Which way to sustainability? External support to health projects in developing countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the process by whichdonors decide whether or not to support specific primary healthcare projects. First of all, there has to be an ‘eligiblesituation’: an inability to start without external support,coupled with an ability to sustain the project (without suchsupport) once it has started. Secondly there must an ‘eligibleproject’, that is, a project that requires support ofa ‘one-time-only’ nature (for example, capital outlay);or recurrent support to temporary activities (such as salariesfor a temporary campaign), or temporary support to recurrentactivities (for the initial stages of innovative programmes).Proposals for really innovative programmes are seldom readilyavailable, and the most appropriate form of support may thenbe to support an institution charged with the development ofsuch innovative programmes.