Fostering Internal Communication
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
Several development initiatives become more self-sustainable by improving internal communication.
Many development projects have noticed that their self-sustainability is hindered when communication among their own members is lacking –perhaps because they don’t have enough channels or spaces to communicate properly, or maybe because their current means of communication can’t put everyone’s interests and ways of working across, or breach the cultural, social, ethnic or economic divisions that exist among members.
When communication among an initiative’s areas and participants works, there tends to be a more efficient and effective management of available resources because efforts are not duplicated or wasted. In addition, good communication often makes a project’s processes more transparent, which helps everyone have greater clarity on plans, objectives and priorities, as well as on what each person is supposed to do and what exactly is enhancing or diminishing self-sustainability. Efficient communication is also useful when trying to identify and incorporate all the various stakeholders’ interests to create more comprehensive solutions that are relevant to more people.
Many initiatives design mechanisms specifically aimed at improving communication among their members, which can range from institutional e-mails, regular meetings, or even appointing people or teams to foster internal communication and build bridges between the project’s different areas. Some take special care to systematize their work model in order to clearly communicate objectives and specify the tasks that each participant must carry out. Others use geographic maps to visualize problems and facilitate discussions on possible solutions. Still others organize events or exhibitions, or create rotating management dynamics to raise awareness among their internal collaborators and familiarize them with all the different aspects of the initiative’s target development problem, as well as with the potential impact of their work and the ways in which they could get involved or contribute.
There are many different ways to build good internal communication to make a development project more self-sustainable. Take a look at how these initiatives have done it!
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