Incentives for Cooperation

Several development initiatives become more self-sustainable by coming up with incentives for cooperation.

Dynamics that favor cooperation from all fronts usually help projects be less dependent on one or a few sources of support, which in turn gives an initiative more leverage when negotiating with each of them. This is why many projects have found that attracting the participation and support of more actors allows them to achieve more self-sustainable interventions. When projects favor the cooperation of different actors, each participant brings different ideas, experiences, needs, interests and even resources to the table. Thus, drawing from a variety of perspectives and support –including those from local actors– gives interventions more elements to become comprehensive and relevant to everyone involved. But it is not always easy to achieve this participation and solidarity because there is a lot of mistrust or, sometimes, lack of clarity about the ways in which people and institutions could contribute to a project, or what the impact of each contribution could be.

This is why some development projects create incentives specifically designed to encourage collaboration. Many initiatives find it helpful, for example, to provide clear messages or displays of the specific ways in which stakeholders can contribute to the project, the benefits they will gain from doing so, and the potential impact of their contributions. Others use bridge builders (such as celebrities or volunteers) to raise public awareness of the problems they are working on and attract collaboration. Still others give leadership roles to members traditionally discriminated against by their communities, or to local organizations or leaders. There are also those that establish dynamics that promote participation, exchange and solidarity among the different members of the community to solve their common problems (such as bartering systems, for instance). 

Ensuring transparency and showing the results that the initiative has achieved in this or other instances helps them give certainty and build confidence so that more donors, volunteers and local people decide to get involved in their programs. Pilot projects, for example, are also a good strategy to show results and gain support for the future. In addition, delivering integrated services is another potential attraction because it offers benefits in many areas of life in the communities for less money since different programs can collaborate with each other and share resources and responsibilities.