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LenCD case stories database
24 March 2012
Case stories are an important and accessible way of
sharing experiences and learning lessons. Many organisations publish case stories on their
websites, but finding these stories has always required a good deal of research.
LenCD (Learning Network on Capacity Development), has been building up an index of case stories including material from the United Nations Development Programme, the Task Team on South–South Cooperation, SNV, the World Bank Institute, ECDPM, and other sources.
More than 500 case stories have now been catalogued and are searchable by country and by keyword on www.lencd.org/case-stories.
MoreCapacity, complexity and consulting: lessons from managing capacity development projects
20 March 2012
In recent years, the Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme of the UK-based
Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has increasingly focused on managing large, multiyear
processes, aimed at building the capacity of local institutions in developing countries to change
the way they engage with policy. This paper draws on the observations of RAPID staff involved
in various projects as well as on primary documentation such as trip reports, after action reviews
and project reports. It also includes a ‘ light-touch’ review of some of the grey and academic
literature available on capacity development, complexity, managing social change and aid agency
behaviour.
Lessons Learned from 25 Years of Food Security Research, Capacity-Building and Outreach
15 March 2012
This document from Michigan State University contains an overview of the past 25 years of
research, capacity-building, and outreach by the university's Food Security Group (FSG). The paper
describes key elements of the FSG approach and examines the insights gained from research and
outreach, primarily in Africa, and their value to the U.S. Feed the Future Initiative in addressing
the major current challenges facing food and agricultural systems.
Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation: PRIA Global Partnership newsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 4
14 March 2012
The October 2011 issue of PRIA's Global Partnership newsletter contains a selection of papers
that were presented and discussed in the International Conference on Monitoring and Evaluation: New
Developments and Challenges, jointly organized by INTRAC, PSO and PRIA held on 14-16 June 2011 in
the Netherlands.
New multi-language tool for measuring development effectiveness
10 March 2012
The International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) has launched a learning tool meant to support trade unions worldwide in the
application of the effectiveness principles in their everyday development cooperation practice.
Known as the Trade Union Development Effectiveness Profile (TUDEP) the new
tool is based on a questionnaire that is automatically evaluated and analysed in an active excel
document. The aim is to contribute to the improvement of the quality and effectiveness of the
development cooperation work of trade unions by helping partners to reflect on their practice as
well as the principles and values that underpin their work. It also helps to facilitate the
monitoring and evaluation of the progress in the use of the principles and guidelines for trade
union development effectiveness.
Call for submission of countries' experiences with planning for and reporting on capacity development results (LenCD)
28 February 2012
Political processes and cultural and societal changes produce long-lasting transformation, but they are long-term and very complex in nature.The Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD) has launched a call for submission of experiences on how countries plan for, manage and report on results from investments in capacity development. LenCD is interested in understanding which approaches and methodologies country governments adopt, which innovations are out there, where the good practices are, and what other countries can learn from them. Ultimately, this collection of country driven approaches and methodologies could shed light into alternatives for donor-driven reporting requirements.
This call is restricted to government-funded projects for which national (as opposed to donors’) monitoring and evaluation approaches and methodologies are applied.The deadline for applications is 13 April 2012.
MoreBuilding capacity for competitive agricultural systems and enterprises in West Africa (Video)
30 January 2012
This
film presents four examples of Agri-Business Clusters in Ghana and Togo. They
illustrate the experience of entrepeneurial individuals in building small to medium scale
businesses through new relationships with colleagues and so-called Agri-Business Cluster and Value
Chain partners.
Using (South-South) knowledge exchange for capacity development: What works in global practice?
