, ensure we have access to the table. Without being there, you may be giving us leftovers.
And the best... meal or the real food may be eaten by the cooks and the vendors. There are a lot of organizations from all this they will apply for millions of dollars and after having millions of dollars to support people in Africa and all this and it will end up among the cooks, among those who will who will get it so that is why i put it respect our participation without respect we may not enjoy your services because you may be far away from us or be a superman some organization international organization they make themselves very high there they they said okay you are just local and now we are helping you so they acted as superman you speak in our language because we will not understand in the language that we understand. If not, we may be scared and run away from you and any project you bring. we will not run away from you and any project that you bring.
You know, some of the projects, they will go and put it in a sacred place or it will never be used. So lastly, set the table agenda with us. Set the agenda with us.
If not, we do not know what you are doing and what you are planning. And so this is what I briefly what I present there. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.
Thank you so much, Dr. Rebecca. And yes, you just laid out. We'll come back to it a little later also. But you laid out the whole history and purpose and goals of the guidance document and the commitment letter. And as I told you before, I love your meal analogy about.
You know, you have to see how it's being prepared. You want to know who's eating it and who is at the dining table with you. So thank you so much. And I know you have to run to another meeting. So we really appreciate your presence.
With that, I will hand it over to Aline, who will just sort of set us up to understand what the whole session was about a little bit more and the different parts. And Dr. Rebecca's contribution was one of the very important ones. So Aline, over to you.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Nelly. And then also thank you, Dr. Rebecca. It was wonderful to see you again just within three days or four days, because I had the privilege to also meet Dr. Rebecca in person in New York.
So as John set the stage and also referenced this particular meeting, it was a wonderful coming together of different colleagues of MCLD, Civicus, Peace Direct, WINGS, NIA. all these like-minded, civil society-focused and locally-led-focused networks coming together in one space and co-sponsoring this event. That in itself was a wonderful thing to observe and to also be present in that space. Before I get going and sharing a little bit about the structure, one thing that also really resonated with me is the setting in which all of this took place. It was at the Ford Foundation.
And it just happened to be in the Nelson Mandela room. And, you know, for me, it was such a beautiful coincidence that, you know, we know that Madiba served a life committed to people and to committed to bringing people together and to conversations. Right.
And to bring everybody to the table, as Dr. Rebecca was saying. And we just happened to be in that particular room and having conversations. that will bring us forward, you know, a collaboration and a negotiation toward moving forward the needle in a collaborative way.
So that was just a beautiful setting the scene for me before we got going in the conversation. All right. So there were really beautiful collection of people at this event. The structure was twofold. There were two sessions basically taking place.
The first session was labeled Power in Practice. And that session was about showcasing locally led initiatives. And that was also then the panel where Dr. Rebecca, Peter from Kenya, McBain from Malawi, and we also had Sita from Indonesia talk on that panel. And then also Kessie from the Central African Republic present on that panel.
And that was really a beautiful way of showcasing not only evidence of how locally led community development works on the ground but it was also a beautiful exhibition of what those voices can bring to the table bringing majority world leaders from those spaces into the conversation right and and hearing from them and learning from them and it was during that conversation that Dr. Rebecca so beautifully also described the work done in collecting the evidence but then also compiling the evidence on what majority world leaders and and community engagement focused people are needing and seeing in bringing and convening and having meetings put put together peter spoke beautifully about the collaboration between their organization and usaid and similarly did mac bain and also kc and also sita i think one One moment from that conversation was, the conversation was very much set, the tone of it, by the moderator, Benjamin Beleji from Wings, and he had the beautiful example of a recent... disaster setting that they as wings attended to and how when they arrived at the scene the communities themselves were already responding in a community-led way to the to the disaster that was taking place and that's three or four or five days ahead you know of of UN agencies and so coming to the ground and that was just a beautiful example of how community-led development community action is just the way to do to do it in the most effective and efficient way. Okay. And then the second session of the day was labeled commitment and action. And that was then also a brilliant way of bringing together funders from different realms and listening and hearing, and also having them share a little bit more about what they are doing in realizing their commitment toward locally led funding.
funding toward local-led initiatives. And that included really a broad, but also a really, really important group of funders that included representation from the Hilton Foundation, from the Ford Foundation, but then also from the United Nations Peacebuilding Unit. It also had representation from USAID, and then also from the Danish government, and then also the ECOSOC ambassador from the UK mission to the UN.
