About US
Roots of Development is a US-based nonprofit organization that supports and promotes community-led development.
We accompany local partners as they improve quality of life in their communities, and we advocate for aid efforts to center local knowledge, resources, and actions.
Our local partners strengthen social cohesion, develop dynamic leadership, foster mutual aid, and invest in the long-term success of their communities. These are the foundations for deep, transformative change that will sustainably improve lives for generations–in other words, the roots of development.
We defy traditional, top-down aid practices which have undermined local self-reliance, weakened civil society, wasted billions of dollars, and failed to make a meaningful impact on the war against poverty for over a century. With our model, initiatives begin and are led locally, the results are sustainable, and the work can continue through climate disasters, political crises, global pandemics, and anything else the world throws at us. We work for our partners, providing staff support, offering strategic guidance, and helping them secure the resources they need to be effective.
But working to make our partners stronger isn’t enough–we need to change the industry that undercuts local systems in the first place. We conduct research, learn from our partners, and advocate on their behalf, helping to push the aid landscape toward what we know works: local knowledge, local resources, local leadership, and local action supported by truly equitable international partnerships.
Our team is made up of community-led development specialists with decades of experience who have dedicated their careers to changing the international aid system for good. We are based in Washington, DC, with a network of allies that spans the globe. We work at the nexus of local groups; experts and academics; donors and funders; the diaspora and their organizations; US-based decision-makers; and advocates for community-led development practices. Together, we form an international community of support that believes the real experts should lead the way in solving the world’s greatest challenges–those on the front lines, navigating those challenges every day.
