Bridging organizations and sustainable development

This article concerns bridging organisations and their role in creating networks of horizontal and vertical linkages among organisations in order to improve the sustainability of development projects. Brown begins by discussing the role of network formation, horizontal and vertical linkages, and institutional factors in improving project sustainability. He then outlines three important organisational roles in determining project sustainability:

• The effectiveness of local organisations to maintain local effort.
  
• The ability of local organisers to form horizontal linkages with other organisations whose cooperation may be essential to the project.
  
• The ability of grassroots organisations to form vertical linkages that enable them to influence national or regional policies that shape long term development incentives.

He then presents several examples of bridging organisations that have improved the success of development projects. The different types of relationships fostered by these organisations are discussed. These relationships range in intensity from loose associations of similar organisations for information-sharing to the formation of coalitions and social movements that impact national policy formulation. In between these two extremes are horizontal networks of different types of organisations that are focused on addressing a particular issue, and the formation of partnerships that enable organisations to cooperate and solve problems which no one of them could solve alone.

There follows a discussion of various aspects of bridging organisations that may present challenges to successful linkage building. The role of shared vision and values in facilitating formation of networks among organisations is outlined. The impact of the diversity of organisations involved in a network is discussed, as is the ability to deal with external threats to members of the network. The extent to which network members are required to commit resources is examined as well.

(Adapted from PovertyNet)