Cooperation vs Competition
a strategy for self-sustainability
More self-sustainability means having more autonomy and less reliance on external funding, expertise or decisions. It means having a larger capacity to choose and negotiate with other initiatives what’s best for your project and what’s not. It means an increasingly equitable participation, which will lead to development models that are more comprehensive and relevant for all, that is, more sustainable. Know more
One strategy used by several development initiatives and projects to become more self-sustainable is to choose between a cooperative and a competitive dynamic.
When development initiatives plan how to ensure their self-sustainability, many consider what type of development model they should promote to achieve it, whether a cooperative or a competitive one, or perhaps a combination of the two.
For some projects, competition is a good incentive to constantly improve the quality of services they offer, so they decide to differentiate their models in order to better promote themselves and attract more funds and other types of support. However, for some other initiatives, cooperation with other projects allows them to share resources and knowledge in order to complement each other and meet the needs of their beneficiaries in a more systemic and comprehensive way that, for that very reason, is more relevant to their interests.
Actually, there are many different ways to take on a cooperation or a competition model to make a project more self-sustainable. Take a look at how these initiatives have done it!
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