✅ Strengthen Local Leadership and Ownership Checklist

Purpose: To ensure that EU and Member State media assistance empowers local actors as leaders—not just beneficiaries—by reducing compliance barriers, sharing decision-making power, and investing in long-term institutional capacity. Apply this checklist during programme design, partnership selection, and grant management.

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🧭 1. Strategic Alignment

Area	Key Questions	Action Points
Political	Are localisation and proportionality goals embedded in EU budget and policy frameworks?	Integrate localisation clauses in EP reports and Council Conclusions; require Commission reporting on share of funding reaching local partners.
Institutional	Are compliance and capacity-building treated as measurable outcomes?	Add “Localisation and Compliance Capacity” as an evaluation criterion in calls.
Partnership	Do programmes incentivise shared decision-making between international and local partners?	Require co-leadership or equitable budget control for local actors in all consortia.

💡 Tip: Treat local capacity not as a precondition, but as a result of EU support.

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🧱 2. Access & Compliance Proportionality

Dimension	Minimum Standard	Enhanced Practice
Due Diligence	Simplify audit and reporting requirements for smaller grants.	Adopt joint due-diligence across DGs and donors to avoid duplication.
Eligibility	Enable first-time and small grantees to apply directly through simplified tracks.	Pair with mentoring, compliance clinics, or peer learning.
Localisation	Include sub-granting and micro-grant windows in all major programmes.	Create multi-tiered grant pathways enabling local partners to “graduate” to direct grantee status.
Capacity Building	Allocate budget lines for compliance, HR, and management training.	Recognise compliance progress as a deliverable in evaluations.

💡 Tip: Proportional rules build trust and sustainability — complexity should never be a barrier to participation.

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🌍 3. Field Engagement & Local Co-Decision

Area	Key Questions	Action Points
EU Delegations	Are local media consulted before programme design and selection?	Budget for consultation time; establish advisory groups of local journalists and CSOs.
Dialogue	Are partners involved in setting priorities, not just implementing them?	Include co-decision clauses or shared governance boards in major programmes.
Inclusion	Are marginalised, regional, or minority-language media represented?	Reserve dedicated funding envelopes for community, youth, or women-led outlets.
Knowledge Transfer	Are local partners gaining administrative and strategic capacity?	Require INGOs to document how they transfer skills and compliance know-how to sub-grantees.

💡 Tip: Local leadership grows when consultation becomes co-decision, not token participation.

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🔄 4. Coordination & Coherence

Area	Good Practice	Enhanced Practice
Donor Level	Hold regular coordination huddles between Delegations, embassies, and national institutes.	Formalise through local donor compacts or MoUs to align calls, timelines, and due diligence.
Inter-DG	Share compliance templates and reporting standards across DGs.	Integrate joint monitoring and evaluation (MEL) frameworks to capture localisation progress.
Learning	Gather feedback from local partners after each funding cycle.	Use results to adjust eligibility thresholds and streamline compliance across EU services.

💡 Tip: Coordination reduces barriers for local actors and builds predictable, long-term partnerships.

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🌱 5. Sustainability & Leadership Outcomes

Focus Area	Key Actions	Outcome
Institutional Growth	Track local partners’ transition from sub-grantee to lead applicant.	Increased autonomy and ownership.
Long-Term Viability	Combine core support with training, safety, and digital resilience funding.	Stronger local institutions with stable staff and systems.
Evaluation	Include local satisfaction and power-sharing indicators in MEL frameworks.	Evidence-based localisation learning across EU instruments.
Equity	Monitor who leads and decides, not only who delivers outputs.	More inclusive and representative partnerships.

💡 Tip: Success is measured by who holds the pen—and whether local actors have the power and resources to define their own priorities.

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💡 Reminder: Local leadership is both a principle and a practice. Empowerment means shifting decision-making closer to those who live the realities of the media environment. When local partners lead, EU support becomes more credible, sustainable, and trusted by the societies it aims to serve.