Localizing Development to the Grassroots: Potentials and Limits of Engaging with Community Groups
Megatrends Policy Brief 40, 30.07.2025, 8 Seitendoi:10.18449/2025MTA-PB40
Amid rising restrictions on foreign funding, localization—directly funding local groups—is seen as a path to more effective, locally owned aid. This policy brief examines whether donors should shift support from large civil society organizations to grassroots community groups.
Members of community groups often access resources through local leaders such as elders, who hold legitimacy within their communities and act as key connectors to opportunities. Here, Members of the Maasai attend the official inauguration of the Council of Maasai Elders, which will represent the Rift Valley region, held in Nakuru, Kenya on June 20, 2025.
© picture alliance / Anadolu | James Kamau Wakibia
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Working with Civil Society in Authoritarian Contexts? The Case of Niger
The recent wave of coups in the Sahel puts Western policy makers in a difficult situation: While they wish to maintain relations and vie for influence, they also want to avoid strengthening unconstitutional rule. Collaboration with civil society organizations (CSOs) who are supposedly closer to citizens, is currently discussed as a way out of the dilemma. However, this policy brief reveals that especially in authoritarian contexts, the lines between CSOs and the state are often blurred.
Megatrends Policy Brief 28, 16.10.2024, 11 Seitendoi:10.18449/2024MTA-PB28v02
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Can Public Participation Deepen Democracy?
While public engagement has contributed to enhancing social justice in Nakuru City, Kenia, challenges in improving governance effectiveness and legitimacy persist. This is due to limited responsiveness of local elites, political and legal loopholes, and restricted public participation.
Megatrends Policy Brief 18, 17.10.2023, 10 Seitendoi:10.18449/2023MTA-PB18
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Civil society participation in urban governance in Africa. Supporting CSOs’ political voice for a transformation of citizen–state relations
Urbanisation offers great potential for Africa’s economic and social development but the rapid transformation is also putting a strain on Africa’s cities. Citizens have long demanded participation in urban governance that goes beyond elections. Although participatory processes have become increasingly evident, they are still far from being institutionalised at scale. This policy brief argues that participatory processes need to be thoroughly embedded in politics in order to move beyond particularistic gains towards a structural improvement of relations between citizens, CSOs, and local governments.
Megatrends Policy Brief 2022 05, 14.07.2022, 10 Seitendoi:10.18449/2022MTA-PB05
