Transition is essential to locally led development. Transition is not simply the withdrawal of international actors following the close-down of a program. It requires building in ownership from the design of a program and a deliberate, consistent transfer of responsibility and ownership over time to local entities which is crucial to sustainability of the program impact. Sustainability, especially at scale, requires an active role from government to continue services and sustain outcomes that build the resilience of communities and children. Governments have the primary responsibility to fulfill and protect the rights of the population. Governments deeply impact the resiliency of local systems.

‘Nobo Jatra – new beginning’ is a USAID-funded resilience and food security project in Bangladesh implemented by World Vision in southwest Bangladesh. The first five years of the project (2015-2020) focused on implementing activities of gender equitable food security, nutrition, and resilience, but from October 2020-September 2022, the Nobo Jatra Project shifted focus from implementation to sustainability, systems strengthening, and transition with a two-year cost extension from USAID. Throughout these seven years, the Government of Bangladesh was a key stakeholder and driving force behind project success. We reflect on some of the facilitating factors that encouraged strong partnership with an eventual transition of project activities to government.

How INGOs enter matters¹ just as much as how they leave: partnerships based on solidarity and trust from the beginning allow for smoother transitions.

Nobo Jatra worked in close partnership with government stakeholders and aligned activities to government systems to build in ownership and establish trust. The project focused on strengthening capacities and advocating for resources that would sustain quality services provided by the government long-term.

This collaborative partnership began during the design phase where local government stakeholders were key informants in shaping the course of the project priorities and providing input to the project needs assessment. A Host Country Agreement (like a Memorandum of Understanding) between Nobo Jatra and the Government of Bangladesh provided a formal structure and credibility for the working relationship which was integral to transitioning the program to the government. Regular coordination at the national level is bolstered by closer coordination at the local level. Given that Nobo Jatra is implemented in southwest Bangladesh, a region characterized by the rapid and slow impacts of climate change, the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief leads coordination with Nobo Jatra, though ownership across diverse ministries was established and is critical to multi-sectoral program sustainability.

A key success in promoting government ownership was regular field visits from various Ministries and departments to Nobo Jatra working areas to observe project activities firsthand and interact with local communities and local government officials. Stakeholders taking part in these field visits then became powerful advocates for Nobo Jatra’s priorities at the national level. A culmination of these relationships and coordination resulted in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief petitioning the Economic Relations Division to formally request USAID for an extension to Nobo Jatra. This spurred USAID Bangladesh to award Nobo Jatra a two-year extension (which is currently under final negotiation and likely to be awarded in October 2022).

Transition plans that remain flexible and adaptive support local ownership.

Successful transition plans are guided by a vision of sustainability. Although government ownership was built into Nobo Jatra’s design and early implementation, the concrete steps the team would take to ensure sustainability were not yet articulated. Recommendations from the 2018 mid-term evaluation encouraged Nobo Jatra to revise and strengthen the project’s sustainability strategy and systematically engage in the process of transition and handover with government, private sector, and communities themselves. Based on this recommendation, a detailed sustainability matrix was developed with local government. The sustainability matrix was a live, evolving tool, and it was socialized extensively within Nobo Jatra teams including field operations teams who were then able to advocate for the services to sustain during regular engagement with government administrations.

INGOs that promote local leadership are able to transition in a more sustainable way.

In Bangladesh, as with many low resource settings, public coordination mechanisms exist on paper but not in practice. For example, Water Management Committees are government structures at the local level mandated to facilitate access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation in coordination with local Government. When Nobo Jatra began, these committees had to be reformed and members trained on their roles and responsibilities. Nobo Jatra did this in partnership with the Government Department of Public Health and Engineering. A similar process was followed to reform and build capacity of Disaster Management Committees, Child Protection Committees, and committees aligned to government health service points.

These coordination mechanisms ensure a resilient local system. They are catalysts for service provision with strong links to higher levels of government where technical support is accessed and financial decisions are made. Nobo Jatra’s monitoring data and preliminary end line evaluation data point to the sustainability of these committees and the services they oversee.

Responsible program transition to government should ensure social accountability.

Transition of donor-funded activities to the government can guarantee sustainability and scalability for years to come, but it must be done with a lens of mutual accountability to the community. While an NGO can play a facilitating role in the project transition, the government is meant to serve the local community and be responsive to their needs. In Bangladesh, Nobo Jatra laid the foundation for this social accountability by equipping community members in a solution called Citizens Voice and Action (CVA).

As a result of CVA activities, communities saw direct improvements in public sector service provision. While social accountability at the local level can yield impressive results, Nobo Jatra facilitated a systematic dissemination of CVA data with Government stakeholders to encourage a ‘trickle up’ process whereby information shared at sub-district, district and national level could influence broader budgeting and policy making. Strengthening social accountability encourages sustainability and improves the responsiveness of public sector systems. It works by “reminding” duty bearers and service providers to do their jobs while providing them with the motivation to overcome their inertia.

When embarking on project transition, NGOs need to ask themselves, how are we encouraging a resilient local system where government fulfills its responsibility and citizens have a voice?

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¹https://www.stoppingassuccess.org/resources/synthesis/

This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of World Vision and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.