Movement for Community-led Development

Building The Most Sustainable Path Towards Social Justice

The latest conversation from our Voices of the Decade series is with Chandra Devanarayana, Executive Director of RED in Sri Lanka, whose work with women in free trade zones offers powerful insights into community-led development.

Lasting change begins with local leadership and community agency. To Chandra, this includes supporting garment workers to advocate for fair wages and backing women-led disaster responses after Cyclone Ditwah in 2025.

Read the full interview and discover her vision for strengthening community-led development in Sri Lanka: https://mcld.org/2026/07/22/voices-of-the-decade-chandra-devanarayana/

We are still thinking about the leadership lessons from the earlier this year.

In this reflection, MCLD Malawi member Eddah Nyirenda, Founder and Executive Director of the Girls Shine Foundation Malawi, shares five powerful takeaways from the 2026 WILD Leadership for Social Impact Forum

Eddah's insights are a reminder that meaningful leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about building trust, investing in people, and creating lasting change alongside communities.

If you're interested in leadership, gender equality, locally led development, or strengthening community impact, this is well worth a read.

🔗 https://mcld.org/2026/07/14/takeaways-from-the-wild-fellowship/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083326059739

Girls Shine Foundation A non profit making and local CSO working to advance the well being of girls and women in Malawi.

Minority World funders often talk about shifting power. Peace Direct has just launched a free self-assessment tool to check that commitment.

The tool looks at five dimensions that shape funding relationships: who decides which problems get addressed, who sets the strategy, who holds the power once funding starts moving, how much funding actually reaches the ground, and who decides what counts as success.

Free, self-guided, and available in English, Arabic, Spanish and French.

If you're a funder, or you work with one, this is for you.
🔗 Get your results: https://www.peacedirect.org/funder-report-card/

Rooted in several rounds of consultations with people from a wide range of organisations and co-designed by EJ Win and Alex Martins. It is coordinated by CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, MCLD, Peace Direct, United Network of Young Peacebuilders, Peace Direct, and The Advocacy Team.

Consider supporting GlobalGiving's Venezuela Earthquake Relief Fund to help local organizations deliver crucial support, including emergency medical care, food, clean water, and temporary shelter, in the days following the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela.

Local organizations are embedded in their communities and are able to respond quickly in times of crisis.

Venezuela Earthquake Relief Fund Venezuela has been devastated by two powerful earthquakes that struck just moments apart, triggering tsunami warnings and causing widespread destruction across Caracas and surrounding coastal communities. Buildings have collapsed, critical infrastructure has been damaged, and rescue operations are o...

What have we learned from the voices behind MCLD's first decade?

No matter where people are, these messages keep coming through:

💚 Communities know their strengths.
💚 Communities know their challenges.
💚 Communities know what change looks like.

The leaders featured in our Voices of the Decade series have shared stories about collective action, local leadership, partnership, and hope. They've reminded us that meaningful change happens when people come together around a shared vision for their communities.

As we celebrate MCLD's learning and collaboration, we're grateful to everyone who has contributed their experiences, ideas, and leadership to this growing movement.

Thank you for helping build a future where communities are not just included in development, but lead it.

Read the full interviews so far: https://mcld.org/voices-of-the-decade/

What is one example of community-led change that has inspired you?

Voices of the Decade For the past decade, MCLD’s work has been shaped by incredible people. Voices of the Decade is an interview series featuring the leaders, partners, and changemakers who helped build our community. …

Join the Movement for Community-Led Development (MCLD) and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) at our upcoming webinar on June 2!

We will start to create a platform for dialogue, learning, sharing of best practices, successes and challenges of community-led approaches to development.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TBxuAnjXRa-gcLRAHItvAQ #/registration

Movement for Community Led Development - Malawi Chapter

𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Yesterday, as the closing speaker and the only civil society representative on the closing panel at OECD’s Future of Development Cooperation conference , our very own Gunjan Veda reminded power brokers, nations, funders and civil society how important it is to remember that all of us – be it governments, civil society or even corporates – derive our power and seats at the table from a single source: people.

And when we think of people, it is not enough to talk about economic growth, trade, or sovereignty. We need to think about inequality and justice and rights and care.

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔, 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒎, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎." - Gunjan

Gunjan also urged us not to continue to make people, countries, and civil society organizations compete for resources.

"Imagine what would happen if you told the organs in the body that they had to compete for oxygen and food. No matter which organ won, the body would collapse. The old system was based on the idea of scarcity. It made us compete for everything. What if we built the new system on the idea of abundance, on connection, not competition?"

Photos by OECD.

Young people are not waiting for permission to lead. They are building their own seat at the table.

In the interview for MCLD's Voices of the Decade series, Akuzike Phiri, climate activist, youth advocate, and member of MCLD’s Youth Task Force, shares her journey from community environmental action in Malawi to global climate conversations at . She reminds us that youth leadership already exists; what’s often missing is access, inclusion, and opportunity. MCLD's Youth Task Force is working to change that.

MCLD’s Youth Task Force creates connection, solidarity, and opportunity for young leaders across regions to learn from one another and shape development together.

Read Akuzike’s full story: https://mcld.org/2026/05/08/voices-of-the-decade-akuzike-phiri/

Movement for Community Led Development - Malawi Chapter

Rowlands Kaotcha was part of MCLD's launch in Malawi, and since then, has become the President and CEO of one of our strongest partners, The Hunger Project

We are excited to share an interview with Rowlands as our next Voices of the Decade feature. We dig deep into what MCLD means to him, The Hunger Project’s support for MCLD, and what gives him hope for the future.

Don’t miss this interview, now on our website: https://mcld.org/2026/04/22/voices-of-the-decade-rowlands-kaotcha/

Every two weeks, we’re sharing a conversation about the moments, lessons, and ideas that shaped the last ten years — and what comes next.



Photo credit: The Hunger Project