How can we insure sustainability in rural development projects after the funding period?

This is a great question and a major issue with most international development, so I'm happy to see you bring it up. There are a lot of things to keep in mind, but I would say the most important thing to keep in mind is to ensure the project is financially feasible and can be sustained without continued external support. Additionally, participants in the project (i.e. those responsible for its continued success) must be internally motivated to keep the project running. While "how to do this" will look different depending on the individuals and cultures involved, there are a few widely acceptable ways in which one can do this: create transparency to the intended benefit of the project (i.e. show them what success looks like in a tangible way), have them make a "sweat equity" investment (i.e. have them work to build the infrastructure for the solution), ensure the solutions is appropriate for their current situation and ideal future state (key to HCD), try to develop social proof (e.g. other similar groups are and have, implemented a similar solution), provide the participants with autonomy (e.g. co-create the solution with them, don't just tell them what to do. This is similar to the concept of sweat equity but more focused on "cranial equity" to let them know their input is valued).

In short, international development (or any development for that matter) can never be sustainable if the solutions is simply "dropped from above" (think: "deus ex machina"). Also, my apologies if these terms are too vague or filled with jargon, but if you wish to discuss this further, please don't hesitate to reach out.

I would love to hear what others think about this. Has anyone seen funding that explicitly supports sustainability of a project? Also, has anyone seen widely-applicable solutions? Are there any main themes to these widely-applicable solutions? I have a few ideas myself, but would love to hear what you all think.

Connor

In my experience, a key question prior to starting any rural development project is whether it is driven by demand or supply. If it is a demand driven project, based on a well-known and accepted community need already articulated by those living in the community, it is much more likely to succeed once external funding ends. Too often, supply-driven projects based on donor agenda or external "perceived" need fail to capture the attention and commitment necessary from the receiving community and thus fail quickly once external support ends.

We organize self help groups for women and men in and around tiger reserves in India to sustain continued effort on community development. these can include sewing, computer class, driving class, handicrafts manufacturing etc

I will mention 3 key factors :
A strong sense of local ownership and genuine participation in design, project implementation and monitoring and evaluation by both men and women are critical to successful implementation and sustainable benefits, OECD (1989). Designs should build on local demand and initiatives. This requires that the stakeholders (i.e. the beneficiaries and local personnel) meaningfully participate and play a core role in the identification and design process. The idea should come from the community, belong to the community, and be a part of the community, it should be locally driven.

Political support and support by the authorities or authorized bodies is a key factor for the sustainability of impact of development projects. It is important to find the right level of support: local, regional, national or professional organisations. Programs and projects are implemented within a wider policy environment. Government policies can have significant impact on the sustainability of development programs or projects. The policy framework should be analysed and taken into account during project design. Programs and projects which ‘fit ’ with Partner Government policies have much better prospects for sustainability as they are more likely to have high-level political and institutional support both during implementation and beyond.

To promote sustainability of rural projects, the technology to be transferred must be selected on the basis of its appropriateness in terms of technical and financial criteria, plus social, gender and cultural acceptability. According to Gawler (2005), development institutions need to ask themselves the following questions with regards to technology: Are the technologies and methods appropriate, given the technical, human and financial resources of the people who will use and maintain them? Can repairs be done, and spare parts obtained, easily and at reasonable cost? Do the project technologies maximize the use of local labour and materials? Will local staff and communities be able to use the methods, equipment and infrastructures, and maintain them themselves after the end of the project? The appropriateness of the asset, infrastructure or equipment must be assessed against these questions

All projects face this problem if there is not enough upfront planning to ensure local ownership (including training but also involving them in the project from the very beginning). It is crucial (for non-profit as well as for-profit projects) to ensure from the start there is a local sponsor/leader who will take control of the endeavor and make sure the project stays active. Without this ownership (whether its run by a government representative, village leader etc.) the project will most likely not be able to sustain itself.

