STAGE 7. Defining the sustainability and dissemination plan

What steps should be completed?

Step 1: Planning sustainability

CONDITIONS AND RESOURCES REQUIRED FOR SUSTAINABILITY

In general, an intervention needs practically the same conditions for continuity as it did to be started in the first place. These are:

1. That the population remains willing to continue: the results of the process evaluation take into account the population’s willingness to continue to be involved in the intervention, and it also advisable to explore their perception of the intervention’s strengths and weaknesses in the future.
2. That the human, technical, economic and structural resources are available for it to continue: intervention managers should estimate the other resources that will be required when the original ones have been exhausted.
3. That the various people involved (community, politicians, population, financers, etc.) support it continuing: it is advisable to estimate what support, and at what level, the intervention requires to enable it to continue after the first implementation.

To this we must add the experiences that the intervention has generated in the region where it was implemented, which will probably be quite beneficial if the intervention has been satisfactory, but there will likely also be some drawbacks that will have to be overcome.

One Step@a Time recommends that you review the information in Stage 2 "Analysing feasibility" to help you explore the conditions and resources needed for intervention sustainability.