Issue 24 : Exploring the soft side of capacity development

The international debate on capacity development has long recognised the importance of soft skills, such as the ability to engage in negotiation or dialogue, to create a feeling of trust, to network and partner, and to facilitate process or change management. A myriad of manuals have been produced containing tools for collaborative work that are designed to develop such skills. What these publications often fail to discuss, though, is what is needed to put these tools to work and in particular, what skills facilitators need to possess to ‘lubricate’ collaborative change processes in order to make the wheels turn.