From the start of the project it is therefore critical to ensure that there is:
1) demand - already mentioned by others in the comments, so will not elaborate here on that
2) easy adoption - designed by listening to the community, listening to their needs
3) repeatablility - ensuring the community will be able to keep whatever the project established running by repeated use/development/improvement

Thanks Connor for your reply, With financially feasibility and beneficiaries very well knowing the intended benefit of the project still when it comes to owning the project people step back and major reasons in my experience is lack of motivation, unwillingness to take the leadership. As you mentioned, they should be internally motivated to keep the project running. But i would appreciate if you any ideas in doing this. Even i tried out few which dint work out.

I don't have specific information yet, but I will be looking into a project with subsistence farmers in rural Haiti. It might be a good starting point for all of us here. (I know it seems vague, but maybe we can all look up information and see if its pertinent. I was directed towards this example by someone in the US Gov and have yet to be able to research it more in-depth.)

I agree with Ingrid, most of the projects fails because its supply driven, we should put more efforts to divert supply driven projects to demand driven areas. this will not only help in developing inspiration & motivation for other suffering areas and develop demand environment.

you need to develop "need" in the community, we all know and accept "Necessity is the mother of invention", if few create need/necessity it will automatically find its way of survival.

secondly, development projects fails mainly for 2 reasons one lack of funding and lack of education.

just to add on top of Connor .."create transparency to the intended benefit of the project ". this will ensure proper use of funds, and will motivate other for participation and add equity, just because of transparency we can really add value to the project.

last but not the least, you need bring education and awareness in the people so that they can get involved into the development cycle which will result in a cyclic development process.

Link rural communities to rural state universities (if any) or urban classrooms. This is the hypothesis we are currently testing here in the Philippines through

and

Hi Archana,

Your concern about sustainability is a topic that touches many in donor funded development projects. I happen to be working on one in value chain development and this extactly the same issue I am facing. What I am currently doing to ensure sustainability is to:
a) Develop a business case for the activities the project is currently engaged in so that these are taken on collectively by the project beneficiaries or the private sector.
b) Create partnerships with existing government and or private sector driven structures in the area where the project is being implemented.

I am still in the initial stages of implementing the above sustainability efforts, but I have got general concesus with the beneficiaries that this might be the way to go.

But the approach will vary from project to project.

All the best,

Edward.

I have always felt that the fact this problem exists is one of the major issues with the way development is currently being run. International development at the moment, especially in emergency situations is reliant on an aid driven model. Some of the largest Not for Profits in the world will ask for x amount a day to feed one person. Such a method clearly isn't sustainable in the long term. It is barely sustainable in the short term.

As such, rural development projects, in fact, any development project should be viewed as any other business is. What are the input costs, what are the outputs, what is the potential life time and most importantly, can the locals take the system and continue it ad infinitum? If not, then it is probable that unless you have an infinite amount of money, you will run out of it and the people will be just as badly off, if not worse off, than they were before.

We tried linking the non profit outcomes (unviable things like education, training, infrastructure for basic services) with for profit ones (selling commodities from the village on the international market).

It did not work because we were too small to survive global commodity price fluctuations and needed a full fledged value chain community to support the producers for the long term. But I still believe this is the way to go.

One more lesson we learned is that transition from donor funding to self funding is NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE. If I would do a donor funded project again I would probably design it as a business like competition.

I am based in Auroville, near Pondy (an overnight bus journey from Bangalore), perhaps we can organise a talk on this topic at our Social Enterprise incubator??

Cheers
Gijs

Hello Archana,

I believe this issue depends on the nature of your project. You need to endow your project with a productive element. This can be done before its launched (during the design phase) or once it is established. Sometimes it can be hard to connect productivity with social initiatives but its a job that needs to be done in order to secure your actions.

In here you can find a guide that will help you to put a 4rth sector business plan together.

Check it out and let me know if I can help.

