Call 4 change
Coalitions and Local Leaders for Change - Learning Journey (CALL4Change Learning Journey) is a research collaborative that seeks to better understand support to local leaders and coalitions as a strategy or pathway for achieving locally led change.
There has been growing recognition of the power of local leaders and coalitions as drivers of developmental change. This is reflected in DFAT’s 2023 International Development Policy and its investments in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, with more programs supporting the emergence of local coalitions and leaders to drive reform.
The CALL4Change Learning Journey is a collaboration between the Centre for Human Security and Social Change at La Trobe University, DFAT and six DFAT-funded programs working in support of local leaders and coalitions in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. These include:
- Balance of Power (Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu)
- Coalitions for Change (Philippines)
- Reclaiming Civic Space to Promote Democratic Resilience Program (Indonesia)
- The Voice Inc. PNG (Papua New Guinea)
- Vanuatu Skills Partnership (Vanuatu)
- Women Leading and Influencing (Pacific)
Research will be undertaken with each program or organisation to explore understandings of local leaders and coalitions, the nature of support to them and emerging learning and results. A second phase of research will explore how local leaders and coalitions experience support from external aid programs. The research process will be punctuated and led by three ‘learning journey’ events that bring together representatives from the participating programs, DFAT and the research team to reflect on the learning to date and shape the next phase of research.
The CALL4Change Learning Journey aims to build an evidence base on support to local leaders and coalitions as a strategy for change within development programs. It will support learning within DFAT about what works in contributing to locally led development, for who and why, and will help inform future investment designs and programming. It also seeks to highlight the value of these investments as a locally led pathway to change that addresses some critiques of conventional development assistance as externally imposed, contextually and politically unaware and unsustainable.
The research team is led by Centre Director Dr Lisa Denney and includes Senior Research Fellows Dr Thushara Dibley, Mardi Grundy and Dr Lis Jackson, Adjunct Associate Professor Dr Abby McLeod, Adjunct Research Fellow Dr. Ujjwal Krishna and PhD scholar Kirk Gibson.
The Coalitions and Local Leaders for Change – Learning Journey is supported by the Australian Government.