26 January 2012
While knowledge exchange, especially between countries facing comparable challenges, is widely
recognised as a tool for facilitating development innovation, there has been little empirical work
to assess the effectiveness of such programmes with a view to informing global practice. This joint
study by the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and World Bank Institute (WBI) assessed three of
their South-South knowledge exchange programmes in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
How to write Terms of Reference for an evaluation
23 January 2012
Developing
an accurate and well-specified terms of reference (ToR) is a critical step in managing a
high-quality evaluation. The evaluation ToR document serves as the basis for a contractual
arrangement with one or more evaluators and sets the parameters against which the success of the
assignment can be measured. This practical guide from the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group
sets out a few basic principles and guidelines to help in the development of an effective
evaluation.
Linking agricultural research and practice: Climate analogues tool helps farmers anticipate their future climate
09 January 2012
"Climate Analogues" is a new open access
tool launched at the UN Climate Change conference in Durban in December 2011 that aims to help
farmers to assess the impacts of progressive climate change on agricultural production. The tool
locates sites where the climate today is similar to that predicted for another location in the
future, enabling farmers and policymakers to determine how to adapt to anticipated
changes.
CAPACITY → RESULTS
30 November 2011
This
new publication from the Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD) features case stories on
capacity development and development results. The collection showcases how endogenous investments
in capacity development have led, over time, to produce short, medium and long-term sustainable
results.
Learning to evaluate capacity development: The making of 'Facilitating resourcefulness'
30 November 2011
This article is a supplement to Issue 43 of
Capacity.org. It takes a look behind the scenes of an extensive evaluation of 26 case
studies covering the support to capacity development of seven Dutch Development Partners under the
coordination and partial responsibility of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of
the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign affairs. The evaluation aimed to draw lessons on how to improve
the effectiveness of future capacity development interventions.
Capacity development for education for all (CapEFA): Translating theory into practice
24 November 2011
UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2011) suggests that national barriers to
Education for All (EFA) have been largely under-estimated and that, over the past decade,
insufficient attention has been paid to strategies for overcoming them. The recently launched
publication “Capacity Development for Education for All: Translating Theory into Practice” offers
an opportunity for UNESCO to reflect upon its capacity development approach while bringing together
some of the crucial achievements and lessons learned through the CapEFA programme.
E-learning tool to build adaptive capacity for rural livelihoods
22 November 2011
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a modular
e-learning tool to enhance awareness and technical capacities for promoting community-based
adaptation in agriculture. It consists of four interactive learning modules, structured in 24
sessions, that link research-based knowledge on climate change impacts with examples and
experiences on community-based adaptation drawn from various FAO field projects, and a range of
other country-specific case studies. It is available in English, French and Spanish.
3ie launches online database on systematic reviews
16 November 2011
The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) has launched an online database of systematic reviews. This database provides policymakers and practitioners with easy access to systematic reviews that examine evidence on the effects of social and economic development interventions in low- and middle-income countries. It currently has over 100 reviews for many sectors, including agriculture, education, nutrition and health.
MoreHumanitarian action in drought-related emergencies
11 November 2011
The Action Learning Network on
Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) has published a Lessons Paper that
identifies seventeen key lessons for humanitarian agencies responding to droughts, on topics such
as: early warning, targeting, working with government, food aid, water interventions and nutrition.
It builds on the 2007 ALNAP/ProVention paper Slow-onset Disasters: Drought and food and livelihoods
insecurity and a review of over 100 evaluative documents produced by humanitarian agencies in the
period 2007-2011.
Evaluating capacity development
13 September 2011
Why evaluations seldom satisfy – could we do better?
As capacity development becomes mainstreamed in
international development assistance programmes, demand for the systematic evaluation of
capacity-development initiatives is growing. Doug Horton explains how the evaluation of capacity
development can be improved.
When does rigorous impact evaluation make a difference?
