For years, the international development sector has championed localisation as the future of humanitarian and development assistance. Governments, donors, international NGOs and philanthropic organisations have committed to shifting power, resources and decision-making closer to the communities they seek to serve. Yet despite these commitments, the gap between aspiration and reality remains significant.
According to the Grand Bargain, one of the most significant global agreements on humanitarian reform, donors committed to ensuring that 25% of humanitarian funding would be channelled "as directly as possible" to local and national responders. Nearly a decade later, progress has fallen well short of that ambition.
Recent research by the Overseas Development Institute found that less than 10% of international humanitarian funding reached local and national actors either directly or indirectly in 2024, while only 3.8% was provided directly to local organisations far below the Grand Bargain's 25% commitment.
Similarly, research by Publish What You Fund analysing five major bilateral donors found that only 5.5% of project funding US$287 million out of US$5.2 billion reviewed in 2024 was channelled directly to local organisations. These figures demonstrate that while localisation has become central to development policy, direct investment in local leadership remains limited.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, local organisations often lack visibility into funding decisions, programme governance and partnership arrangements, leaving them unable to influence decisions or demonstrate their value as equal partners. The OECD argues that greater transparency and visibility are essential for meaningful localisation and accountability.
Before entering partnerships or awarding grants, many donors and international organisations conduct extensive online due diligence. They look for evidence of governance, programme experience, geographic reach, impact, and organisational credibility. If an organisation cannot easily be found or lacks a professional digital presence, it risks being overlooked regardless of the quality of its work.Visibility, therefore, is no longer simply a communications issue. It has become an organisational asset.
Local organisations possess contextual knowledge, trusted community relationships, and long-term presence that international actors often cannot replicate.
Research consistently shows that locally led responses are better positioned to understand community priorities and deliver sustainable solutions. Yet these organisations continue to receive a disproportionately small share of direct funding and partnership opportunities.
Bridging this gap requires more than policy commitments.
It requires creating practical mechanisms that allow local organisations to be discovered, recognised and connected with those actively seeking credible partners.
A strong digital presence enables organisations to demonstrate who they are, what they do, and the impact they create.
It allows potential partners to verify credibility, identify shared priorities, and establish new collaborations more efficiently.
Visibility also strengthens peer-to-peer learning by making it easier for organisations working on similar challenges to connect, exchange knowledge, and build collective solutions.
In an increasingly digital development ecosystem, discoverability has become a prerequisite for opportunity.
Localisation will not be achieved through declarations alone. It will be achieved when local organisations have equitable access to funding, decision-making and partnerships and when they are visible enough to participate fully in the global development ecosystem.
This is where digital infrastructure plays a critical role.
Platforms such as Kuja help make local organisations discoverable by providing a trusted space where they can showcase their work, strengthen their credibility, connect with peers and increase their visibility among donors, foundations and development partners.
Technology cannot replace locally led development.
But it can remove one of its most persistent barriers: invisibility.
If the sector is serious about shifting power to local actors, it must invest not only in funding mechanisms but also in the systems that make local organisations visible, connected and recognised.
Because meaningful localisation begins when local leadership can be seen.