What does sustainability mean? Examining a model in Haiti

Organizations develop processes and structures to ensure that they can survive - and thrive - over the long term.


The question of sustainability becomes more difficult when we develop initiatives in challenging parts of the world. The "challenge factor" of sustainability increases when the initiative involves partnerships between the global south and the global north.

In 2016, we launched the Educator and Leadership Institute in Haiti. We were committed to a sustainable model and put into place a number of strategies to support its sustainability. These included:

• many meetings in advance of the launch to ensure solid partnerships between Haitian and Canadian partners
• a common goal and core values
• a financial model that included contributions from both Haitian and Canadian partners
• each participant - both Haitian and Canadian - would contribute to the cost of participating in ELI
• a budget that included no compensation for any person thus minimizing overhead
• division of responsibilities so that no person had too many things to do or too much authority
• no financial support provided from the Canadian to Haitian partners
• a research component to continually examine the model

Now that we are in our fourth year, we are still working on some of the details of how to support the sustainability of ELI in Haiti. A number of new aspects are supporting the sustainability of ELI:

• Haitian teachers who are working with the Canadian instructors and gradually taking on more teaching responsibility
• moving the location to the school of our primary Haitian partner
• a leadership development program for Haitian teachers who've been identified as having significant potential for leadership
• engaging Haitian university students who are working with Canadian university students to host the STEAM camp
• developing a Leadership in Training program for children attending the camp so that they may be future leaders of the camp

We really will not know if ELI is sustainable until the Canadian component has been significantly decreased. Will ELI continue? This year, we have reduced the Canadian component by 25% (compared to 2018) and this will increase to 50% next year. So far, things have run even more smoothly than the previous three years so that is a great sign! 

Is ELI sustainable? We have put into place many strategies to ensure this ... and so far this model appear to be highly effective with great promise for the future.