Sustainability of Externally Donated Projects, Mohammed Al-Khaldi. 2010.

Sustainability of
Externally Donated
Projects
Presenter:

Mohammed Al Khaldi
Supervisor:

Dr. Bassam Abu Hamad
2011-2010
Moh. Khaldi-Seminar 2010

Objectives:
 Understanding the sustainability

(concepts, factors, types, sustainability
MGM, elements
, dimensions, implications, strategies).
 Donor and Provider Perspective.
 Donor’s activities and in opt.
 Research and Studies are related.
 Comparative Case Study (tow projects).


Sustainability as the one element of
project delivery:
A measure of the degree to which an
organization’s efforts are likely to continue in the
long term once support has been phased out.
sustainability is usually a function of support from
constituents
and local partners. It tends to
occur when constituents perceive that programs
are important and have validity to them, and
when they participate in and feel a sense of
ownership of program.


Sustainability Definition:
 To keep in existence.
 The ability of a system of any kind to endure
and be healthy over the long term. A “sustainable

society” is one that is healthy, vital, resilient, and
able to creatively adapt to changing conditions
over time.
 The ability of an organization to develop a
strategy of growth and development that
continues to function indefinitely
.
(Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Leadership).


A Preferred Definition
SUSTAINABILITY:
The continuation of community health or quality
of life
benefits over time.





(Center for Civic Partnerships, “Sustainability Toolkit”)



Sustainable
Benefits

Managing sustainability



Key factors Affecting Sustainability


Partner Government and Donor Policies
Participation
Management & Organization
Financial
Awareness & Training
Technology








Social, Gender & Culture
Environment


External political and economic factors

(1
partner Government & donor Policy


-



-





planning horizon



-

-

-




Participation


demand-led









Management & Organization
o

Management Structure & Local Capacity

o

o


Financial


counterpart Contribution
-

- User-pays

Private Sector Involvement








Awareness & Training



-



Technology



Types of NGO Sustainability
-

-








Dimensions of NGO Sustainability
Legal
Environment
Organizational
Capability
Financial
Viability
Advocacy
Service Provision
Infrastructure
Public Image



















Implications of the Definition
The focus should be on sustaining

positive change for children and families,
not perpetuating
specific programs
or rigid service models
Sustainability is about much more than
money – vision, leadership, relationships,
community engagement, public policy and
other factors are just as important.


Key Questions
 Sustainability of what?
 To achieve what end

results?
 At what level of activity?

 For how long?

Essential Elements for
Sustainability
1. Vision
2. Results Orientation
3. Strategic Financing Orientation
4. Broad-Based Community Support
5. Key Champions
6. Adaptability to Changing Conditions
7. Strong Internal Systems

8. Sustainability Plan
The Finance Project, “Sustaining Community Initiatives: Key Elements for Success”, April 2002

How “Sustainability” Is Used?
 Service providers:
 “Keep my funding at 100%+ of current levels.”

 “Keep my staff in place, avoid layoffs.”
 “Keep my current programs going.”

 Funders:
 “Keep the program alive after we cut or eliminate your

funding.”
 “Take over roles we are currently serving.”
(e.g. promoting collaboration, technical assistance,
evaluation)

Project Sustainability Defined
 What project
sustainability means

 What project
sustainability doesn’t

 Maintaining the

mean

outcomes, goals and
products
 Institutionalizing the
process

o Maintaining staff

positions
 Maintaining all
activities
 Depending on grant
funding


Project Sustainability:
Ask the right questions
 What are we doing? Do other people know
what we’re doing?

 What outcomes do we want to sustain? Is
there data to support our results?
 What are the fiscal needs?
 What are the management needs?
 Who champions this initiative?
 Who else do these outcomes affect? Whose
interests does this support?

Strategies for Sustainability
 Develop broad-based relationships/partnerships that

foster collaboration.
 Involve all stakeholders:

parents, students, business, politicians, community leaders, school
administrations, funders.
 Nurture community involvement.
 Develop a core of supporters.

 Be visible. Develop an outreach plan

.
 Link evaluation to project success and then to marketing.
 Be flexible. Modify the project based on evaluation and
feedback.
 Communicate, communicate, communicate.
 Share resources. Share expertise. Share successes.

Develop a Sustainability Plan
 Begin today.
 Think broadly.
 Include partners and crucial players.
 Include short and long-term sustainability
goals.
 Set priorities for sustainability. What are the
most important outcomes that you want to
maintain?


