Our Work

The Matchmaking Process

We facilitate comprehensive capacity sharing which aims at making local strategies and ideas compatible with the international policy and funding landscape.

Together with our partners we combine specialised expertise, technical and context-specific knowledge to address the challenges of localisation.

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Localisation:

challenges and potentials

  • Effective local organisations promote relevant, inclusive, and bottom-up solutions for humanitarian relief, conflict resolution and development. They strengthen the resilience of communities and reduce dependencies on international assistance.

    Donors have committed to localisation. This means supporting local actors and organisations to take a leading role in responding to crises and advancing development goals.

    However, the market of potentially fundable local organisations is limited. Local organisations often lack the capacities to work complex procurement systems and to comply with the requirements of donors regarding transparency and results-based management. From the perspective of donors, who are accountable to taxpayers, these weaknesses outweigh the strengths of local organisations.

    To minimize financial and reputational risks, donors mostly delegate the work with local partners to large internationally operating organisations. Those organisations contract local actors to implement their projects and programmes.

    Faced with their dependency on limited and mostly project-bound resources, local organisations cannot afford the logistical and human capacities to attract funding for their own solutions. As a result, locally developed project ideas become unattractive to well-educated and skilled people, who are more likely to seek employment at international organisations. Such dynamics undermine local leadership while sustaining structural deficiencies and inequalities.

  • Matchmakers for Local Solutions help to make the commitment to localisation become a reality on the ground. We support local solutions by strengthening the ability of local organisations to engage with donors and internationally operating organisations. The benefits are immense:

    • Stronger local organisations enhance the impact of assistance by fostering communities’ self-organisation and resilience.

    • Stronger local organisations increase the competition between potential recipients of international funding, which may reduce costs for donors and enhance the benefits for target populations.

    • Stronger local organisations expand the “market of ideas” on what to do in response to crises. They can enrich national and international political debates. A larger competition of ideas widens the space for innovation.

    In strengthening local organisations, we make international commitments, donor requirements and local needs, ideas, and opportunities match.

The Solution:

Matchmaking for local organisations and donors

Enhancing mutual awareness

  • we provide information on concrete funding possibilities and application procedures.

  • we scout, map, and assess potential local partners and their ideas.

Building local strategies

  • We engage local organisations in future labs to develop ideas and strategise action to meet context specific requirements.

  • We provide comparative assessments of local organisations’ ideas, projects and capacities. We serve as sounding board for evaluation of project proposals and partnerships.

Ensuring results-based project management

  • We conduct hands-on training and accompany local organisations in applying result-based management tools for strategic planning, project implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

  • We base trainings on international standards of results frameworks, monitoring and evaluation while tailoring the content towards specific donor policies and requirements.

Addressing compliance and accountability

  • we assist local organisations in preparing grant proposals that meet the requirements of donors. We provide local organisations with accessible IT solutions for bookkeeping and accountability, corresponding training, and support over the course of their project.

  • we provide local organisations with trainings and solutions that meet the specific requirements of grant and procurement systems. This reduces the transaction costs for donors.

Supporting networks for sustainable local leadership

  • we support local organisations in creating and sustaining networks for information exchange, capacity sharing, cooperation, and collaboration.

  • we encourage learning from local experiences by sharing our expertise and facilitating the participation of local organisations in international policy development.

Our approach:

a four-step matchmaking process

We engage local organisations and donors in a four-step capacity sharing process covering the above-described matchmaking activities. We act not as intermediary but as facilitators of the partnership between donors, internationally operating organisations, and local organisations.

  • We cooperate with our partner [NAME] to scout and assess local organisations. This is based on country expertise, context specific needs and donor requirements. Organisations that qualify as potential local partners may include civil society organisations and local government agencies with basic organisational prerequisites. Depending on local circumstances and sensitivities, this step may involve a high level of discretion, may or may not involve host governments and will be closely coordinated with the donor.

