Control and ownership

How much control will you have over the program? It might sound simple; it's your program and you run it. You control the team and hold the purse-strings. And sometimes it really is that simple, especially if you provide something akin to commercial service to customers.

But it can be much more difficult. Perhaps holding the purse-strings creates resentment. What about the local people who feel ownership of the program? You might consult them for advice, and they might do most of the hands-on work? They might resent having no real decision-making role in the program, especially if their futures depend on it. What about if you plan to hand the project over to them? Do you make local colleagues feel like second-class staff?

The normal solutions are:

• Have a joint board that runs the program, with board members from the local organization and the CD organization.
• Have a fully integrated system from the start, where locals and CD workers are considered the same.
• Have a liaison system or cooperative relationship between the CD organization board and an independent local body.

All three approaches can work, and none of them is flawless in all situations. Choosing between them depends on factors such as:

1. whether the CD organization plans to finish the project and then move away
2. whether the CD organization will hand over the ongoing project to a local organization
3. whether the CD organization establishes a new local organization or works with a pre-existing local organization
4. the relative socio-economic statuses and cultural dimensions of the CD organization and the local organization. (Integration does not work well if they are dramatically different.)
5. the nature of the CD organization and the local legal situation. (In some countries, they must be legally integrated, in others they cannot be.) Government agencies usually cannot be fully integrated.

Ownership

Then there's the matter of ownership. Who will be the legal owners of facilities and equipment at the time? And when you leave?

If you fund something, who will be responsible for debts incurred for repairs or accidents? What about insurance? What if they don't look after it? If the locals employ contractors for a project building, who is responsible to liaise with them, make sure they get paid, handle contingencies, etc.?

What if the locals promise the earth, but don't do what they said?