Local Support Organisations: An Exit Strategy for Rural Development NGOs

Rural development NGOs are often trapped into indefinite support for the grassroots organisations they help to create. This article explores an exit strategy whereby such NGOs help to establish multi‐tier apex organisations of, rather than for, the people, that are able to replace them. This enables them to move on to other communities or to address their resource constraints as donor funding becomes tighter. Drawing on fieldwork, it argues that a gradual withdrawal and building on community social capital are more likely to lead to the success of such a strategy.     

“Inclusive Entrepreneurship”: A Process for Improving Self-Employment for People with Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This article describes the theoretical framework, processes, and outcomes associated with a U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Programs (ODEP)-funded project: “Start-UP NY.” Beginning in 2007, ODEP funded three Start-UP projects throughout the United States to test and demonstrate improved practices supporting entrepreneurship among people with diverse disabilities, including those with mental illnesses and veterans with disabilities. The New York project coined the term “Inclusive Entrepreneurship” to describe a model that promoted change at the individual, program, and systems level to improve the rate of small business development by people with disabilities. The author describes the genesis of the project, its intended effects and the lessons learned along the way that resulted in either course corrections or improvements, He then discusses how the project has been sustained and provides recommendations for replicating the project’s approach and methods in other United States communities or in other countries.