Rethinking Partnerships in a Post-Aid World

Recommendation 1 - Invest at the doorstep of poverty

Fund local solutions (organisations, businesses, community groups) directly, in ways that build their capacity to solve with communities.

It starts with rethinking local
It is time to embrace a more nuanced understanding of local development. It’s time to move beyond shortcuts, such as counting local staff as a proxy for locally led initiatives or registering offices in the Global South.

What matters is effectiveness, and this is only possible when organisations strengthen local systems, reflect lived realities, and sustain change. Doubling down on support for these genuinely local actors isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the most effective way to amplify impact and build durable, community-led change.

Fund Local Solutions Directly
Too much of ODA and development finance is absorbed by layers of middlemen, including multilateral organisations, development contractors, and consultants, before it reaches the people it is intended to serve. The era of flying in experts to “fix” local problems is over.

What communities need is consistent, long-term, direct investment in local solutions and sustained commitment to the organisations that work alongside and within communities. Rooted in shared realities, these actors own the challenge, are directly accountable to communities, and work to enable those living in poverty to solve their own problems, to build agency, resilience and sustainable change.

Fund Local Organisations Differently
BRAC’s ability to scale as a Southern-led organisation was made possible by donors who partnered differently: committing to long-term funding across sectors and countries, and investing in BRAC’s core capacity, not just projects.

Despite growing rhetoric on localisation, most donor models continue to constrain local organisations with short-term, siloed funding and unrealistic overhead limits, ironically based on the assumption that organisations in the Global South require less to operate effectively than their Northern counterparts. It’s time to fund systems change, not just projects. To support organisations holistically, across staff, strategy, and infrastructure. To break down sector silos and back integrated, locally led approaches that match the complexity of poverty.

Recommendation 2 - Back shared wins. Bet on systems change

Build a Clear Narrative around Shared Wins

No good deed goes unpunished in today’s politics. Development cooperation needs a border-agnostic, win-win narrative: aid is not charity; it is a smart strategy. Make explicit the utility of aid. It strengthens soft power, drives trade and security, and underpins sustainable peace, domestic stability and migration management. Frame cooperation through mutual interest.

Make Big Bets, Unbounded by Sector
Silos serve the survival of the aid industry, not the communities ODA seeks to serve. Health, education, climate, and financial inclusion are interconnected. To bring all of this together, donors, philanthropic foundations, and high-net-worth individuals should utilise their convening power to build coalitions around a few big bets. Proven solutions with the potential to scale globally that can capture the imagination of constituents, regardless of whether they are in the Global South or North.

Power Pro-Poor Markets, through Local Solutions

Too often, siloed thinking limits donors’ understanding of how local actors use markets to drive transformative change. A belief in markets can, and should, be actioned through investment in local capacity. There may be no clearer or more compelling expression of systems change and shared progress than enabling markets to better work for people living in poverty.

BRAC has long pioneered social enterprises that connect people to markets, enabling them to participate as contributors, producers, and consumers. Its flagship enterprise, Aarong, is Bangladesh’s leading fashion and lifestyle brand, creating livelihoods for 75,000 artisans, 85% of whom are women. Generating over USD $150 million in annual revenue, Aarong reinvests half of its surplus into BRAC’s social programmes and half into growing the enterprise, sustaining jobs, demand for Bangladeshi craft, and the country’s rich heritage. Similarly, BRAC Dairy has organised smallscale milk producers and built the infrastructure, from cold chains to urban market access, that allows them to thrive. There are many more examples.

By aligning profits with purpose, BRAC has built an ecosystem that drives sustainable livelihoods, resilience, and inclusive growth. Donors can amplify this approach by using seed funding and de-risking tools to support local actors building critical local markets. This investment delivers sustainable impact and resonates with those seeking credible alternatives to traditional aid.

Recommendation 3 - Scale proven evidence-based approaches

Scale proven evidence-based approaches as a strategy to optimise resources and engage other critical partners.

Scale up programmes that are proven to work

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC’s founder, famously said that “small is beautiful, but scale is necessary”. That insight has never been more relevant than it is today, as funding becomes scarcer and the drivers of poverty become increasingly complex. While pilot projects provide valuable insights and promote innovation, there are models available which have been proven to work in multiple contexts through robust evaluation methods, such as Randomised Control Trials (RCTs). Particularly in this moment, donors should finance proven models at scale, instead of endlessly funding “new pilots.”

Adapt evidence-based, proven programmes to suit multiple contexts
When programmes are proven to work, backed by strong evidence, and supported to scale, the next necessary step is to adapt what works to new geographies, communities, and challenges. Thoughtful adaptation, not replication, is the path to sustainable scale. By focusing on refining and contextualising what works, we can make smarter use of limited resources, accelerate impact, and ensure that success is not confined to isolated cases but scalable across contexts.

Partner with Local Governments, the Private Sector, Civil Society and Community Members
Doubling down on evidence-based, locally adapted solutions creates vital inroads for governments, the private sector, and new funders to build around what already works. In Bangladesh, BRAC is partnering with Medtronic Labs and government-run health centres to screen high-risk patients for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and related conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and certain types of cancer. In a country where 70% of deaths are caused by such NCDs, this vital cross-sector partnership is strengthening health systems and saving lives. In a time of scarce resources and growing need, cross-sector partnerships can reduce fragmentation, foster trust, and attract the kind of patient capital needed for long-term, systemic change.

Real impact at scale demands complementarity: governments bring reach, the private sector brings efficiency, civil society brings deep community insight, while community members bring lived experience, local ownership, and sustainability, ensuring solutions are not just accepted but also embraced.