The aspect of sustainability is embedded in the design section. Generally an exhaustive pipeline of solutions and more particularly developing a sustainable revenue model which are Steps 3 and 1 of the Deliver section respectively, would ensure sustainability of all resources long after the end of initial funding of the project.

Archana, there is an issue of temporary (upward) alterations to cash flows that are experienced by several actors (and an incentive for many to engage) in the development project context, and the failure to assess the short-term risk presented by that alteration can often cause dependency and post-project collapse.

Project are short-term in their nature, and need to be accompanied by a long-term revenue (or benefit) model, or potentially by 'policy-change' (although this is much more intangible and difficult to achieve) in order to ensure sustainability. That is assuming there is a long-term component which is where I propose that there is a disconnect between the idea of 'projects' and 'long-term sustainability'.

I suggest that a better definition of long-term sustainability is included in your dialogue, and perhaps 100 years gives some dimension to that. Of course, a 10 year revenue (benefit) model might be all that is realistically 'plan-able', so that would also be a good place to start. Add that to your feasibility criteria next time you are planning a new project.

It is very important to identify who are the leaders in the community and engage them from the beginning in the project. The leaders are often not the most obvious individuals identified (such as a political or religious figure), but might that person that everyone in the community goes to when they need advice on a certain aspect of their life. Capacitating and involving those individuals from the beginning ensures ownership and those responsibilities to continue driving the project once you leave. I would also recommend including a sustainable livelihood component to the project.

One way is to work within the resource constraints of the system and supporting building its capacity, rather than add more inputs. In the water and sanitation sector in Malawi, Districts are the implementers of service delivery for rural communities. The government is pretty much permanent, whereas NGOs are not. So the way to make a project more sustainable is to design it to support the Districts themselves in service delivery based on their needs (e.g. training and on-going support to build technical capacity of staff to manage finances, data, reporting, contracts, etc.), rather than directly implementing (e.g. drilling boreholes, installing taps).

If you apply a resource management lens to this, you can treat the current amount of resources in an existing system as your constraint on what's available in the long term. So whatever long-term outcome your project hopes to achieve will have to fit within the number of person-hours, amount of recurring regular income, equipment, etc. Then, the funding and resources that you put into the system should go towards "development" activities that are more akin to a capital investment. They are a one-time cost, have an expiry date, and don't require a constant stream of funding afterwards.

On a rural scale, one example of this is the construction of new boreholes or shallow wells. It is demand-driven by the community so they apply for a new borehole or shallow well. They need to supply some of the construction materials and labour, as well as start a maintenance fund to demonstrate they are committed to maintaining the water point themselves. The donor funds the expensive parts, like the hand pump and contractors, as well as a training for a committee from the community to maintain the water point. From there, the community is responsible for keeping it up using their own resources. There are still lots of problems with this process, which is part of the reason I'm working in Malawi, but it is effective for a large number of communities to access safe drinking water.

Thanks for your question! I would love to reframe it to all types of projects, not only rural. On my experience this is something to prepare from the day number one in an initiative!

Dear Archana,
congratulations on your excellent question!

I assume you are talking about financial sustainability.

I think firstly you need to make sure you found real needs.
Example: Are farmers lacking access to:
a) markets (e.g. no one to buy their products or too cheap)
b) knowledge (e.g. how to fight plagues, plant a given crop effectively)?
c) information (e.g. prices in the regional capital are rising but they still sell at the same price).
etc, every context can be quite specific.
NOT: buying a water pump without anyone that can fix it, or that represents a too high of a cost in fuel.

2 - Once you know how the value chain looks like and what needs to be tackled. Your job is to co-design and motivate a process where you endow people with the experience and knowledge to change the behaviour that explains the problem.
Example: You use a small demonstration plot for those farmers and you teach farmers how to prevent that plague that always affects their cocoa. Maybe only 2 out 30 will listen but then once those two yield more and better than the other 28, then more people will follow.

