ABSTRACT
Three important points should be kept at the forefront of our minds when thinking about human and institutional development. The first is that institutional permanence has little to do with the sustainability of humanity and its environment, since institutions are merely tools to facilitate better organiza tion and should not be sustained for their own sake. Secondly, development assistance, especially in the form of projects, is a fleetingly brief intervention in a very lengthy historical process. Thirdly, when something sustainable is initiated you cannot predict far ahead which future directions it may take or where it will end.
