Local Voices, Donor Power: Rethinking Localisation in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Localisation has recently taken a central position in the discourse on international development. However, it is not quickly discernible whether it has shifted power, voice and decision-making to local actors in Zimbabwe or whether it reproduces donor-centric practices under new terminology. There is a dearth of research on how localisation is experienced, negotiated and represented by local organisations, communities and the media within Zimbabwe’s highly politicised aid landscape, as most scholarship focuses on donor commitments and frameworks while overlooking community perspectives. This paper examines how localisation is enacted, resisted and reinterpreted across different levels of Zimbabwe’s development ecosystem, assessing whether the country can advance toward a genuinely decolonised localisation agenda. It is grounded in a decolonial epistemological orientation and informed by media framing theory. The study employed a qualitative, interpretivist design, drawing on data from 26 questionnaires with local and community-based organisations, practitioners, donor and intermediary representatives, key informant media interviews, and analysis of policy and organisational documents from 2016–2025. Findings provide original empirical insight into localisation in practice, revealing tensions between donor-driven compliance systems, intermediary gatekeeping, local agency and elite-centred media representations. Community and media data illuminate contrasting portrayals of advocacy-oriented aid, exposing how visibility, voice and narrative control shape development representation. The paper concludes that advancing decolonial localisation requires structural reforms in funding modalities, recognition of African epistemologies such as Ubuntu, and transformation of media practices that marginalise local voices.