Community-Led Development (CLD) Tools & Resources

CLD is a way of thinking and acting that can be used everywhere, by everyone. From local neighbourhoods and rural communities to local and central government. It can be applied to the way any organisation, group, iwi, hapū, business or community organisation develop their own strategies, services, ethics, mindsets and capabilities.

Together, we learn by doing.

These are our suggested go-to resources if you are just getting started: 

There is no one way of doing CLD ‘right’. We start from where we are and initiate community-led change by finding others who hold a shared vision. Together, we learn by doing and we apply CLD principles to guide how things might evolve and develop. 

  • What is CLD – covers our core CLD principles and our favourite frameworks that foster CLD thinking and practice
  • Getting Started Kete  – 5 sections below with practical tips, questions and tools designed to help you get action started in your local place
  • Shaping the Future – insights from CLD ‘learning by doing’ that helps those in government, funding or many other roles play their part in shaping a future where CLD approaches are embedded in our culture of ‘how things are done’ in Aotearoa

Getting Started Kete

Our Getting Started kete will help you apply each of our 5 CLD principles to your role using:

  • Practical tools, skills and resources, building on the starter kete foundations 
  • Actions, stories and examples of people across different roles and environments, and how they applied them

Digging Deeper Kete

Go further with CLD Principles

Building on our getting started kete, find many more tools and practices here that support CLD work in the longer term, as you grapple with issues like getting effective governance structures organised, growing shared local leadership, building collaborations across sectors. These tools are all linked to the Inspiring Communities’ five core CLD principles.

In each of the 5 sections, you will find tools you can use, examples of how communities have used them, and further resource links. We aim to include a diverse suite of videos, tactical examples and frameworks. Please contact us with your stories, learnings and suggestions.


All of these resources are grounded in years of research, collaboration, reflection and practice with people doing CLD mahi in Aotearoa and internationally. They are the foundations on which we continue to learn and grow. 

We honour all those communities and organisations who have shared their practice and wisdom with us to create these resources. We hope this kete of tools affirms what you already know and do, and expands your learning about the diverse ways Aotearoa communities can – and are – creating positive change.