Sustaining BDS Programmes
Hi Jealous and Hi All,
Sustainability is a major challenge we face in project delivery, most interventions are not sustainable and so I have little experiences to share. However on the issue of sustainability, one project comes to mind, and it is a Youth Development Centres Project implemented by my Ministry in collaboration with UNICEF, it involved provision of a number of BDS services to the youth, such as vocational training, accesses to ICT, information etc. The project ended in the year 2004/2005 and activities are still continuing.
Certain steps that were taken in programme design and delivery that ensured sustainability and these steps are as follows:
• A needs assessment was conducted to ascertain the needs of the programe target (mostly the Youth)
• The youth and members of the community selected for programme intervention were involved in some stages of the programme planning, design and implementation
• Advocacy to a number of stakeholders in government and civil society to involve them in project delivery
• An exit strategy, which was to transfer ownership of project to the community.
Dear Shining Star,
Many thanks again for your your intervention. You raise a number of important points for sustainability. One of them is the demostration of need for the intervention by the target group. So, a needs assessment can hlp to show this. The principle is, if if they need it, they will most likely continue it. Sometimes we as development practitioners are accused of just shoving programmes down the throats of the people and we expect that to be sustained when we have exited! And the issue of the exit strategy is important - having t at the start and having it clearly is helpful. Jealous