Occupation Vs. Sustainability:
 Israeli occupation severely impacted the project impact and
provision of basic services, with extensive disruption caused
to water and sanitation networks, energy supplies and
facilities, roads and bridges, and the telecommunications
system. The agriculture sector was severely affected, with
the
widespread
destruction
of
cultivated
land, greenhouses, livestock and poultry farms, water
wells, irrigation networks, and other productive assets.
Fragile
ground-water
resources
were
severely
compromised, particularly from the destruction of the wastewater infrastructure (WB,AHLC,2009).
 In addition the separation wall, chick points, military
invasions, blocked , crossings flow and settlements.

Sustainability and Politic
(peace process)
 The fact that the major donors, notably the US and the EU put

more emphasis on sustaining the peace rather than
strengthening the civil society made the surface of
authoritarian and patrimonial traits inevitable.
 On the other hand, among the PA leadership personal

interests were held before the national interests, and that
brought about corruption, increasingly bureaucratic state and
a Palestinian authority which was unable to resist the Israeli
polices violating the agreements. Therefore a combination of
external and internal factors led to the end of peace process
with a violent uprising. However the involvement of the
international community led by the US to the PalestinianIsraeli conflict continued with reform prescriptions.

According the IMF report 2010,
 the implementation of development projects will be
stepped up in 2010.
 given the increased focus on community-based

projects that are less vulnerable to restrictions on
movement and access, and assuming an easing of
restrictions on the entry of inputs for Gaza’s
development projects. Public investment would rise
from about $400 million in 2009 to a total of $670
million in 2010, about $350 million of which will
consist of community-based projects.
 The ultimate goal which should be the cornerstone
of the NGOs implementing the projects is to bring
permanent beneficence and qualitative change of
social , economic and health status in the opt.

Three main trends characterizing donor aid in the
West Bank and Gaza at present:(EU,CIDSE)
 First, there is very little development money

available; assistance is primarily humanitarian
and emergency response. Clearly, this sort of
assistance is needed but it is a short-term solution
that does little if anything to prepare for the future.
 Second, after Annapolis there is once again a
trend of directing substantial donor fund flows
directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which
mean Gaza neglect.
 Third, donor discomfort over the Hamas
authorities in Gaza, as example USAID permit no
assistance for any sides although the MOH
needs.

 “Palestinian society is now largely dependent for its

survival on external aid and not on its own productive
resources. According to the analyst Khalil Naqleh, “nearly
one million live on their PA monthly salaries [which are
dependent on] receiving donations from outside on time;
no less than 40-50 thousand live directly on their salaries
from externally-funded NGOs, and some many more
thousands live on NGO projects etc. Thus, the livelihood
of most Palestinians who have “steady” income is
mortgaged by political decisions external to them, and
beyond their control.”(EU,CIDSE,2008)

 This limits the creation of opportunities for creativity

and productivity to achieve sustainability in all
aspects of our lives and promotes the principle of
subsidiary(
).

Progress Community Donor’s Aids
 Emergency versus Development 1994-1997
called (Emergency Assistance Programme) extending from 1994 until the
end of 1997, was characterized by continuous reversal in most economic
indicators, along with rising unemployment and poverty rates as a result
of the Israeli authority’s closure policy at that time..

 Humanitarians Assistance Programme 1998 –
2000 was, in contrast to the previous stage, characterized by tangible
improvement in a number of economic and social indicators in the
Palestinian territories, as seen in a rise in Palestinian GDP and declining
rates of unemployment and poverty among Palestinians.

 Sustainable Human Development with Good
Governance. which began with the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, with the
accompanying Israeli policies, inflicted excessive damages on the infrastructure and
superstructure of all sectors within the Palestinian territories. The impact of these
measures became readily apparent in early 2001 and continued to escalate through
the time (Birzeit niversity, 2005).

WHO strategies for health
projects sustainability in opt.
Health policy and systems development,
 Coordination,
 Technical support in particular areas

and
 Advocacy „health as a human right and as a
bridge for peace‟.


Study
The Effect of USAID Funding in Developing the Palestinian
Community- From Palestinian Non-governmental
Organizations perspective , Gaza Strip (Abeer Qita- IUG,2009)

Conclusion







Cont’ The Effect of USAID Funding in Developing the Palestinian
Community- From Palestinian Non-governmental
Organizations perspective , Gaza Strip (Abeer Qita- IUG,2009)









Finally yet importantly, According to Organization for Economic CoOperation and Development, the United States action agenda to
strengthen the effectiveness of its foreign assistance is based on the five
principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (USAID, 2008):
 1. Ownership: Partner countries exercise effective leadership over

their
development policies and strategies, and coordinate development
actions.
 2. Alignment: Donors base their overall support on partner

countries’ national
development strategies, institutions, and procedures.
 3. Harmonization: Donors’ actions are more

harmonized, transparent, and collectively effective.
 4. Managing for results: Managing resources and improving

decision making for development results.
 5. Mutual accountability: Donors and partners are accountable for

development results.

