4. Long Term Sustainability

“Irish Aid will support civil society organisations that consider the longer term impact, including the environmental impact, and sustainability of their interventions. We will encourage the strengthening of indigenous institutional and technical capacity to ensure the long-term management and maintenance of interventions.” (Irish Aid Civil Society Policy, pg. 10)

As part of our move towards a Programmatic Approach, SERVE has shifted its focus from narrow project interventions towards a more strategic approach with our partners that include organisational development and capacity building where appropriate.

SERVE’s three year development plan for 2009-2011, is the result of intensive engagement with our partners.

The longer term impact and sustainability of interventions is now a key element of our relationship with partners and SERVE has worked with partners to develop ways of measuring long term impact. SERVE ensures that good monitoring and evaluation structures are in place for all supported projects and that the beneficiaries are centrally involved in this process. Funding application forms that are submitted to SERVE contain questions on short term and long term outcomes, as well as questions on the direct and indirect number of beneficiaries, the gender breakdown of beneficiaries and the age group of beneficiaries.

SERVE and its partners believe that early intervention in the lives of children and young people can produce the best and most sustainable outcomes.

For example, Caritas Parnaiba and SERVE argue that the community housebuilding programmes is a successful intervention for children with long term benefits such as improved level of health and improved school attendance. Similarly, the early interventions of the OVC Programme, proposed in Rustenburg, South Africa with Tapologo, and the Young Africa Hostel Programme in Beira, Mozambique are programmes that can have significant positive long term impact on the beneficiaries, which are sustainable. Improved measuring of the long term impact of programmes also provides important lesson learning and opportunities for replication. For example, following the successful first phase of the Barefoot Lawyers Programme in Brazil, SERVE has included a similar programme in Rustenburg, South Africa.

SERVE believes that interventions can only be successful in the long term if indigenous institutional and technical capacity is supported and developed. Where appropriate, suitable handover strategies must be in place for successful projects to continue. SERVE supports Young Africa’s model of indigenous institutional and technical capacity building whereby local individuals work alongside expatriates or qualified local people initially and then assume full management of a project.

The management of the Young Africa Skills Centre in Chitungwiza, Harare, Zimbabwe was recently handed over from Dutch expatriates to a local Zimbabwean woman and management team. Local people are heavily involved in all of SERVE’S partners and they are deeply rooted in the local community. All partners have mechanisms whereby the concerns and opinions of the beneficiary community are expressed, and SERVE encourages all its partners to include local people on Boards of Management so they can play a key role in the governance of projects. SERVE has provided capacity building support to the income generation office of Caritas Parnaiba for a number of years.