Empowering Marginalized Communities: Assessing Ex-Post Sustainability of Foreign-Aided Development Projects Applying Sustainable Livelihood Approach

Abstract

Many modern societies have highly developed technologies and are wealthy in terms of their material and financial goods and resource use. Through flows of people, things, and information, they are also becoming more and more integrated. However, not all people and cultures have access to the same amount of resources, and not all of them participate equally in networked exchanges of goods and information. The benefits and costs that people and societies ultimately gain from using environmental resource stocks and flows are, in fact, allocated fairly inequitably among and within societies, which make up sovereign nations; and between families1. Then the development sector comes to the aid of the less privileged communities which is continuously seeking for new models aimed at solving the numerous issues faced by developing countries in a sustainable manner. This study attempts to assess ex-post sustainability of donor- aided development projects in Kyrgyzstan, in particular the project aimed to empower vulnerable families in marginalized communities by supporting them in a holistic way applying the sustainable livelihoods approach. In addition, the given thesis will examine the variables influencing the outputs' employability or extinction to identify obstacles limiting the sustainability of the development projects in Kyrgyzstan. Drawing on the sustainable livelihood approach, this thesis also aims to better understand the community ownership level and other social and economic variables that are drivers/barriers to the sustainability of former beneficiaries of development programs in marginalized communities in Kyrgyzstan. The research is based on a case study of the completed Social-Economic Empowerment of Marginalized Families project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development Cooperation and implemented in 2017-2021 in the Muras-Ordo novostroika (informal settlement).