(Abu Nahla, 2008) study
" Role of Palestinian NGOs in Utilizing the international Fund to
Promote Entrepreneurs and Create sustainable Job
Opportunities, Case Study: Gaza Strip"
investigates the role of the PNGOs played in utilizing the international
fund in supporting the entrepreneurs and create sustainable jobs.
The researcher recommended that PNA should increase its efforts to
play roles that are more vital in coordination between PNGOs and the
donors and it should join forces with PNGOs to complement not to
compete each other's. PNGOs should support and encourage
entrepreneurs by concentrating part of their fund towards financing their
creative ideas. Also donors should take more systematic approach to
PNGO funding, placing less emphasis on emergency projects financing
and more on development programs and finally donors should provide
their fund to the PNGOs according to PNGOs priorities not according to
donors' policies.


(Othman, 2005) study
“Proposed Evaluation Approach for Evaluating
Externally Funded Infrastructure Projects in Palestine“


Aims to develop an evaluation approach for evaluating externally funded
infrastructure projects that is suitable for use in developing countries,
especially Palestine. The developed approach consists of three
phases, i.e.
Phase 1: Preparation for an Evaluation;
Phase 2: Planning and Management an Evaluation;
Phase 3: Communication Findings and Utilizing Results.
The approach encourages the usage of local materials in infrastructure
projects and gives it precedence over imported materials. It enhances
the community participation and the active involvement of project
stakeholders in evaluating infrastructure projects.

It is recommended that the developed approach be used in the
evaluation of infrastructure projects in Palestine and also in other
countries of limited resources after possible modifications concerning
influencing factors and evaluation criteria. The approach will improve
the planning and implementation of infrastructure projects, which will
enable the achievement of their objectives in cost effective and timely
manner.

Bargouthi Study:
The relationship of Palestinian NGOs and the donor
community is not without negative aspects. Donor aid is
often accompanied by specific, and sometimes
conflicting, political agendas. Lack of internal organization
and clearly established sets of priorities within the NGO
community forced many civil society associations to accept
without challenge the will of donor groups. The heightened
state of dependency weakened the ability of Palestinian
NGOs move decisively in the direction of sustainable
development, and resulted in the wasting of financial
resources, duplication of projects, diminished quality of
services, and a subjugation of the NGO leadership and
vision to the donor community. In addition, donors
unintentionally pitted NGOs against one another in an
unhealthy competition for funding. NGOs tailored their
programs to align with the stated objectives of donor
initiatives in order to secure resources (Bargouthi , 2000).

Ibrahim Abdulla Master Thesis

“Institutional Sustainability”
 Qualitative findings from the open-ended questions:

The researcher used semi-structured interview , asked projects
managers, the one of all interview questions is :
What is the situation with projects continuity and sustainability?
o sustainability is not addressed in most cases. And if it is addressed

due to donor request it is superficial.
o the sustainability is impossible in light of he existing political, social

and economic circumstances.
 Researcher statistical comments:
o Sustainability practice are , also problematic since %55 of the sample

suffers from poor level, and remaining 45% of the sample have
reasonable level of performance.
o With respect to sustainability , the sustainability of the outcomes is not

focused upon in any stage of the projects life cycle. The NGO consider
it because the donors insist on it in the project proposals and reports.

Answering of the first research question (What are

the malpractices and deficiencies in the
project management field?)


The comparison between the number of
organization according to the UNSCO-NGO Guide
and the findings of Awad study.

developed by the researcher based on the data available in UNSCO Guide (2002)
and Awad (2006)

Mechanisms of Donor’s:


Problems in the aid delivery system in
Palestine:


Cont’


Aid Delivery System Problems:


The Factor Affecting Projects Sustainability
in Occupied Palestinian Territories(opt).
 Absence of a centralized D.M (National Agenda or
Priorities based on data) in the opt.
 Political, socioeconomic , environment factors.
 Weak PNGOs Capacity and Governance.
 Weak the coordination techniques and
incompatibility Donor's efforts.
 Unclear PNA development strategy vision.
 Donor’s Agendas.
 Inadequate Politician and Community Involvement.
 Sustainability Limitations and other’s.

Action Framework


Discussion point:

Do you think IR (CFW)and USAID
(HANAN) project sustainable or
unsustainable? Why?


Thank you
for inviting me and giving me an
opportunity
Thank you
for your attention and patience.
Send your comments to:
Moh.khaldi83@gmail.com

Sustainability of Externally Donated Projects, Mohammed Al-Khaldi. 2010.

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