Issue 20, January 2004

Renewing approaches to institutional development : In an effort to reverse the way of doing international development cooperation, the importance of formal and informal institutions for development has attracted the renewed attention by policy makers and practitioners over the recent past. Against this background, a wealth of new methodologies, guidelines and tools have been designed to promote institutional development.

Issue 19, October 2003

Capacity development: the why’s and how’s: what does capacity look like? How can you develop capacity bottom-up? What is the driving force behind successful capacity development? Does better capacity necessarily lead to better performance? Questions of this kind are daily challenges for practitioners, policy-makers and academics working on capacity development. Despite the existence of an extensive body of writing on capacity development, the answers are still not clear.

Issue 18, July 2003

'Developing Capacities for ICT enabled development': the notion of Information and Communication Technology Enabled Development is gaining more prominence in development cooperation. The notion examines how the potential of ICT can be used to attain national development goals. Capacity development must now be seen as an integral part of this thinking. The impact of ICT has already been felt in sectors such as health, education, and rural development.

Issue 17, April 2003

'Evaluating Capacity Development': in recent years, self-evaluation has been recommended for capacity development efforts in response to a growing awareness that externally led evaluations are often inappropriate or counterproductive. Self-evaluation has been seen as a means of assessing the needs for capacity development, of developing effective strategies and of improving existing or future programmes. The implication is that capacity development efforts require an internal evaluation capacity in order to ensure their own relevance, effectiveness and efficiency.

Edición especial Número 17, Abril 2003
'Evaluación del Desarrollo de la Capacidad'

Issue 16, January 2003

'Capturing Southern Feedback on Aid': in this issue of Capacity.org, we shall be looking at various examples of Southern participation in aid evaluation. We have included a number of articles as well as a list of resources highlighting innovative approaches that seek to go beyond conventional Northern-led feedback mechanisms.

Issue 15, October 2002

'Capacity for 'Voice': more and more people are becoming aware of the need to develop 'voice' systems by which public institutions can be held accountable by their constituencies. 'Voice' mechanisms challenge conventional (financial) audit procedures as they are designed to take account of the views of citizens, more especially the poor, for whom public services have actually been designed. Two guest articles outline the pioneering work that has resulted in a new way of assessing service delivery, known as 'social audits', and examine the relative success of citizen's report cards in India.

Issue 14, July 2002

'Capacity for development: insights and innovation': published in cooperation with UNDP, this issue presents the tentative conclusions of a UNDP research and dialogue initiative on 'reforming technical cooperation for capacity development'. Among the points discussed are the emergence of new aid-reform approaches, the role technical assistance can play in capacity development, and UNDP's experiences with innovative approaches in Latin America. The issue also includes a review of a UNDP publication entitled Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems.

Edición especial Número 14, julio de 2002

"Capacidad para el desarrollo: Conceptos e innovación"

Issue 13, April 2002

'Capacity development for trade': this issue spotlights the debate on how trade policy, trade-related technical assistance and capacity-building needs can be articulated in a broad development context. Among the key concerns are the importance of national ownership in developing trade capacities, the need for an appropriate institutional framework to ensure the sustainability of trade negotiation capacity, the participation of relevant actors, the sharing of regional best practices and the use of appropriate coordination mechanisms.

Issue 12, January 2002

'Pooling of technical assistance': presents the results of an ECDPM study on the pooling of funds to finance technical assistance in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The study was undertaken as part of an ongoing debate on the harmonisation of donor practices so as to reduce both the fragmentation of externally funded activities and the administrative burden they impose on developing country administrations.

Edição especial 12, Janeiro 2002

"O Agrupamento de Fundos para Assistência Técnica"

Issue 11, October 2001

'Civil-society structuring': highlights different approaches to national civil-society structuring. There is growing acceptance of the need to involve non-state actors in policy dialogue, as this is expected to yield major development benefits. Guest contributions review processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Togo. The issue also includes information on EU mechanisms for enhancing civil-society participation in the framework of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement.

Issue 10, July 2001

'Approaches to ICT capacity development': produced in collaboration with the International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD), this issue presents three papers that illustrate some of the challenges in building the local capacities needed to manage and use ICT in a sustainable manner. The contributions reflect on the experiences gained during IICD-facilitated round-table processes and institutional learning exercises on ICT, as well as on methods which local partners in Jamaica have used to build their own ICT capacities.

Issue 9, April 2001

'Capacity for dialogue on S&T': looks at building capacity for dialogue in science and technology. It draws on a workshop in Ghana on building capacity for dialogue to develop science and technology policies that contribute to economic and social development. Five case studies shed light on experiences in Uganda, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Senegal and Ghana.

Issue 8, January 2001

'Tools of the trade: capacity assessment': examines the role of capacity assessment instruments in supporting capacity-building processes. As the importance of institutional and capacity development becomes increasingly widely recognised, development practitioners have started to design and use a range of conceptual frameworks and practical tools in the formulation and implementation of programmes. The issue looks at various assessment approaches and lists tools for self-assessment.

Issue 7, October 2000

'Information and capacity-building': focuses on the challenge posed to individuals and organisations by the new information and communication technology (ICT). Contributions from Guyana, Southern Africa, and the ECDPM discuss the institutional and individual capacities needed to gain access to useful information, and to make effective use of ICT capacity development efforts.

Issue 6, July 2000

'Partnership - an instrument for capacity-building': looks at the concept and practice of 'twinning', i.e. institutional cooperation between Northern and Southern training, research, and public-sector organisations. The focus is on how different partners interpret partnership in different ways, and on how partnership is seen to support capacity mobilisation and capacity-building. Guest authors from Norway, Ghana and Botswana critically review the concept and their own experiences with North-South partnerships.

Issue 5, April 2000

'Local action through joint action': is seen as a way of decentralising policies at local level, effectively mobilising resources and capacities, strengthening local governance, combating poverty and improving service delivery. This issue draws on a regional Consultative Meeting on Joint Action held in Mombasa, Kenya, which discussed the potential of partnerships between local governments, civil-society organisations and the private sector. There are case studies and articles on joint-action experiences in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

Issue 4, January 2000

'Informing the capacity debate - operational experiences': reviews the debate on capacity development from an empirical perspective. It draws partly on a workshop on operational approaches to institutional and capacity development held in Harare, Zimbabwe. Case studies on Kenya, Nigeria and India illustrate the different types of capacity-building interventions. A 'Policy Brief' explores operational challenges faced by development assistance agencies when adopting capacity-building policies.

Issue 3, Sept. 1999

‘Linking sector-wide approaches with capacity’: revisits the conclusions of a DAC meeting (in Ottawa) on the relationship between SWAps, capacity development and partnership in opening up the debate to a wider audience. There are guest contributions from Ghana and Uganda highlighting experiences in the health and education sectors.

Issue 2, July 1999

‘A Spotlight on capacity and evaluation’: focuses on the relationship between evaluation and capacity-building. At first sight, the relationship seems obvious and the issues clear. Closer inspection, however, reveals important and often conflicting policy and methodological issues. Special attention is given to participatory evaluation and self-assessment, which are illustrated by practical experiences with the agricultural sector in Latin America.

Issue 1, April 1999

‘Perspectives on capacity-building’: introduces Capacity.org as a website dedicated to advancing the policy and practice of capacity-building in international development cooperation. As a concept developed largely by Northern aid organisations, the site aims to open up the debate on capacity-building to different perspectives, and particularly to contributions from the South.

Les archives de Capacity.org (in French)