Local4Dev Hub (L4D)

The Local4Dev (L4D) Hub Uganda is a strategic non-equity local partnership that focuses on business development, resource mobilization, project management and implementation, and MERL capacity sharing to enable collaborations and sustainable growth of the national organizations, companies, and professionals. L4D Hub Founding Partners are: Uganda Evaluation Association (UEA), CEMM Group, Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), MindLyfe, The National ICT Innovation Hub, and the GoU/OPM/M&E Department. Success for the L4D Hub can be summarized: IF the L4D Hub space is able to provide a revolving network of local evaluators, L/NNGOs, private sector, and Government of Uganda (GoU) stakeholders with learning-by-doing capacity sharing activities like: 1. High quality services to MEL awards holders via Hub mentoring and live fundraising 2. Collaborations to develop monetizable MERL innovations that increase both a familiarity with the local system and the risk-appetite that comes with familiarity 3. Responsible utilization of new AI tools for underutilized but essential “R” (research) products such as Political Economy Analysis (PEA), Local Systems Mapping, Stakeholder Analysis, measuring local context factors that contribute to #2 above AND in the process, develops the collective bargaining power to reach/exceed targets for: 1. Increases in Ugandan-led evaluations of foreign development investments 2. Calibration of remuneration rates representative of local expertise and contributions to MERL products 3. Sustainability of the Uganda MERL community via grants and mentoring 4. Integrate mental health approaches into program and activity designs THEN the L4D Hub will substantially contribute to localizing foreign funding, maximizing economic investments, and reducing dependency on aid funding.