International Non-Governmental Organisation Training And Research Centre ("Intrac")

Looking back over the past year, the word that comes to mind is ‘change’. In June 2024 we launched our new strategic framework: ‘Locally Rooted, Globally Connected’. This framework saw us recommit to our mission – of strengthening civil society – but marked a fundamental shift in how we seek to deliver it. Over the next five years we will focus our attention on transforming the civil society support ecosystem. We are working to develop a network of locally-rooted, globally-connected consultants: deeply knowledgeable about the settings in which they work but connecting across contexts and continents - working in partnership and sharing learning and expertise with others working in distinct locations across the globe. Over time INTRAC will become increasingly network-led shifting how we have been working and who we are working with. The closure of USAID in early 2025 was followed by announcements of cuts by FCDO in the UK and then by further significant reductions in ODA across many European countries. These cuts contribute to an ever more turbulent external environment in which we are operating. We have deep concerns about the impact of reduced aid for those living in poverty and lacking access to their rights. However, we are also clear that shifts in the aid sector create space for a new vision of international cooperation, predicated on shared values and vision rather than the transactional movement of funds. In fact, the changes taking place serve to consolidate our commitment to our strategy: investing in sustainable, effective, legitimate ecosystems of civil society support as part of an integrated healthy civil society in every context. Our investment in network development has been grounded in our commitment to ethical and values-driven consultancy. Clarifying the principles that underpin this approach has enabled us to be explicit about our assumptions of quality consultancy and build momentum in both the commissioning of (demand for) and professional development of (supply) consultancy. We have facilitated processes with INGOs and funders to examine the way they commission consultancy support and to unpack common assumptions as to what constitutes quality consultancy. We have also invested in localising consultancy. One example is our collaboration with Children’s Rights and Violence Prevention Fund (CRVPF) in East Africa on a co-designed programme to build a local consultancy network. Another is our work with C4Change Indonesia and WACSI in Ghana to develop national/sub-regional networks of consultants - embedded as part of their civil society and sharing a commitment to shifting the power through consultancy. This work has taken place through deep engagement and exploration of existing ecosystems, as we want to build on what exists already and collaborate to strengthen existing systems. Our work in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China and Japan is a strong example of our focus on ecosystems. We have been working with national actors in these countries to understand the current landscape and design a capacity strengthening initiative to enable civil society actors to access support appropriate to their context, needs and priorities. Over the past year we have increasingly developed our skills and experience in evaluation practices that shift the power; building learning from our work on feminist evaluation and deepening our understanding of the contribution that evaluation makes to decolonial thinking. Setting up SPARK, an OD community of practice, has also enabled us to engage with a wider community of OD practitioners, diversifying and deepening the support we can offer to civil society. This has been particularly important in response to the ODA cuts, which has seen us strengthen our understanding of trauma-informed process and organisational endings on the one hand, as well as invest in alternative resource mobilisation approaches on the other. This learning has informed our renewed training offer developed in partnership with new trainers working in different countries across the majority world. As ever, the success of INTRAC is down to the dedication, insight and expertise of our people: our staff, network, and partners who put our values into practice every day, and offer practical solutions, critical friendship, and joint analysis to a wide range of commissioners, training participants and consultancy clients. As we look forward to 2025-26 we know that this will be a further year of change as the sector responds to ongoing shifts in funding, in expectations of shifting roles and responsibilities and consolidation of more equitable ways of working. We look forward to working alongside others, acting in solidarity, bringing inspiration and creativity as we navigate the world around us.