Passing on the gift as an approach to sustainable development programmes

Impact and sustainability of programmes are critical issues facing the development community. Heifer International has honed its approach over more than 60 years. Heifer's approach includes: use of holistic, values-based, and affirmative community development process; Heifer's Cornerstones – values and principles to guide work, including ‘passing on the gift’; and measurement of impact at three levels – values, attitudes and knowledge; living conditions; and policy and systems change. The present article shares the experiences of Heifer International in addressing the key questions of assuring programme impact, sustainability, and the spread of benefits through Heifer's unique practice of ‘passing on the gift’.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614524.2012.664626