Who knows better what a community needs than the people living in it? Yet in development and peacebuilding work, decisions about funding and priorities are often made far from those communities – particularly in conflict-affected areas. The Participatory Grantmaking Guide was created to change that by redistributing power and transforming relationships between funders, NGOs, and local communities.

This guide is for organisations that want to work in a fairer, more inclusive, and more effective way. It offers practical, step-by-step advice on how to share decision-making power with the people most affected – especially those who traditionally face exclusion from these processes. The result? Greater trust, ownership, and lasting change.

The guide is based on real experiences from the Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA), where women- and youth-led organisations in conflict-affected contexts took the lead in designing and implementing initiatives for peace, dialogue, and inclusion.

JISRA is an international consortium of civil society organisations working for peace and equality. Mensen met een Missie is proud to be part of this partnership and to contribute to this transformative approach.

Download the JISRA Participatory Grantmaking Guide for implementers and discover how to put communities at the centre of decision-making.