Designing a results-focused capacity development strategy
17 August 2011
In
this guide published in August 2011, the World Bank Institute (WBI) presents operational steps to
help a project leader or task team facilitate stakeholders in designing a capacity development
strategy.
Designing a capacity development strategy is a key element of results-focused capacity development. The Capacity Development and Results Framework (CDRF) provides the basis for the World Bank Institute's approach to strategy design. It places a strong focus on capacity outcomes that drive institutional change, rather than outputs and technical fixes.
The framework emphasizes the following elements:
1. Results and local solutions
By applying the framework the strategy will focus on designing capacity development that
drives local solutions for priority goals.
2. Making capacity development more context-specific
Task teams can apply the framework to guide a process of discovery, learning and
decision-making. This process can help improve how stakeholder activities contribute to
institutional change and country goals and thus make capacity development more effective.
3. Results chain
The framework highlights the intermediate capacity outcomes (iCos) bridging the gap often
found between broad overall objectives, institutional capacity and specific capacity development
activities, so change processes can be better managed. Standardized indicators for iCos and
institutional characteristics facilitate the strategic design of capacity development. Indicators
provide teams with hard data to monitor progress, compare results across programs, improve their
understanding of how institutional change occurs, and support systematic examination of the
outcomes achieved.
