"These are people you know, not just numbers!" exclaimed Joseph Miti, a Project Manager with A Self-Help Assistance Program (ASAP) Africa. We were discussing project targets and indicators at the field office in Nyanga, Zimbabwe, in April 2005. After more than 10 years in Nyanga, targets and theories about human development had become inconsequential. We had learned to follow the lead of our local staff, and to reject the numbers in favour of the people themselves-we were charting a new course in sustainability, and that road was uncertain.

I co-founded ASAP Africa in 1994 with Tom Arsenault, whom I had met and married during a stint in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland. We had headed to Zimbabwe with one-way plane tickets, bought an inexpensive vehicle and gave ourselves a year to "figure it out". As it turned out, however, we stayed for 11 years and built a successful organization. ASAP Africa helped build classrooms for over 11,300 students and housing for more than 200 teachers, as well as create a scholarship for needy children in over 100 schools. But only after over a decade of working to effect positive change in rural Africa were the facts about sustainable development becoming clear. We had established ASAP to assist people in their efforts to improve their lives, and now was the time for the sustainability test. In May 2005, we finally left Zimbabwe.

Joseph Miti, ASAP's VSL Project Manager, assists with training in rural Nyanga, Zimbabwe in June 2006. Photo/R. Tsunga

Watching the work of ASAP Africa grow and change, we were fortunate enough to have a first-hand look at development and its effective integration into a community. Our experience touches on the struggles that many non-governmental organizations face, but ultimately it was the programme's focus on giving Nyanga residents the reins that led to its success. Three major pillars helped us along as we pursued self-sustainability.

1. Avoid institution-building by channeling benefits directly to communities

ASAP's early projects focused on self-reliance through community-building and education. It helped communities come together to build classrooms and teacher housing in selected rural areas, providing building materials and training school heads to oversee the projects. The community provided the sand, stone, locally molded bricks and some labour as its contribution.

Child's drawing of ASAP staff members. Photo/R. Tsunga

During that time, ASAP also created an orphan scholarship fund. Committees of teachers and parents prioritized children by need to ensure that the most needy received funds first. Each year the number of requests escalated. After seven years, we had filled some desperate needs but we had no staff and had been unsuccessful in implementing anything sustainable. We decided to transfer our grass-roots efforts to local staff.

2. Develop local staff that will enhance sustainability and effectiveness of projects

The need to tackle the donor syndrome we had created became urgent as requests for scholarships continued to increase. In 2001, we restructured the programme to focus on increasing household security and income. We started with the Village Savings and Loan (VSL) project. Its basic goal was simple: for families, mainly women, to be able to pay their children's school fees.

Nyanga women show the results of their savings club success. Photo/R. Tsunga

The basic concept of this internal, self-funded internal savings and lending project consists of training self-selected groups, who agree to meet regularly to save and lend money with one another. The pooled savings is "on-lent" to one or more members at each meeting, and must be repaid at the next. Loan repayments and the monthly saving contributions accumulate with each meeting until the mutually agreed upon end of the operating cycle, when the accumulated amount is divided equally among the group's members and they start over. Local project ownership was emphasized as the key ingredient to success.

As groups met regularly, we saw the opportunity to enhance the benefits by utilizing the meetings as a platform to provide additional skills and knowledge. The Health and Nutrition Development Initiative (HANDEI) provided skills and knowledge about nutritional gardening, drip irrigation, and growing and using nutritional herbs, as well as about HIV/AIDS awareness. Community-selected leaders in each village attended training sessions and passed on skills to other villagers during the savings sessions. As skills spread through the local staff and community, ASAP was able to transition responsibility to local leadership itself.

3. Shift ownership and responsibility for the organization to local staff

Developing management staff with the skills and knowledge to implement and report on projects, as well as understanding working with donors, was the first step to shifting ownership. This didn't start with a rule book of policies and procedures, but with each department head developing and drafting rules and policies under which they expected their staff to operate. Once agreed upon, these policies were formally adopted.

Mr. Dhlandhlara, ASAP Zimbabwe Country Director, addresses stakeholders at a meeting with Ministry of Education. Photo/R. Tsunga.

Staff development continues every day and ASAP cherishes learning and education. We encourage and fund all staff to attend relevant courses to bring in needed skills to develop both the individual and ASAP. As we encounter new challenges, we work together to make the best decisions possible. Today, ASAP staff has an understanding that they have the power to make changes in their communities-that their good ideas have merit and are worth funding-and as they have felt increasingly empowered, the rise in enthusiasm has been obvious. The staff is eager and prepared to face the new challenges that growth will bring, to see their organization grow and become more locally and internationally prominent.

The dance of success at a Kufusa Mari VSL field day in Sedze, 2005 Photo/R. Tsunga

Lasting improvement will only be attained by empowering and building the capacity of local practitioners. You will not find these people at conferences in capital cities. You will find them in schools, churches and orphanages, often in the rural areas, too busy addressing local needs to attend conferences or even be aware of local opportunities for funding. As we learned in Zimbabwe, helping local practitioners connect with opportunities and building a path to sustain this connection is the most important part of development. In the end, it is only self-reliance that will end poverty.