Localization & Partnership Assessments
Examine your practices. Strengthen your partnerships. Move localization into practice.
You may be committed to localization and locally-led development. But good intentions do not always translate into how decisions are made, resources are controlled, or partnerships work in practice.
It can be difficult to see your own organization’s blind spots. Power dynamics can be subtle, organizational habits can be deeply established, and the practices that once made sense may not reflect where you want your organization to go today.
A Localization & Partnership Assessment gives you space to take an honest look.
Cultivate works with organizations to examine how power operates across their programs, partnerships, and internal practices, helping you identify opportunities to strengthen local leadership and build more equitable, effective partnerships.
What We Examine
Every organization and partnership is different. Your assessment may explore areas such as:
More Than a Checklist
A localization assessment isn’t simply a checklist of whether your organization is “localized.”
Localization is an ongoing process of examining power, strengthening agency, and creating greater opportunities for local actors to shape the decisions that affect their communities.
That’s why our approach goes beyond policies and procedures.
We look at the relationships, assumptions, structures, and practices that shape how your organization works.
What Does an Assessment Look At?
Funding & Resource Flows
How funding is controlled, allocated, restricted, and ultimately affects the autonomy of Global South partners.
Organizational Model
How your structure, roles, authority, and internal decision-making shape the balance of power in your partnerships.
Partnership Practices
How agreements, expectations, communication, reporting, and accountability structures shape the relationship.
Decision-Making & Power
Who sets priorities, makes decisions, controls resources, and has the final say.
Programs & Support
Whether your programs and services strengthen local capacity and independence, or create ongoing reliance on your organization.
Organizational Policies & Practices
The policies, processes, and assumptions that may unintentionally reinforce unequal relationships.
Long-Term Dependency
Whether the relationship is building greater local ownership and organizational resilience over time—or making your partner increasingly reliant on outside support.
Knowledge & Expertise
Whose knowledge is valued, who is positioned as the expert, and how expertise is developed and shared.
What You’ll Gain
An assessment can help your organization:
- See power dynamics and partnership patterns that may be difficult to recognize internally.
- Identify practices that unintentionally reinforce dependency.
- Understand where local partners have meaningful decision-making power and where they do not.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen local ownership and agency.
- Recognize organizational or funding practices that create unnecessary barriers.
- Strengthen conversations with local partners about power and partnership.
- Align internal practices with your organization’s commitments to localization..
- Identify practical priorities for moving from intention to action.
The goal isn’t to tell you what your organization should look like.
It’s to help you see more clearly where you are, understand what is getting in the way, and determine what meaningful change could look like for your organization and your partnerships.
What You’ll Receive
In-Depth Report
A detailed report of our findings, including the power imbalances identified within your organization and partnerships, the policies and practices that may be contributing to them, and areas where meaningful change may be needed.
Summary of Recommendations
A practical summary of the key recommendations emerging from the assessment, giving your organization a clear starting point for making changes.
Facilitated Leadership Discussion
A facilitated discussion with your board, leadership team, or other designated group to review the findings, explore their implications, and begin identifying priorities for organizational change.
Designed for Organizations Ready to Look Inward
Especially organizations that:
Flexible Pricing for Your Organization
Every organization and partnership is different, so assessments are tailored to the size, structure, and scope of your organization. We work with you to determine an appropriate scope of work and pricing that fits your organization’s budget, with options designed to make the audit accessible to organizations of different sizes and resources.
Let’s explore what greater local leadership could look like for your organization.
Whether you’re beginning your localization journey or have been working toward locally-led development for years, a Localization & Partnership Assessment can help you identify where your organization has opportunities to shift power and strengthen local ownership.