And that was a conversation moderated by Kunjan, but that was a conversation really frankly speaking toward what these funders, these large-scale funders are doing toward really putting rubber to the road as far as making their commitments toward locally led development ring true. And maybe what stood out for me from that conversation is just... their honest commitment toward this goal. As John was sharing earlier too, you know, like just the difference between previous UN conversations and the conversation this year is that there's honest and really committed conversation toward how can we restructure and how can we rethink funding models as far as development and humanitarian development, this humanitarian sector is concerned.
I think one takeaway for me from that conversation was, you know, how these funders spoke about means of measuring what local lead funding really is, that they don't always necessarily speak similarly on what their number and percentage of local funding is and how they measure and how they account for that. Some label their local lead funding in a different way than, for example, somebody else. And so to truly understand how much money is truly funneling toward local lead initiatives. at this point is not 100% clear.
And so there's still a lot of work to be done in order for us to understand what is happening as far as funding structures and models are concerned. Nelly, I will stop there. I just quickly just want to briefly just also pause and just share the following. And this is just echoing what John was saying. You know, for me, it was also the first time being in New York during this really, really energetic time.
You can absolutely feel the energy among people and in the city toward, you know, an enthusiastic future and enthusiastic change. You can feel that energy. It's truly, truly palatable.
It was for me. And just echoing what John was saying, you know, the themes that stood out for me was that how can we harness digital technology? You know, how can we harness AI toward a better future?
How can we support young people to lead the way? And then lastly, of course, how can we have a sustainable future with the environment and placing the environment at the forefront, protecting our resources and making sure that future generations have a beautiful world to look forward to and to look at going forward. Nearly, I'll stop there.
All in all, just thank you for... the MCLD for the invitation. I felt very, very honored and very, very heart warmed being in that room during that time.
Thank you, Nellie. Thank you so much, Alina. And I just wanted to pick up on one thing you said about, you know, the funders speaking about how they use different terminology and it's not always clear how to demonstrate what they're doing.
And one of the things that we also did during that event was have a bit of an exercise where people responded to questions around you know, how, how do we ensure that we are communicating that better? And we are being more transparent because how do we, they can say all these things and it sounds really good. And this panel was an opportunity to hear from local actors also on, you know, where they really are doing things and where they are delivering on these promises funders are, but we often don't know and we can't hold them accountable if we don't know.
So we'll come back to that question later. But I wanted to then just hand it over to Peter. If you want to share anything about your experience, because as Rebecca said, there's a lot of challenges.
Despite all that energy, there's this amazing energy at these UN events. All these people are coming together. And yet it's held in one of the most expensive cities in the world where it's very hard to get visas. It's super crowded and packed. As Dr. Rebecca said, our colleague Pascal couldn't get a visa.
And I know, Peter, that. the registration was so confusing that even though you had registered, you ended up not being able to go to some of the official events because it got a little bit, the registration got confused somehow through all their systems. So I'm curious to hear some of your impressions of being in New York for all of this. So over to you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Nelly. And I appreciate that MCLD.
ensure that I traveled. Thank you, Dr. Unroth and all those who are involved, Ujan and the team, but to ensure that I was able to travel within a very short time. Yeah, it's true. I thought I had registered until when we went to collect the badge and discovered that there's a step I missed to verify my email address, and therefore I could not attend. But all the same, I appreciate that.
I was able to attend the other meeting on showcasing locally led initiative that MCLD and the other partners, Peace Direct and others had organized at Ford Foundation. And as a representative from a community organization, I was able to share about our journey from when MCLD was in. launched in Kenya in 2019 and the commitment by USID of 25% of their funds are going to community a community-led organization and St John being a beneficiary in 2021 and the efforts that MCLD has been making to bring partners together like what happened in Uganda and what will be happening in Malawi next month, to interpret to the local organization what it means, what donor organizations mean when they give statements of their commitment. It needs to address the language, the technical language that is used, and interpreting how the local organization can tap into those commitments through change of policies.
by the donors so that the locally led organization and also the community led the community can understand what the donors are proposing to do. I think what also emerged is a need for clear communication between the headquarters of the donor organization to the local mission and the local staff so that they can support the local. organization to understand and also to tap into the benefits on those policy changes.
So what also came out is a need for co-creation, the issue for partnership, and also increasing resources to support the locally led development. And I was able to attend other sidebar meetings on... And... on innovation, innovation and investing in youth, and also the meeting that we attended with John on and under unlocking aid.
And all these were very beneficial to the work that I do, and I appreciate all the effort. Thank you. Thank you so much, Peter, for that summary. And we'll come back to some of those points a little bit later as well. I will Dr. Rebecca gave us a really comprehensive overview of the guidance document, but I'll still hand it over to Sarah for.
