Another fundamental approach that has stayed constant from USC’s beginnings with Dr. Lotta right to the present day is the goal of empowering local people to manage their own development activities.

This means, in the context of our Seeds of Survival program, people’s right to develop and control their own farming systems, according to their own needs – what has come to be known as food sovereignty.

In another public service announcement, Lotta noted that:

“By using indigenous staff and working through local partner agencies, we are able to eventually work ourselves out of a job.” Click here to hear her voice.

Lotta believed very strongly in working with local partners. Indeed, she was a ground-breaker in this regard, working with field directors from the very partner countries USC was supporting, where other agencies were bringing in expatriates to run their programs.

She also wrote about the necessity of developing local leadership:

“[It is] important to train indigenous experts, supervisors and leaders. It is their country which they passionately want to develop themselves. Self-help must be the ultimate objective of each project.” Click here to read more of Lotta’s writings.

Today, this is still part of USC’s philosophy and forms one of our core values. It is a tradition that USC has maintained for almost 65 years now – with Canadians playing mainly support, facilitator or advisory roles. Our approach continues to be to work with local partners to implement programs and to use national staff in our own offices.