International Development and Programs (Development Work) - International Development and Programs (Development Work)

According to USAID guidance - USAID's Strategy for Sustainable Development: An Overview:

Development is “sustainable” when it permanently enhances the capacity of a society to improve its quality of life. Sustainable development mandates participation. It must be based on the aspirations and experience of ordinary people, their notion of what problems should be addressed, and their consultations with government, development agencies, and among themselves. Sustainable development requires investments in human capital—in the education, health, food security, and well-being of the population.

Additional USAID guidance ("Theory and Practice in Sustainability and Sustainable Development") describes benefit sustainability: Within the development community, sustainability refers to the ability of benefit flows to be maintained after project funding ceases. Components of benefit sustainability include:

• Analysis of host government policies that support or constrain program objectives
• National and/or local commitment to project goals
• Program technology appropriate to the recipient country’s financial, ecological, and institutional capabilities, well integrated into the country’s social and cultural setting
• Community participation
• Ecological soundness
• Technical assistance oriented toward transferring skills and increasing institutional capacity and ability of the project to provide training to transfer the skills needed for capacity building
• Host country perception that the project is “effective”
• The degree of the program’s integration into the existing institutional framework
• Analysis of external political, economic, and environmental factors

Source: AUDIT REPORT NO. 1-511-11-006-P JULY 28, 2011

This information is derived from audit reports of the Office of the Inspector General. The source refers to the audit report, which is available on this site as part of the Audit Database Project: an educational tool for compliance with USAID regulations.  Please see the disclaimer of this site before using this information.