Our Team

Steering Committee

A global group of experienced leaders who guide our strategy, challenge our thinking, and keep us accountable to the people and communities at the heart of this work.

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  Laura Alvarez

  Asunción, Paraguay

  Laura Alvarez is a sustainability professional advancing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives in the private sector. She has more than 20 years of experience in sustainable development, diplomacy, social project management, and institutional capacity strengthening across the public, multilateral, and international development sectors. Her expertise includes monitoring, evaluation and learning, strategic partnerships, localization, and locally led development. Laura believes the most sustainable and equitable solutions are designed and led by local organizations and communities, with decision-making authority and resources residing with those closest to the challenges and opportunities.

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  Nkula Edward Goma

  Lusaka, Zambia

  Nkula Edward Goma is Associate Director and Partnership Specialist at Growth Innovation and DevService (GIDS Hub), a Zambian social enterprise advancing locally led development. He brings more than 15 years of experience in program management, advocacy, communications, organizational development, and local partnerships, including roles with USAID Zambia and Diakonia Zambia. His expertise spans civil society strengthening, governance, extractive-sector accountability, and communication for development. Nkula holds a master’s degree in Communication for Development and believes in translating development principles into practical, locally led strategies that empower communities, strengthen institutions, and deliver lasting impact.

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  Zeeste Jahanzaib

  Karachi, Pakistan

  Zeeste Jahanzaib has managed complex development programs across Pakistan and Afghanistan for over twenty-three years, including thirteen with USAID and the U.S. State Department. Her work has spanned peacebuilding, youth engagement, governance, and locally led development, including a countering violent extremism grants program that supported more than 450 community-driven activities. What stayed with her was smaller: a youth-led debate and sports tournament in a conflict-prone area, still running years after the grant ended. When communities define their own problems, ownership follows, and ownership is what makes change last.

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  Sarah Maniates

  Washington, DC, USA

  Sarah Maniates became convinced of locally led development the hard way: first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a USAID prime implementing partner working with local organizations, watching traditional development projects fail in familiar ways. She was a member of the Local Works team in Washington, working primarily with field offices across eastern and southern Africa. She now works in program management for leadership development programs and remains engaged in conversations about what the development sector rebuilds into, and whether it can be more locally led.

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  Duong Nguyen Duc

  Hanoi, Vietnam

  Duong Nguyen Duc is an international development practitioner based in Vietnam with more than 25 years of experience in public-sector reform, health systems, environmental governance, organizational development, and monitoring, evaluation and learning. With USAID/Vietnam he held senior technical and leadership roles championing collective action as a practical approach to locally led development. In this space he brought together local governments, civil society, universities, businesses, and community networks to co-design solutions to environmental, climate, and public health challenges. Duong believes sustainable development is achieved not by transferring projects to local organizations, but by enabling local institutions and communities to lead, adapt and innovate within their own contexts.

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  Leon Nsiku

  Steering Committee Secretary

  Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  Leon Nsiku has spent fifteen years working on governance, peacebuilding, and locally led development across the DRC, the Great Lakes region, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and the Horn of Africa. He has advised diplomatic missions, civil society networks, and donor programs on conflict analysis, civic space, and institutional strengthening, and he led USAID’s localization efforts in the DRC. He currently works in policy and program advisory. He also serves on the advisory boards of two social enterprises, working on youth entrepreneurship and risk management across mining, health, and agriculture.

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  Manju Thapa Tuladhar

  Steering Committee Chair

  Kathmandu, Nepal

  Manju Thapa Tuladhar is a senior Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) adviser. Over several decades, including in a senior advisory role with USAID, she has advanced intersectional inclusion across governance, health, education, economic growth, climate, and humanitarian response. She holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Birmingham. As Co-Founder of the Nepal Local Works Foundation, she champions locally led development, inclusive leadership, and systems-level change. As a reformer dedicated to shifting power and centering people in development and humanitarian work, Dr Manju represents Nepal to the Movement for Community Led Development (mcld.org). Manju champions locally led change because she believes lasting progress requires shifting power and expanding leadership opportunities for women and marginalized groups.