Sustainability equals Accountability

Harold Dampier Jr. is a skilled legal professional who draws from nearly three decades of US and international legal experience. An advisor and educator on access to justice initiatives, Harold Dampier Jr. works with the United States Agency International Development (USAID) as the senior strategic advisor for Justice Matters Activity, with National Center for State Courts (NCSC) as the implementing partner.

Let’s face it the most important thing in international development is sustainability. After all it is the return on the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars or euros in democratic state growth. But when building a sustainable project, the glue that holds it all together is accountability. For example, you create an institution and mentor, monitor and evaluate the institution as it matures. You invest in training including capacity building while always watching deliverables. A key to your success in building the institution is measuring its growth through accountability. Accountability meaning meeting milestones set at the beginning of the project. If the goals are not met the institution may lose technical support. The government may lose donor recognition.

At the end of the project it is time to slowly handover responsibilities of management to the institution. But who sets objectives and targets in your absence? More importantly who monitors progress towards those goals and what are the consequences for not meeting those milestones? 

Once you have ended your support how many times have you seen the institutional perspective change from reward-based growth to stagnation. Maybe not going backwards but certainly not moving forward. What has changed? The answer is no more accountability to you or your government. 

Therefore, in order to be successful all handover plans should include an accountability component. More than just a strategic plan, but consequences for not meeting the strategic objectives. In order to be successful through sustainability, over site power must to be assigned to a board, committee, or executive authority. This over site authority should have the power to evaluate the growth of the institution. An old stagnant institution with no growth will prove to be irrelevant to he needs of the population and for all practice purposes cease to exist.  If it does not exist then your time and money was wasted in building and an unsustainable institution. But if the institution continues to grow by reaching achievable goals then the return on the donor government’s investment was constructive. So, when building or implementing a project never forget that sustainability equals accountability.