Sustainability

Sustainability concerns one of the most fundamental questions for technical cooperation: will the benefits and results achieved through the project be maintained and enhanced by the ultimate end-users and their community, based on their own commitment and resources, after the termination of the external assistance? The question entails a complex analysis of aspects related to this broad concept, including the acceptability and use to be made of project outputs and results by the intended groups targeted, their capacity to maintain the results, and the institutional and policy environments to enable them to do so.

Among the aspects of sustainability to be considered at design stage are:

• Institutional sustainability: i.e. can the strengthened institutional structure continue to deliver the results of the technical cooperation to the ultimate end-users? The results may not be sustainable if, for example, the planning unit strengthened by the technical cooperation ceases to have access to top-management or is not provided with adequate resources for the effective performance after the technical cooperation terminated;
  
• Economical and financial sustainability: i.e. can the results of the technical cooperation continue to yield an economic benefit after the technical cooperation is withdrawn? For example, the benefits from the introduction of new crops may not be sustained, if the constraints to marketing the crops are not resolved. Similarly, economic (distinct from financial) sustainability may be at risk, if the end-users continue to depend on heavily-subsidized activities and inputs.
  
• Environmental sustainability: i.e. are the benefits to be generated by the technical cooperation likely to lead to a deterioration in the physical environment (thus indirectly contributing to a fall in production) or well-being of the groups targeted and their society?

The issue of environmental sustainability may be less serious with technical cooperation than capital investment, but it still can occur when, for example, improperly practiced agricultural intensification may cause soil erosion or increased fishing capacity poses a threat to maintaining fish stocks at sustainable levels.