01 September 2011
Different
methods to estimate impacts are clearly suitable in different settings. But there is sharp
disagreement about exactly when high standards of rigour in impact estimation are a luxury and when
they are a necessity. Advocates of more rigorous impact evaluation argue that it can improve
incentives for development agencies by increasing transparency and avoid the waste of scarce
resources on attractive but ineffective projects. Advocates of more indirect and heuristic impact
evaluation methods argue that high demands for rigor are often better suited to academics than
practitioners, focus inordinate attention on easily quantifiable outcomes, take too long to yield
results, and divert scarce resources away from interventions already known to work well. The Center
for Global Development's Working Paper 225 (October 2010) seeks to contribute to this debate by
dissecting the case for and against rigorous impact evaluation in one concrete and high-profile
setting: the Millennium Village Project (MVP), a large, experimental intervention which aims to
spark local economic development in fourteen village clusters across Africa.
Changing minds: A guide to facilitated participatory planning
26 August 2011
This book draws on the work of thinkers and doers throughout the world who have grappled with
the challenge of planning complex institutions, especially health systems and development
projects. Their problem: Conventional planning methods often do not work. The solution:
Involve all the key stakeholders in making the plan. The challenge: Devise a planning system that
the principals and stakeholders can trust, and that is inclusive, balanced, and dynamic.
Integrated Water Resources Management in practice
16 August 2011
Integrated Water Resources
Management (IWRM) is widely recognized as a prerequisite for achieving equitable and sustainable
development. However, this approach is poorly understood, even within the water sector. Using case
studies, this book published in March 2009 explores how IWRM has contributed, at different scales,
from very local, village-level experiences to reforms at national level and beyond to cases
involving trans-boundary river basins.
Bare Foot Guide 2 now available
20 June 2011
Following the success of the original
Barefoot Guide to Working with Organisations and Social Change, a brand new
Barefoot Guide to Learning Practices in Organisations and Social Change (BFG 2) has been
launched. Like the first volume, it is meant to be a resource for leaders, facilitators and
practitioners wanting to improve and enrich their learning processes inside their organizations and
in the field. It is freely downloadable and includes a practical Companion Booklet for
facilitators.
Bringing African indigenous wisdom to organizational development and social learning processes
27 May 2011
Understanding Organizational Sustainability Through
African Proverbs: Insights for Leaders and Facilitators (Practical Action, forthcoming 2011),
authored by Chiku Malunga and Charles Banda, explores how the traditional wisdom that is contained
in African proverbs can be applied to organizational development and change. Rediscovering the
power of African proverbs opens up creative avenues to communicate organizational improvement
efforts in a language that touches peoples hearts and motivates them to personal and organizational
transformation. It also offers an entry point for much-needed cross cultural dialogue among
individuals, organizations and societies in an increasingly diversified world.
An innovative methodology for assessing multi-stakeholder networks
24 May 2011
In this informative blog post, Steve Waddell reflects on a recent study focusing on the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder relationships, which he describes as a notoriously under-developed field. The study was commissioned by the International Land Coalition, a multi-stakeholder network aiming to promote secure and equitable access to, and control over, land through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building. The blog explains the unique methodology developed by iScale (a global network that works to advance the effectiveness of social change efforts through process, methodological and technological innovations) for conducting such assessments.
MoreTheory of Change: A thinking and action approach to navigate in the complexity of social change processes
22 May 2011
Jointly published by Hivos and UNDP, this guide synthesizes the core of the methodological contents and steps that are developed in a Theory of Change design workshop. It is aimed at the rich constellation of actors linked to processes of social development and change: bilateral donors, community leaders, political and social leaders, NGO’s representatives, community-base organizations, social movements, public decision makers, and other actors related to social change processes.
MoreFree e-learning package on knowledge sharing for development
20 May 2011
IMARK [an
e-learning initiative in agricultural information management developed by FAO and partner
organizations] has developed a new module on "Knowledge Sharing for Development". The resource kit
comprises 36 lessons designed to equip organizations and communities with the necessary tools
and methodologies required to develop their knowledge capacities, and enable them to work more
effectively.
