Together Ilkerin Loita Integral Development Programme (ILIDP) and the Loita Maasai community have developed an array of innovative, broad and effective approaches and strategies to address poverty and strengthen or broaden mechanisms of promoting social justice at the community level.
From ILIDP's experience, the incorporation of culture has been the basis of the programme's success because it promotes real and genuine community participation.
These have yielded an array of important lessons, both for the programme and for other development initiatives, particularly those aimed at supporting pastoralist communities. Of the many lessons that have accumulated over three decades, the major ones are highlighted below.
Community development is not a project but a process that needs to be planned for in terms of decades and not just a few years
Any effort to promote and manage development must take into account the local culture, which can be a powerful force for change
Community empowerment is in the first place about starting with and investing in people
Real community-based implementation of development activities requires a certain amount of flexibility
The deliberate, conscious and continuous involving and engaging of real and critical stakeholders reduces petty conflicts, suspicions and mistrusts
Community-based programme interventions require sustained, long-term, dedicated and committed leadership
Maintaining a critical balance between the social and commercial goals of a community intervention is a prudent thing to do
Networking, collaboration and linkage are about building and sustaining strategic alliances that are crucial in accessing and mobilizing the needed and extra community resources
Managing conflicts and criticism is more effective than wishing them away
Internal dynamism helps to create and sustain an organization’s social relevance and health over time
Understanding and promoting sustainability is an ongoing challenge that should be viewed and tackled broadly
Starting with women’s empowerment and training plus education for the girl-child are appropriate and effective ways of beginning to tackle gender issues in a patriarchal community
Effective targeting is a continuous process involving the review of beneficiaries and target groups in light of the needs and the efficiency and effectiveness of resource use
Together Ilkerin Loita Integral Development Programme (ILIDP) and the 
any lessons that have accumulated over three decades, the major ones are highlighted below.
critical balance between the social and commercial goals of a community intervention is a prudent thing to do