A moment just to, oh, John, sorry, over to you. Yeah, really quickly. You wanted to share where to find resources.
Yeah, so anyway, thank you for that, both Peter and Rebecca. It was just great being with you. So let me share. So if you go to the world's best website, which is ours, MCLD's website, on, on.
the home page, you will see at the bottom of the home page, so you have to scroll down, you'll see all the latest news. But here are the recordings of our event. And they're there, versions in English, French, and Spanish. And then the report that we're talking about is also up there.
So And I know they're still being worked on for the translations of that. But these are available now. So if you weren't on the, if you or people you knew weren't actually attending the webinar that we did in the Ford Foundation, you can watch it here. Thanks.
Thanks, John, for showing us that. Sarah, over to you just for a summary of what Dr. Rebecca shared, I guess. Yeah, thanks so much. And thank you, Dr. Rebecca. As you all know, or most of you know, MCLD has been advocating for our members and members more broadly of local and community-based organizations to be included in global spaces more and more.
So the sign-on letter emerged from the Shift the Power Summit event discussions in November 2023, after which MCLD members who were there had come together with other organizations and we conferred with majority world actors to see what we could do and the sign-on letter was developed. CIVICUS, another network of local organizations, Peace Direct and MCLD offered to facilitate it and put the letter out for signatures. The five principles of the letter which Dr. Rebecca went through very clearly are also on the slide so maybe I won't read those. um but today this letter has been signed by over 1,800 local actors 30 INGOs and eight funders have also committed to following the principles that are outlined in it and the letter was met with this widespread support and resulted in calls from INGOs and funders for more guidance from majority world actors on how convenings should be organized they they wanted guidance from you directly from majority world actors on what they could do better.
So in response to that, MCLD, Civicist, and Peace Direct worked with the signatories of the original letter to co-create a guidance document. It was born out of listening sessions in multiple languages and a conversation on an online platform called Platform for Dialogue. And this all happened between February and March of this year.
And we had over 300 people. participate in these sessions. And then we also sent out a survey to conveners and organizers to understand the barriers that they're facing. So we created this document full of actionable advice that will help people understand the five principles on the slide.
And the recommendations and the actions really reflect what local actors actually needed to be at the table. So we have now finalized. the English version of the document and we are translating it into French, Spanish, and Arabic, and we'll officially launch it once those are ready.
Thanks, Sarah. And we saw when John showed us the website where to find the English version for now online. So you can look at that, but we'll have an official launch once the translations are there.
I think what we've heard a lot of on this call so far is that it's great to see the commitments. It's great to hear about the different instances in which those commitments are being put into place. But what comes next?
So with this guidance document, there's been so much collaboration and so much work to do this. But now. What comes next? So obviously, once it's officially launched, we're going to share it more widely and hope to get more folks to sign on to it and importantly, more conveners, international conveners to agree to take up the recommendations that are in the guidance note. And second is a question that we want to bring to all of you and we'll spend the next 30 minutes on this, which is, you know, MCLD members.
Local leaders, majority world actors, they have laid out the principles of inclusion and accountability. They've identified specific steps that can actually be taken. How do we make sure the people who've signed on to it, those 30 INGOs, eight funders, and hopefully more coming, how do we make sure that they fulfill that promise of having signed on to it?
What does accountability to that promise look like? We have some ideas when it comes to this particular guidance document. MCLD always believes in closing the loop. So making sure that if ideas are shared, if consultations are held, that those who receive them have to come back and report on what they've done with that insight and that knowledge that they've received.
So one thing is to definitely follow up with the folks who've signed on to the commitment letter. And and taken on the guidance note to see how they've integrated these practices. It may also involve a working group or support for the conveners who are trying to put these recommendations into action. But what else? What do we need to see to track and to have these actions communicated?
So in a few minutes, we are going to go into breakout rooms to brainstorm what this accountability looks like. You can actually go back to the previous slide, John. As a specific example, this was sort of the foundation for the event that we held at the UN as well.
We can look at the donor statement on supporting locally-led development. In this letter, go back one more slide, sorry. In this letter, funders endorsed three ways to better support locally-led development. One, to shift and share the power by rethinking their roles as donors, prioritizing local expertise and capacity, including diverse local perspectives in all phases of decision making. Two, by channeling higher quality funding, which they noted requires a longer term perspective, more flexible reporting requirements, more flexible mechanisms in general, building trust.
more support for capacity strengthening, things like that. And third, to use their convening power and their access to international platforms to publicly advocate for locally led development. Now you can go to the next slide. And this statement was signed by a lot of bilateral funders and quite a few foundations, although really there are...
tens of thousands of foundations. So this is just a very small percentage. But these ones have publicly committed to those values, to those three actions on the previous slide. But how do we know?
