Challenge

Tech-based development interventions often stop being used after projects complete and/or funding runs out.

OUTCOME

A toolkit that provides practitioners with structured guidance for both local stakeholder tech handover and capacity building.

OvERVIEW

Sustainability remains a major challenge for development projects that utilize technology in their activities. Because most donor-funded projects are time-limited, tech-based interventions that are introduced, managed, and/or paid for by implementers often end when the project does. As a result, activities that are successful, impactful, and well-received can still be discontinued; this, in turn, can negatively impact the willingness of local stakeholders to integrate technology into their work in the future.

At Chemonics International, I led the effort to design a new approach to technological handover. A key issue that surfaced was that the staff who were involved in project completion - which typically involves report writing, finalizing any work with stakeholders, and fulfilling other contractual obligations - often came from DC-based teams without tech expertise. What this meant, in practice, was that these employees didn’t know what questions to ask or what documentation to gather so that local partners knew both why and how digital tools had been used and could replicate that work on their own.

The toolkit I developed in response to this issue was created in collaboration with both headquarters-based and local staff. It provides a detailed questionnaire that walks users through the process of documenting the ins and outs of a tech tool’s usage, including the initial challenge the project wanted to address, why certain platforms or tools were chosen, how many employees were needed to provide technical support, and even the average cost per hour of those employees’ labor. Ideally, the toolkit should be used in the last year of a project; the guidelines that come with it provide suggestions for identifying key local stakeholders and collaborating with them on the document so that the handover is as smooth and all partners are as informed as possible.

The Tech Sustainability Toolkit was piloted at the conclusion of USAID’s Sindh Reading Project (SRP) in Karachi, Pakistan, and was used to successfully transition a mobile literacy application to management by staff at the Sindh Education Foundation. Since then, the toolkit has been used by both local and DC-based staff to successfully hand over projects in a variety of countries.