Thread:Sustaining BDS Programmes (1)

Dear Participants,

Let me start by thanking all of you who contributed extensively and technically to the introductory topic yesterday. We received and shared more other definitions, more explanations and more reference documents. New information was provided which just helped to further simplify and demonstrate that we are really reading from the same page.

Now, I would like to introduce a new topic in the form of a discussion question. And this is is really an important question. It is around sustainability of BDS interventions. I would like to ask us to share our experiences on what has worked as s sustanability model in your project. Let me explain. You start a BDS programme or project or intervention, say training or provision of market linkages. What sustainability model did you use? Please share with us if you think the model is good for others to learn from. Share with us when the initial project ended? Are the activitioes continuing after the project ended? Why do you think your sustanability model has worked?

I am saying this because as development practitioners we are increasingly now being asked not only to demonstrate impact and results but how to sustain the intervention and those results. Think about it - we have been talking about training and training for ages. We should by now have many good practices, tried and tested models which we can just roll out. Let us learn those models from you. Let us share our experiences so that others from across the world can learn.

wishing you the best,

Jealous