There's very little reporting by funders on the steps they've taken. There's a lot of talk at events. But what kind of proof, evidence, tracking, transparency?
would actually help us to see how these commitments are moving forward, to support funders in doing that, and to make sure we're making progress on the locally-led agenda beyond just WERTS. MCLD advocates for more locally-led development. So we're asked this question sometimes, what does accountability really look like?
What would... demonstrate that these promises are being delivered on. And because we're a movement, we want to make sure that our response to that question is shaped by all of you and by the members themselves. So we're taking that question into the breakout rooms and we're going to brainstorm what does accountability look like?
How can actions be tracked and communicated? We're going to have 15 minutes because we're running a little bit behind. We'll have a breakout room.
Spanish and French and a couple in English. And one thing to note is that we're not looking at what actions funders or partners can take. to be locally led development, but rather what kinds of measures can be used to follow up on what they say they're doing? What are meaningful accountability measures, not just box ticking ones? And what are the barriers to that kind of reporting?
And how do we make sure that they don't create additional obstacles for local communities? So with that, we will... Head into breakout rooms.
Each room will have a Google document to take notes on ideas. And also we ask that you identify someone to share back when we come back into the main room if we have time. So Sarah, please go ahead and send us.
Welcome back to everyone. I know I apologize to Barry, who was mid-sentence when we got sent back. We had great ideas in our group. We wanted to continue the discussion here and hear from every group.
Maybe we can hear from a couple groups, at least, on some of the ideas that came out. And the thing we wanted to also discuss that I don't think we'll have time to, but I want to just leave us with. Is what of these feel realistic? And importantly, what are our roles? Like what can MCLD as a global collective, as national associations, as individual members do to promote or push for some of these accountability measures that have come up in our conversations?
But first, are there is there a couple of groups that just want to share back some of the ideas that came up? for them? Yeah Ying is going to share from ours.
We had lots of good ideas. Will you take notes on this? So I am in group four. I think we had a lot of great ideas being thrown around.
So just to quickly summarize, I think we talked about accountability and open dialogue. You know funders having informal and formal meetings with the local with the locals. informal meetings just to get to know them and informal meetings for progress reports and things like that. Then we also talked about a transparent ongoing tracking and feedback, kind of like a track the capacity building, the support and the budget, everything transparently put it on reports and on papers.
And that also links to my next point, which is transparent criteria and involvement. how they should meet and then talk about the criteria after funding requirements. And make sure the partners understand the benefits and the process and how the project is going to pan out and which process they're going to be involved in.
I hope that quickly summarizes what we talked about. Thanks so much. Thanks. And I see that Lorena in relation to the financing. That means that a lot of financing in relation to the international community is being done by organizations that agree or are politically party members of the states that are currently in the process.
And understanding that today there is a deal against the British, not only in Latin America, but in the world, Muchos de esos financiamientos terminan sosteniendo antiagendas ODS. Hay una antiagenda ODS que aprovecha de esos recursos. Así es que nosotras levantamos como sugerencia para poder establecer con los financiadores.
some regional council mechanism that could be macro-zonal, that could guarantee the participation of the communities, and that not necessarily are the ones that the states legitimize. On the other hand, as a second point, we request... There is another voice, I hear another voice.
Thank you. On the other hand, as a second point that we suggest, it is to be able to establish guarantees of processes. That is, it is not possible for funds to continue to be repeated under the same contexts, only of sensitization, and never to reach awareness or awareness or political transformation, because what we want is to generate political influence. But for that, processes must be generated.
And those processes, the financing, do not guarantee them. So, year after year, only sensitization is generated. Sensitization, sensitization, sensitization, and never awareness, and never real transformation. In other words, they have an assistentialist paradigm.
Many financing. And that is not the... of the territorial organizations.
We want to transform, we don't just want to sensitize. That appeals to the morbid. I represent today not only the national movement in Chile in psychosocial disability, but also an organization of women in Guatemala.
I am today in Guatemala, I am Chilean and we see and experience this gibberization day by day. For us, those two points are important. Lorena, we don't have much time. Sorry. Thank you.
Let's close. Thank you. We will continue to talk because I want to ask you to come so we can meet. No problem, Lorena.