  • Together with our partners [NAMES], we organise a one-week workshop with pre-selected local organisations. The purpose of the workshop is to create ways and means to turn local ideas into fundable solutions. The workshop includes future lab to develop local strategies and ideas. It also provides hands-on training in project planning, monitoring and evaluation, grant application, bookkeeping and accountability. The contents of the workshop are adapted to the context specific needs and the requirements of the donor.

  • We produce a comparative assessment of local organisations based on a systematic evaluation of the workshop. This report is intended to provide donors with an overview of strengths, capabilities, and challenges of local organisations as well as the ideas and strategies they have developed. We also analyse the potential benefits of further engaging and sharing capacities with these potential partners, including a longer-term supervision by Matchmakers.

  • Together with our partners [NAMES], we accompany local organisations in applying for funding and implementing local solutions. We provide funded local organisations with ongoing and on-the-job support to meet monitoring and reporting requirements throughout project implementation, according to the assessed capacity needs and in close coordination with the donor. We assess the progress made in strengthening local leadership and identify lessons learned from the matchmaking pilots.

The Solution

Matchmaking for local organisations and donors

  • For local organisations: we provide information on concrete funding possibilities and application procedures.

    For donors: we scout, map, and assess potential local partners and their ideas

  • For local organisations: We engage local organisations in future labs to develop ideas and strategise action to meet context specific requirements.

    For donors: We provide comparative assessments of local organisations’ ideas, projects and capacities. We serve as sounding board for evaluation of project proposals and partnerships.

  • For local organisations: we conduct hands-on training and accompany local organisations in applying result-based management tools for strategic planning, project implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

    For donors: we base trainings on international standards of results frameworks, monitoring and evaluation while tailoring the content towards specific donor policies and requirements.

  • For local organisations: We assist local organisations in preparing grant proposals that meet the requirements of donors. We provide local organisations with accessible IT solutions for bookkeeping and accountability, corresponding training, and support over the course of their project.

    For Donors: we provide local organisations with trainings and solutions that meet the specific requirements of grant and procurement systems. This reduces the transaction costs for donors.

  • For local organisations: We support local organisations in creating and sustaining networks for information exchange, capacity sharing, cooperation, and collaboration.

    For donors: We encourage learning from local experiences by sharing our expertise and facilitating the participation of local organisations in international policy development.

Our approach

A four-steps matchmaking process

Matchmakers engage local organisations and donors in a four-steps capacity sharing process covering the above-described matchmaking activities. We act not as intermediary but as facilitators of the partnership between donors, internationally operating organisations, and local organisations.

  • We cooperate with our partner [NAME] to scout and assess local organisations. This is based on country expertise, context specific needs and donor requirements. Organisations that qualify as potential local partners may include civil society organisations and local government agencies with basic organisational prerequisites. Depending on local circumstances and sensitivities, this step may involve a high level of discretion, may or may not involve host governments and will be closely coordinated with the donor.

  • Together with our partners [NAMES], we organise a one-week workshop with pre-selected local organisations. The purpose of the workshop is to create ways and means to turn local ideas into fundable solutions. The workshop includes future lab to develop local strategies and ideas. It also provides hands-on training in project planning, monitoring and evaluation, grant application, bookkeeping and accountability. The contents of the workshop are adapted to the context specific needs and the requirements of the donor.

  • We produce a comparative assessment of local organisations based on a systematic evaluation of the workshop. This report is intended to provide donors with an overview of strengths, capabilities, and challenges of local organisations as well as the ideas and strategies they have developed. We also analyse the potential benefits of further engaging and sharing capacities with these potential partners, including a longer-term supervision by Matchmakers.

  • Together with our partners [NAMES], we accompany local organisations in applying for funding and implementing local solutions. We provide funded local organisations with ongoing and on-the-job support to meet monitoring and reporting requirements throughout project implementation, according to the assessed capacity needs and in close coordination with the donor. We assess the progress made in strengthening local leadership and identify lessons learned from the matchmaking pilots.