What Sustainability Means to the Poor Country?

Many developing countries are trying to find the best way for sustainable development with the funding support from donors, development partners, government, and its own generated income. So, what does sustainability mean to the poor country?

Based on experiences and community development in Cambodia, many organizations have raised some tips in term of their context and technical areas as below to have the sustainable development program in the developing country.

1. Sustainable Plan: Every development program should have its plan and strategy to guarantee that it's continually developing when the donor funding phase out.
2. Organizational/Institutional Development: In order to run the program smoothly and effectively, organizations must be developed strongly in the contents of Leadership and Management, Human Resources, Project and Program Management, Financial Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Information and Communication, and Data/evidence-based management.
3. Staff Capacity Building: Building capacity of staff is a part of organizational development in which it is the vital role to run the organization for high outcome and impact as well as for increasing productivity of program implementation.
4. Community Participation: Every program development should think about the target group and beneficiary of the program. Engaging community in the program is the way to fill the needs of people.
5. Government Participation: Government engagement is the bridge  to link the organizations' programs into the national systems and structures. Without this link, it might be difficult for program at the end of phasing out.
6. Government Capacity: In attempt to delegate programs to government ownership, government staff should be provided a capacity building properly.
7. Government Ownership: Every development issues must engage government institutions at the local levels to the national levels by sharing responsibility and providing ownership to the government. By doing so, the community leaders/ local authorities will accept the program as their own for people interest.
8. Exit Strategy/Phase Out: The program might be phased out at any time whenever no funding supports from donors for the program which are totally depending on donor funding.

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