No problem. Thank you, Lorena. And Luana, do you mind just summarizing or translating some of what she shared? I will summarize. So one thing we mentioned is that the founders need to be in the territories.
really be in there and just to engage with the local communities. Communities need to know that this is true. But on the other hand, there is a big problem we find out, and we find in Latin America, and this is where all the members in Latin America are talking about this, is that a lot of the times the funds are ending up in organizations that are aligning with governments. So this is very complicated. So...
One of the suggestions from Lorena was to create this regional hubs where we can kind of, funders can engage directly with local communities because there is a bypass, like there is a problem with many governments are kind of capturing the funds and just giving it to the organizations that are aligned with their ideas. And this has also come to the result of international aid sustaining a lot of dictatorships. or very authoritarian governments.
So this is an issue we have in the region and that it's really important that we create mechanisms to engage directly with communities and that we create sustainability and there is a future and that is not merely purely just giving assistance that is for the time being, for today, but I think for tomorrow. How we're going to create processes and change the future. This is not very well very clear, established in our region.
So those are things we need to, and we need to have the funders heavily involved in this because the governments are sometimes the stakeholders that are not allowing so many things to happen. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Luana.
And it makes me think of a comment in our group that Barry made about one of the most important ways to have accountability is to have platforms for the local organizations to share. what they're seeing, like how that is, how the funding promises are actually being seen by them. So as you say, spaces at the regional level, et cetera, local organizations to actually say whether it's coming to them or governments instead.
I see that Vincent put a summary in the chat box, which I really appreciate. Maybe. Karen, you could put a quick summary of our group in the chat box as well. Luana, I'm going to mute you or you might have to unmute, but somehow we're hearing your translation in the English channel.
I'm not sure. All right. Well, thank you all very much. We're at time.
So I'm just going to close this up. I know we could have a lot more conversation on this and very likely we will. So Sarah, if you can put down. your sheet and then john can just put up the final slide um just as we come to a close we want to highlight a few upcoming events uh for folks to be please yes yeah could we have one minute to share what comes out from the french group yes one minute please yes definitely thank you thank you so much yes from the french group uh we discussed and the we find out that we need to co-create a way for accountability first. So just that the MCLD sent a letter to the UN and the organizer of the event to recognize that crucial achievement, that crucial decision for accountability to be one.
And second, we'll request from those who like to support. to create space for consultation, to create a mechanism, to create the mechanism for accountability. How do we create it? What will be the timeline?
How do we share it? How do we make sure that civil society and community are involved in that dialogue? Those points are very crucial.
And to make the accountability effective, we suggest that we have training, not training like we have it. In the past, that is to support community-based organization in action. How do we do that? We coach them. We are there.
It is not training in a room and you go to implement as usual and you understand. Those three points we'd like to mention. Thank you. Thank you, Pascal. And thank you for pausing me to make sure that we heard from you.
And I'm sorry to Kathy's group and my group that... we didn't get to share but we'll make sure we get the google docs um from every group and we'll consolidate that thanks karen i see you put it in the in the chat box um all right so john that final slide a couple of events coming up on october 8th we are hosting a discussion at usaid's capacity strengthening forum um We'll be hearing from MCLD Uganda, from the USAID. Sorry, we're still having this issue, Sarah, where Luana is translating into the main channel, I think. The USAID mission in Malawi, as well as the mission and local partners in Mexico.
And that connects a lot to a point that actually Peter brought up at the beginning of the call around how that was part of the... discussions on USID consultations on how headquarters policies are translating to the local missions. I don't see the slide up, John, but maybe that's okay. It's there. Are you seeing it, Sarah?
Now I see it. Okay. There was my screen. Sorry about that. So that's October 8th.
USAID's LCS Policy Forum. We shared registration link and we will send a reminder with that again. On October 16th, we will have our next leadership development call. These are held on the third Wednesday of every month that will be focused on terminology.
What do different terms around, for example, decolonization and shift the power mean to us in all of our different regions and contexts, but also to others? And what are the right terms for MCLD, which is a global movement comprised of people from many different regions of context who interpret these terms in different ways. And then after that, our leadership development calls will be looking at inclusive leadership.
So feminist leadership, coalition leadership, managing conflict in an inclusive leadership model, and things like that. And then on the last Wednesday of... Next month, we will have our next MCLD monthly global call as well. So thank you all so much for...
this conversation and for hearing about the UN events. We hope that was useful for people who weren't able to join. And we hope to have more conversation on these accountability measures, and specifically, what is all of our role in promoting and enforcing those? So otherwise, we can all just go off mute and say goodbye in whatever is our preferred language and thank you all again okay thank you thank you everybody thank you bye-bye thank you so much bye bye bye nice to meet you thanks everyone see you next time bye bye