Moving Power to the Countries Where Pathfinder Works
A Country-led Approach to Localization
At Pathfinder, we are moving assertively to make sure our leadership and organizational structures reflect a country-led, community-focused model, with equity and inclusivity are at the heart of everything we do. Our country-led strategy ensures that leadership, resources, and decision-making are anchored directly in the countries where we work in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, making our impact more sustainable, relevant, and effective.
Our country-led approach centers the expertise of individuals in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East in how we deliver on our mission. It deepens local ownership of our work, mirroring our approach to localization that centers the voices, ingenuity, and self-determination of the communities we serve. Our well-resourced country teams are equipped to partner closely with local organizations and communities—working together to identify and meet their own health and development goals.
We recognize that international development programs, including our own, have been rooted in a legacy of colonialism and structural oppression that devalued the expertise, ingenuity, creativity, and inherent dignity of local partners and communities in many countries around the world. Our country-led strategy, grounded in the principles of localization, seeks to dismantle these harmful power structures.
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Shared Leadership Model
Pathfinder’s Global Leadership Council brings together senior leaders from the organization’s offices in Africa and South Asia with members of our existing leadership team to lead and make key decisions for the organization. The Global Leadership Council reflects Pathfinder’s commitment to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive governance structure.
Pathfinder has an interim CEO based in Pakistan and two regional Presidents: a President, Africa, and a President, South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. Pathfinder’s Presidents are based in the regions they lead, providing close oversight of country programs, fostering important new partnerships across their regions, and developing locally relevant strategies that allow Pathfinder to deliver on its mission and advance country-led solutions for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Country-led Operations
We’ve made a series of operational changes that leverage the full spectrum of talents across the organization and allow decisions to be made closer to the point of impact. This includes shifting our planning, budgeting, and business development processes to be driven by our country teams; offering our country teams more resources and core staffing for sustainability beyond a project lifetime; significantly increasing the number of global roles in countries outside of the US; moving granting, contracting, safeguarding, and security authorities to countries of operation; and revolutionizing our IT and data systems to better meet the needs of country offices.
Localization
Our country-led strategy is foundational to upholding our commitment to localization. Through our approach to localization, we commit to:
- Creating a partnership of equals with regional, national, and community-based organizations that honor and uplift the unique value these organizations hold.
- Supporting a sustainable transformation towards local ownership, where we work alongside local partners to advance key skills and systems that prepare them to lead globally funded projects.
Our localization activities look different based on the diverse contexts in which we work and the many partners we engage. Central to our approach is the co-creation, participation, and meaningful engagement of communities and local organizations in the design, delivery, oversight, and monitoring of projects and project activities. We pay special attention to the meaningful and equitable inclusion of historically underserved or marginalized groups during the co-creation process.
We also work to transition project leadership functions to our local partners, seeking to redefine our role as a prime implementer to that of a steward, convener, or facilitator. We support regional and national NGOs interested in receiving direct funding from global donors, anchoring our transition support within the context of a transparent, collaborative three-way relationship between ourselves, our partner, and the donor. And we continue our nearly 70-year legacy of strengthening the technical, operational, and management capacity of our partners, looking to our partners for guidance on how they would like to work together and where they need assistance.
Countries using this approach
Burkina Faso
Côte d’Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethiopia
India
Kenya
Mozambique
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Tanzania
Uganda
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