Valued Sustainable Services: Building Partnership Capacity Through Collaborating Approaches

Key Points 

• The Valued Sustainable Services (ValSServ) concept can help build socioeconomic capacity and resilience in partner nations. It emphasizes interdependencies among three enabling capabilities: telecommunications, reliable power, and information-sharing support. 
• ValSServ focuses on the development of capacity from the “bottom up,” while being consistent with “top down” national- and theater-level strategies. 
• ValSServ projects will be chosen by local populations. But they must be sustainable over the long term so that external support is unnecessary. 
• A realistic assessment must be conducted before beginning a ValSServ project. 
• Education, experiential learning, and training should be part of all ValSServ plans to change behaviors so that lessons really can be learned and not just observed.