To all international actors:

• Adopt the correct understanding of localisation as supporting and reinforcing local actors, in a spirit of inclusion, mutual respect and genuine partnership, rather than replacing or subordinating them
• Foster #transparency in the collaborative relationship. Invest in relationship- and trust building with local actors to support localisation in Myanmar.
• Talk about risks with back-donors, international and Myanmar actors. Complement risk anxieties with opportunity-spotting: working closely with Myanmar actors creates opportunities.
• Recognize the capabilities of Myanmar actors. Acknowledge that international actors can and do undermine Myanmar capacities, if they weaken their self-confidence, hire away their best staff and keep them on a financial shoestring.
• Prioritise area-based over sectoral coordination to account for different sub-national contexts.
• Set joint leadership with Myanmar actor as the medium term goal, rather than coordination.

To back-donors:

• Acknowledge that Myanmar continues to be a protracted crisis and be clear on whether you are willing to  support the diverse set of Myanmar responders as actors in their own society and not just as delivery instruments for international aid.
• Aim for quality funding: Ensure that the international and Myanmar intermediaries receive quality funding and monitor that they pass it on to their subgrantees. The quality of funding is as or even more important to organisational and programmatic effectiveness as the quantity.
• Invest in capacity development and in a Myanmar infrastructure of capacity-support resources. Investing in an international infrastructure of capacity-support resources but not in a similar infrastructure in countries suffering protracted and recurrent crises, does not offer value-for-money from a longer-term perspective.
• Adopt a gradualist approach to direct funding of more Myanmar agencies, starting with small  grants combined with the support to develop the organisational policies and programmatic expertise where needed. As progress occurs, and trust develops in the relationship, the grants can become larger.
• Ensure the organisational business continuity of enough Myanmar actors in all parts of the country.

To Myanmar actors:

• Take initiative: Myanmar CSOs need to own their standards of integrity, quality, and accountability. Articulate your own standards.
• Be inclusive and attentive to internal status and power dynamics. Also, more established Myanmar CSOs can fail to recognize the agency and contribution of very localised actors, and risk bypassing them.
• Work together: Promote and strengthen collaborative willingness and competencies. Competition between Myanmar actors is not in the best interest of people in Myanmar.
• Remain advocates and role models for human rights, democratisation and non-violent handling of differences and conflicts towards other Myanmar actors.

1/ Build a trusted partnership:  Localisation is about managing a gradual power shift, which requires a common understanding of the responsibilities of each partner, open communication and mutual accountability. 

2/ Make a long term commitment: Organisational strengthening takes time and cannot be accomplished by oneoff trainings. It requires a comprehensive capacity building approach, based on locally-led needs assessments, supporting
locally-led strategies, and offering mentoring, peer learning, and new opportunities for local organisations. This needs to be accompanied by the assurance of multi-year financing.

3/ Make localisation an integral part of programme design: Localisation should drive programming, rather than being included as a contingency plan. Enabling a locally-led response determines grant management, leadership roles, and what organisational transformation and culture changes are needed, for all parties. It is not a quick fix for a time of crisis.

4/ Share the risks: Localisation comes with even higher demands for accountability, transparency and due diligence placed on local organisations who are often unable to meet these higher standards. Intermediaries such as fund management facilities can shoulder some of the risk management for the donors, whilst giving national organisations the space they need to deliver flexible and adaptive response activities.