The Kit Yamoyo diarrhoea treatment kit under local production in Zambia for the local Zambian market. The kit was designed, and the local market developed, using one-off donor funding.
What is self-sustaining development and why is it important? Simon Berry — Outsight Associate — explains…
The term ‘sustainable development’ appears often in international development discussions. But what does it mean? The phrase can be used interchangeably to mean one of two things which are, in fact, very different. In the environmental sense it means ‘living within our environmental limits’ — development that ‘meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The term, however, also describes development that carries on once the resources used to create it are removed. Here, I refer to the latter form of sustainable development as ‘self-sustaining development’, to distinguish it from what one might call ‘environmentally sustainable development’.
In 2010, my partner and I started discussions with stakeholders in Zambia around transforming access to oral rehydration salts (ORS), the globally recommended treatment for childhood diarrhoea. Having established that there was local interest, we set-up a UK-based charity, ColaLife, to take the idea further. We started with a trial of the idea and went on to a national scale-up. By 2016 a locally designed and tested diarrhoea treatment kit was available nationwide in supermarkets and in hundreds of small shops. Additionally, the government were showing interest in a government-branded version for distribution through its clinics.
Donor funding finished two years ago (March 2018) and ColaLife formally completed its role in September 2018. It is early days, but all indications are that the transformation we achieved while we were involved and donor funds were flowing will continue to be self-sustaining. In fact, things have developed further with the government adopting the diarrhoea treatment kit as the standard in the public sector. The change that was created with the help of donor funding and external support from ColaLife has survived following the withdrawal of both. It has proved to be self-sustaining.
How does one achieve development that is self-sustaining?
Here are some key principles I have developed over the years while working with others on development projects that I think are crucial if you are to achieve self-sustaining development.
Plan for self-sustainability from the outset - You don’t achieve self-sustaining development while being forced to come up with ‘an exit strategy’ two years before donor funding comes to an end.
Don’t do anything that makes you or your organisation a permanent part of the solution - This is crucial and is the foundation for the other principles. If you allow yourself to become a part of the solution, then, by definition, when you leave, part of the solution will leave too! It is alarming how many ‘development’ initiatives fall into this trap, always with at least two negative consequences: firstly, the change they created while operational is not sustained; secondly, while operational they are likely to have undermined and weakened the capacity of local organisations who have the long-term responsibility for creating and sustaining the desired change.
Do everything through local systems and structures - If you are not to become a permanent part of the solution, then you will have to work through local systems and structures. Where these lack capacity or direction, help build the capacity, help refine or improve the direction. Above all, avoid setting-up parallel systems or structures.
Build a ‘smart partnership’ to guide planning, testing and scale-up - It follows that you will need to work in partnership with local stakeholders. However, it is important how these partnerships are formed and operate. It is important that partnerships are formed around a shared vision not around an organisation or an individual. When this is done successfully, it promotes engagement, ensures shared ownership of the vision and helps ensure that the partnership will survive the departure of any single member. We call partnerships formed around a vision ‘smart partnerships’. From the outset, be open and inclusive: invite everyone in, as part of a process where a broad membership can self-select their level of engagement. Some may go on to become implementation partners, while others may continue as a broader consultative group.
Self-sustaining development should fit with government policy - If it doesn’t, seek to better align plans or work with government to influence or advocate for policy change. It is unlikely that any initiative that doesn’t fit with local policy will be self-sustaining.
Engage your intended beneficiaries from the very outset - This sounds obvious but it often overlooked. It is essential to operate on the basis of what you know people want, rather than on what you think they need.
Be invisible - The urge, on the part of donors and development agencies, to brand everything they fund or support is overwhelming. However, this must resisted as it completely changes how the intervention is perceived. For example:
This was the original artwork for the billboard for the promotion of the diarrhoea treatment kit - Kit Yamoyo – at the start of the scale-up in Zambia.
In a second phase of marketing a USAID project, run by JSI, agreed to fund additional billboards but insisted on having their logos on the billboards and these ended up looking like this.
This was a mistake. Inherent in ColaLife’s self-sustainability approach is that any donor assistance should not be permanent. This approach is not compatible with donor branding being on any customer-facing aspect of the intervention.
Integrating these principles into your project
Undoubtedly, many of these principles may require a more extensive level of planning and analysis than was originally thought necessary, yet there is no such thing as too much preparation. As explained by Dan McClure (another Outsight Associate) in his blog post on ‘Mastering the art of hard problems (and avoiding the rush to easy solutions)’ — mapping the complex systems and stakeholders involved with a problem or possible solution is essential in order to ensure that these principles can be integrated efficiently into development initiatives. Do not be scared to think big and think ahead early on in order to ensure you’re not putting out fires or having to re-orientate the project at significant extra cost further down the line.
Investing in the right things at an early stage — system design thinking, researching the existing structures, analysing the problem, and stakeholder engagement — will ensure a project stands a much better chance at becoming self-sustaining and, thus, create a greater positive impact for beneficiaries.
ABOUT Simon AND OUTSIGHT INTERNATIONAL
Over a 40-year career Simon has been a leader in the voluntary, private and public sectors. He has lived and worked in South America, the Caribbean, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. He is an expert on self-sustaining development – development that out-lives the resources that were used to achieve it.
Outsight International provides services to the humanitarian and development sector in an efficient and agile way. Outsight International builds on the range of expertise offered by a network of Associates in order to deliver quality results adapted to the specific tasks at hand. If you’d like to discuss working with Simon and the Outsight team, please get in touch or follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates.