The Sustainability Strategies resource library provides guidance on how grantees can ensure that the results achieved can be maintained after the project ends. Sustainability should be integrated into the definition and planning stage and be a consideration for all outputs and outcomes achieved during the project.
Introduction to Sustainability in International Development
- UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development |This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. The Agenda details the UN’s vision for sustainable development and includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets.
- Effective Sustainability and Exit Strategies for USAID FFP Development Food Assistance Projects |The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University carried out multi-year studies, which provide guidance to future projects on how to achieve lasting benefits. This webpage includes the full list of documents produced under this research.
- Sustaining Development: A Synthesis of Results from a Four-Country Study of Sustainability and Exit Strategies among Development Food Assistance Projects | This is the full final report of the FANTA study. The objective of the study was to determine what factors enhanced the likelihood of sustained project activities and benefits in order to provide guidance to future FFP development food assistance projects, with implications for other development projects as well, on how to ensure sustainability. This study informs ILAB’s Theory of Sustained Change (TOsC).
Sustainability and Transition Plans
- Guide for Developing Sustainability and Transition Plans – Version 2.0 | The Guide for Developing Sustainability and Transition Plans – Version 2.0 is a tool that was created under the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project for project leaders to co-develop sustainability and transition plans (S&T) with in-country stakeholders such as Ministries of Health (MOHs), universities, etc. through policy dialogue and high-level, boardroom-style meetings.
Sustainability for Workers' Rights Programs
- ILAB Sustainability Guide | This Sustainability Guide is intended to serve a resource to ILAB project managers and Grantees in their efforts to ensure that valuable development gains are sustained once project funding ends. ILAB’s Management Procedures and Guidelines (MPGs) for Cooperative Agreements establish clear expectations for sustaining achievements after project funding ends. The MPG states that “strategies should explain how the project’s specific outcomes will be sustained after the project ends.”
- Indicators and Monitoring for Sustainability | This report by Mathematica based on a synthesis review of OTLA project evaluations provides guidance for incorporating sustainability into indicators and project monitoring (starting on page 6).