Given its participatory and intermediary orientation, the paradox confronting IIJD’s mission is that the qualities which make us participatory – and therefore attractive intermediaries – are more people-centered and solutions-driven.  The current approach with the current setup of global problem solving, especially in dealing with security, justice, Africa development crisis and its persistent poverty, is not efficient.  How we deal today with several global issues that our world faces over the years determine how well the planet fares over the next generation.  We must begin addressing the underlying causes of the problems our world faces.  Not only do we have to deal with new challenges everyday, but the time we spend without solutions these problems are getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them are woefully inadequate to the task.

Despite decades of funding of development programs, millions of Africans, and in increasing number, are living in extreme poverty.  In addition to confronting the underlying causes of poverty at the international and national levels, the IIJD works at the local level to strengthen civil society.  The IIJD partners with local grassroots organizations to address community-defined problems.  Using local expertise to design and implement community-based projects, the IIJD reinforces the efforts of its partners with resources and expertise to achieve long-term solutions.  The IIJD is the audacity of tackling issues like global poverty with non conventional approaches.

One of the major constraints to group formation and capacity-building may be the donor’s or government’s pressure to disburse and deliver services quickly. Unless procedures are made more flexible and both the funding sources and the government are committed to supporting participatory processes, our management team may occasionally be pressed into a service-delivery rather than capacity-building role. The sustainability of international development programs and projects is based on the support given to the intermediary NGO’s role in building community ownership of projects, as well as designing and implementing plans for their future maintenance.

The IIJD ensures that its programs and projects guarantee long-term community development as their goal. As a result, IIJD pursues long-term community development by promoting active beneficiary participation.  The IIJD may also support the participatory strengths of NGO partners by introducing mechanisms which permit revisions in project priorities, greater flexibility in the timing and scale of implementation, and alternative procurement procedures – therefore, allowing local partner NGOs to design and implement their own programs.

Consultation from the outset concerning development objectives will help resolve eventual tensions between the short-term project focus of the funding source or government and the long-term community development goals of IIJD. To prevent tensions from occurring, IIJD’s collaboration includes mutual transparency and shared decision-making from very early in the project cycle. In addition, IIJD expresses its long-term community development goals as early as possible in the design of the projects and in the definition of involvement terms with banks and other financial institutions funding the projects.