Performance-based Trust

One strategy used by many development projects to increase their self-sustainability is to showcase past results in order to convey trustworthiness. 

In some contexts, development projects cause a certain distrust or perhaps apathy, which is why sometimes people are not particularly motivated to participate. Some communities’ distrust stems from abusive people or governments promising things without actually delivering them, while in other instances, community members don’t engage merely because they are not familiar with the initiative, what it wants to do and what it could actually achieve. For their part, potential donors are sometimes wary of initiatives because they are afraid of corruption, politicization or resource mismanagement, while some other times their distrust is due to the initiative’s innovative or uncommon ways of working since, in their view, it is not always clear if their solutions will actually be effective.

But many initiatives turn this mistrust around –whether it comes from beneficiary communities or from the people or institutions that could contribute resources, political support, and so on– by showing that they already have experience, that their innovations are relevant and that they have actually achieved good results in the past. 

In many cases, showcasing achievements has helped projects overcome barriers such as lack of interest and trust, and even those divisions (economic, racial, etc.) that exist in beneficiary communities and that sometimes prevent collaboration geared towards the solution of shared problems. But once they are assured that an initiative has already achieved good results, people are more encouraged to show solidarity and participate.

In addition, some development initiatives that have been operating in a specific area for a long time leverage their credibility among beneficiaries to attract collaborations with new projects interested in reaching out to these populations. 

For many initiatives, performance-based trust helps attract a wide range of sources of support, participation and collaborations. This increases their project’s self-sustainability because different stakeholders’ engagement brings information on their needs and interests as well as ideas, work, political support or other kinds of resources that can help initiatives become less strained by the terms set by each of their sources of support –which in turn helps them create solutions that are more comprehensive and relevant for more actors.

To show results, some development projects appoint teams or hire staff to systematize the initiative’s experience in applying certain work models, as well as to better spot and disseminate results by organizing events such as exhibitions. Others launch campaigns on social media or promote their achievements through other means, like TV. Still others collaborate with local organizations or leaders who can help them share their results with the rest of the community to encourage their engagement. Still others create pilot projects that help them show, even on a small scale, the potential impact their ideas or solutions could have if replicated or scaled.