Strengthening the Local Economy

One strategy used by several development initiatives to increase their self-sustainability is to strengthen the beneficiary community’s economy.

Regardless of whether an initiative is directly aimed at economic development or not, it is very common for economics to be woven into any area of community life. This is why many projects that deal with health, education, literacy, and so on, have realized that they can create more comprehensive solutions to social problems when they also gear efforts (and budget) towards strengthening the community’s economy. This benefits their self-sustainability because when communities have the means to become involved in their own development processes, they bring not only material contributions, but perspectives, knowledge and proposals that can help projects become even more comprehensive and relevant to their context. In addition, improving the local economy increases the local resources that projects have at their disposal to address a problem, which reduces their dependence on external support.  

In order to strengthen local economies, some projects improve local capacity to produce and exchange goods and services –some do so through models of cooperation while others opt for competition. In this way, problems can be solved with less dependence on external funding or on the projects themselves. Some initiatives create barter systems or alternative currencies, for instance, promoting solidarity, organization and the use of local resources. Others offer education and training courses to local actors. Still others create or incubate entrepreneurship projects, such as tours of the area, arts and crafts, etc.