Know-How

Several development projects leverage their own know-how or learn from the experience of other people or initiatives as a strategy to increase their self-sustainability.

Knowledge of a situation and its context is a valuable problem-solving tool, which is why:

• Some initiatives make the most of the know-how they have built over the years to better identify obstacles, opportunities, resources, and so on. This helps them to not waste efforts or repeat past mistakes, as well as to plan and adapt interventions that will be increasingly self-sustainable because resources will be better allocated. To achieve this, many carry out periodic evaluations to find out how the project is going; others ensure that their model is well systematized in order to have better control over what helps their self-sustainability and what hinders it; still others appoint teams to analyze how efficient and self-sufficient the work processes and interventions are; and several others organize annual reports to evaluate the project’s performance and its self-sustainability.
• In some cases, an initiative’s know-how even allows it to scale its working model up or share it with more communities so that it can become relevant to more people’s lives. Many initiatives have achieved this by creating demonstration models that can be replicated, pilot projects that can grow later on, collaborations with initiatives so that the sum of efforts can reach more populations, training programs for volunteers and beneficiaries to increase the project’s human capital, and so on.
• Other initiatives take advantage of other development projects’ knowledge and experience by considering the perspectives, concerns and proposals of organizations and colleagues working with the same communities or in the same area of development (such as health or education). 
• Similarly, several development projects draw from the first-hand experience of target communities themselves by organizing feedback dynamics, participatory diagnoses and meetings, or by delegating and sharing responsibilities and decisions with community members or local stakeholder organizations. After all, no one has more insight into a problem than those who actually experience it. Collaborating with local communities allows an initiative to create solutions that are more comprehensive and relevant to their context because knowledge –and especially the sum of perspectives– is one of the many resources that can contribute to project innovation and improvement. 
• Many development projects also use their know-how as an additional resource that allows them to increase and diversify their sources of support and thus become less dependent on just a few backers. Some use it to gain donors’ and beneficiaries’ trust because showing past results gives the project credibility, which is an important incentive for more people to contribute with financial, political or volunteer support. Some others, aware that experience is a valuable resource, decide to sell consultancies or training to other development projects in order to obtain more financial resources.