Development actors have long raised concerns that the impact of demand-side governance projects cannot be sustained. What kinds of approaches have different Governance and Transparency Fund projects sought to develop and implement in order both to ensure the sustainability of their interventions, and to help partner organisations become self-sustaining over the long term? What efforts have been most effective and why, and what are the challenges that still lie ahead?

Drawing from WaterAid’s experiences in India and Uganda this session will explore key elements that need to be in place:

• For communities to be able to deal with their own issues without support or presence of NGOs

• To ensure access to information and transparency of operations from government and/or service providers; participation of NGOs and other civil society organisations in policy development and sector strategy development and a two-way dialogue and consultation between NGOs/civil society and government/service providers.

The session will explore the extent to which these key elements have been delivered and what needs to happen in the future.