Balancing Global Consistency and Local Responsiveness: Toward a Global–Local Total Rewards Framework in INGO Compensation

International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) operating across African labour markets face a persistent reward-management tension: they must remain competitive for scarce talent while maintaining internal equity, organisational coherence and responsiveness to markedly different national economic and regulatory conditions. This study examines the compensation and benefits architecture of four donor-funded international development organisations operating in Africa using data from a structured external benchmarking exercise. An exploratory comparative design was adopted. Data were collected through a structured online benchmarking questionnaire covering salary structures, market positioning, benchmarking methods, salary review and progression, allowances and benefits, international–national staff differentiation, and non-monetary rewards, and were analysed using descriptive frequencies and comparative thematic analysis of convergence and divergence across organisations and employee categories. The findings show a hybrid architecture rather than either complete global standardisation or complete localisation. Internationally recruited employees were generally governed by more standardised arrangements and received a greater concentration of mobility-related benefits, whereas nationally recruited employees were more often remunerated through country-responsive structures. Participating organisations combined external market surveys, job evaluation, and internal benchmarking, and generally positioned salaries between the market median and the 75th percentile. The study develops a Global–Local Total Rewards Framework organised around four simultaneous imperatives: external competitiveness, internal equity, global consistency and local responsiveness. It further advances the concept of explainable differentiation: compensation differences may be defensible where they are transparently attributable to legitimate differences in job value, labour market, location, statutory context, mobility or economic conditions. The study contributes exploratory organisational-level evidence from an under-researched INGO and African context and identifies propositions for larger-scale testing.