Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Sustainability relates to the continuation of benefits of a project or intervention and is particularly relevant when a donor non-governmental organization (NGO) decides to withdraw its financial support. To ensure the investments made will not go to waste, the NGO might use an ‘exit strategy’ in which they support local partners for the aid withdrawal. Despite the importance of these strategies, little evaluative research has yet been done to test their use. Therefore, this research studies to what extent an exit strategy can help an organization to survive the financial withdrawal of their donor NGO. The context of the research is an ‘exit’ executed by the Liliane Foundation. In 2018, this Dutch NGO withdrew its support from 84 projects in Colombia. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were held with employees of these projects. To validate these results, they were tested in a digital survey amongst a larger sample of project employees. The findings show that there was a discrepancy between the goals set by the donor NGO and the goals of those undergoing the exit. While the NGO’s exit strategy focused on supporting organizations to find new donor funds, the organizations undergoing the exit preferred to find sources of income that would decrease their dependency on new donors. However, oftentimes they lacked the financial capacity to invest in something that would allow them to become fully self-sufficient. In conclusion, an exit strategy should be focused on helping organizations transition from being aid-dependent to self-sufficient.