Facilitating Local Leadership
We strengthen the capacity of our local partners to improve their ability to promote locally led development.
Capacity strengthening is at the center of LINC’s mission. We believe that engaging committed, capable local organizations to lead their own institutional improvement increases development effectiveness and long-term sustainability. However, transforming international development to center local actors requires new approaches and capacities for everyone involved, from donors to governments, implementers, civil society, and the private sector.
When working with engaged local organizations, LINC uses an organizational development approach that helps local actors critically examine their own place in a larger system, align their services to local demand, and self-identify capacity-strengthening assets and priorities.
One of the tools that we use is our proprietary Pre-Investment Capacity and Knowledge Scorecard (PICKS) tool, which allows organizations to better understand their greatest strengths and most significant opportunities for improvement, including what functional skills and management processes might be valued by their donors and partners.
Additionally, we leverage our deep familiarity with donors and implementers to provide tailored training and capacity-strengthening to help donors and implementers, and local organizations improve their operations.
An example of LINC’s Capacity Strengthening work is the LINC-led Mexico Local Capacity Development Activity (LCDA), which strengthened the capacity of Mexican CSOs to serve and advocate for their constituents more effectively. LCDA addressed systemic constraints to improving local organizational capacity by creating a locally managed, locally resourced capacity strengthening program that continues to be delivered and which led to several organizations receiving direct grants from major institutional donors.
Proven Commitment to Local Capacity Strengthening and Partnership
Since its early days, LINC has been committed to supporting the capacity development and strengthening of local organizations. This commitment is illustrated through LINC’s 10+ year partnership with the United Way Mexico (Fondo Unido / FUM).
The LINC Mexico Story
Shortly after our founding in 2013, the United Way Mexico (Fondo Unido Mexico / FUM), engaged LINC to support the capacity strengthening of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Mexico City. Under this alliance, LINC designed and facilitated a workshop on project cycle management for 26 FUM partners and provided organizational capacity development support.
LINC and FUM’s initial partnership was a success. The positive reception by the participating organizations led to scaling up the workshops to other parts of Mexico, and in 2015 we launched the four-year Local Capacity Development Activity (LCDA). The goal of LCDA was to deliver a comprehensive national training course (Diplomado) to build the capacity of Mexican CSOs, not just to acquire and manage donor funding for projects, but also to strengthen their partner networks, collaborate better, and deepen their understanding of the root causes of development challenges.
Under LCDA, not only was the Diplomado delivered to 179 Mexican CSOs with 285 executives receiving diplomas of completion, but FUM’s internal institutional capacity assessment score increased by 23%. In 2018, LINC formally transferred the Diplomado to FUM, which has continued to successfully deliver the course and strengthen the capacity of CSOs with non-USAID funding. Several of the participating CSOs have since received their own grants from governmental and bilateral donors.
Extending from LCDA, the LINC – FUM partnership has continued to grow, underpinned by local ownership, mutual respect, and focus on sustainability. Read more about LINC’s 10+ year capacity building partnership with FUM at the links below:
Case Study: A Meaningful Partnership: LINC and Fondo Unido – United Way Mexico
USAID-funded Global Labor Program – Inclusive Futures (GLP-IF) is a five-year program that aims to increase the inclusion of people with disabilities. LINC serves as the technical lead for two distinct components of the program: Systems Thinking and Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA).