No free lunches - As Connor said Sweat Equity is critical, unfortunatly there are no free lunches, so it is the ability to solve problems with their available means, that will determine sustainability. It is also an indicator of how much people are commited to the solution.
Demonstrate sucess - Farmers are often very pragmatic people and want quick results.
Do replace roles in the system - if training is missing don't give it yourself encourage the best local farm to teach others, even if it means becoming a consultant. Moreover encourage them to exchange and/or look for knowledge through cooperatives, internet, etc.

One of the very useful and successful measures that I in my team have used and observed is to use a substantial part of funding for capacity building and creating ownership among people.
A woodcutter feels very proud when he tells his grandchildren that he is the one who cut the wood for the door for this famous temple in his village. No matter how everyone else feels about it, but the woodcutter always ensures maintainance and quality of the door.
It is sustainable.
It is very important and necessary to bring in new technologies which help people, but equally if not umpire important to allow them to learn and adapt that technology's for any future intervention for personal or community use.

You shouldn't start after the funding period if you really want this... Use your funding to start an enterprise or atleast an entrepreneurial project by the people themselves, so they have the insentive to continue the project even when the funding stops because they now have created another source of income. You might even want to consider using the funding as a loan not as a gift, to set the right tone and select the right collaboration partners. Or use the funding to trasfer the skills needed to solve their own problems/start their own enterprises.

I would love to keep in contact about your ideas, cases, experiences etc. as part of our AmIaDesigner research. On

you can find more infromation on our own experiences with this topic, like a movie about the WoW project, which is an effort to restart an existing weaving-project in Tanzania, that completely collapsed when the previous NGO pulled back (and stopped funding completely).

And I would deffenitly advice you to read Novogratz book the 'Blue Swaeter'. This is a quote from the book:

“I’ve learned that solutions to poverty must be driven by discipline, accountability, and market strength, not easy sentimentality. I’ve learned that many of the answers to poverty lie in the space between market and charity and that what is needed most of all is moral leadership willing to build solutions from the perspectives of poor people themselves rather than imposing grand theories and plans upon them. I’ve learned that people usually tell you the truth if you listen hard enough. If you don’t, you’ll hear what they think you want to hear. I’ve learned that there is no currency like trust and no catalyst like hope”

The lively exchange of opinions on this topic shows how sustainability has been debated and problematized over the years. This is the case not only for rural projects but for all projects of the philanthropic or charity organizations, called volunteer/non-profit/community organizations (labeled non-government organizations (NGOs) in my country, the Philippines.

Since financial sustainability has been the focus of many of the previous posted answers, I will discuss some other factors or components of sustainability of rural projects. There are many kinds of rural development projects. In particular, these components were used as indicators for sustainability in a rural road project, but can be used for other infrastructure projects in rural areas, and possibly even in urban areas.

Sustained usability of a rural road or infrastructure – means that the road or infrastructure, like a warehouse building or training room will remain to be useable even after the period of project funding. Even without external funding, the people in the community can maintain the infrastructure by providing volunteer services, i.e. cleaning and doing repairs. If there is a strong community organization, the leaders and members can take charge of these tasks as well as mobilizing other community members.

Sustainability of the green environment means that the project will not cause damage to the environment in the community. Examples of projects that may cause damage to the environment are roads that cause flooding due to improper design. If that happens, the road itself will be damaged eventually and the people will not support this project. Other projects such as handicrafts making which use plants available in the locale should ensure that the sources of raw materials for the project will not become extinct due to over harvesting. Therefore, the project should have a plan for re-planting or maintaining their natural habitat, in the case of forest flora and fauna. If any part of the project causes environmental damage, this project will be a burden instead to the people and will not be sustainable.

The establishment of a strong community organization, or the strengthening of the existing rural organizations which will continue to operate, manage the project efficiently and effectively after the end of funding is a critical step towards sustainability for all kinds of rural projects.