Organizational learning in Mexican agriculture
15 April 2011
To be an effective poverty alleviation instrument, agricultural policies (including research, extension, and innovation) must be based on an evolutionary approach that emphasizes experimentation, learning, and active interactions among diverse partners. However, most agricultural research and extension policies and institutions in developing countries lack the necessary flexibility to implement such an approach. Instead, they apply uniform recipes and struggle with organizational rigidities and other problems. Notable exceptions to this trend have been the Mexican Produce Foundations (PFs).
MoreMaking evaluations matter
01 April 2011
“
Too often evaluations are shelved, with very little being done to bring about change within
organizations that requested the evaluation in the first place." This new guide published by the
Wageningen University Research Centre for Development Innovation explains how to maximize the
usefulness of evaluations. It explains some of the conceptual issues involved and discusses how the
evaluation process can help contribute to changing mindsets and empowering stakeholders.
The benefit of hindsight: Lessons on improving development effectiveness
01 April 2011
Impact and Aid Effectiveness: Mapping the
Issues and Their Consequences, is a free-to-download compilation of analytical work spanning
three decades. One of the interesting insights that can be gained from such a historical
perspective is a better understanding of how some ongoing preoccupations have been shaped by their
proximity to other debates or policy concerns.
South African municipality scores for learning-based approach on water and sanitation
22 March 2011
The eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South
Africa, is one of the two global recipients of the 2011 UN "Water for Life" Best Practices Award.
The local authority was commended for its innovative approach to communication and awareness
raising and its outstanding contribution to addressing key challenges related to water and
sanitation in an urban area.
Online discussion: Is capacity development on the brink of maturity?
21 March 2011
We are pleased to invite you to participate in an
online discussion on some of the issues tackled in "Capacity Development in Practice", the resource
volume for practitioners.
Evaluation of capacity-building impacts of Belgian NGO Partnerships
04 March 2011
This report describes the results and conclusions of the evaluation of Belgian NGO partnerships and capacity development (CD) commissioned by the Belgian Directorate-General of Development Cooperation and carried out by a consortium led by HIVA at the University of Leuven.
MoreNew process guide for facilitating organizational change processes
29 January 2011
The
Barefoot Collective's "Course Guide for Facilitators on Foundations in Organisation
Development" is a new resource from the South African-based Barefoot Collective. It is
designed to accompany their landmark
Barefoot Guide to Working with
Organisations and Social Change. The new guide is an adaptable resource for
facilitators wishing to run structured courses for practitioners who are not organizational
specialists, but find themselves supporting the development of local organizations.
Multi-stakeholder learning partnerships in support of small-scale farming
22 January 2011
The
December 2010 issue of "Farming Matters", a quarterly magazine published by the Centre for learning
on sustainable agriculture (ILEIA) addresses the theme of "Partnerships for learning." Some
questions raised in this issue include: what do the many different people and organizations
labelled as "stakeholders" in small-scale family farming learn from each other? How do they learn
to work together to create more sustainable agriculture? What drives them to collaborate?
About "Theory U": Resources from the Society of Organizational Learning
15 January 2011
In
Theory U: Leading from the future as it
emerges
(SoL, 2007), C. Otto Scharmer expounds on the theoretical foundations of what he calls "the
social technology of precensing". Presencing is a blend of the words "presence" and "sensing", and
is defined as "the ability to sense and bring into the present one's highest future potential—as an
individual and as a group".
Theory U is presented as a new territory of scientific research and personal leadership, one that is grounded in real life experience and shared practices. Otto Scharmer invites us to see the world in new ways by learning to become aware of our "blind spot", by sharing from his own personal and professional development. The final chapters lay out principles and practices that allow everyone to "participate fully in co-creating and bringing forth the desired future that is working to emerge through us".
MoreIDS Bulletin 41.3 (April 2010) Reflecting collectively on capacities for change
18 December 2010
‘Capacity development’ implies a promise of growing
self-reliance, national ownership and sustainability, yet practice seems consistently to fall short
of this emancipatory promise. This publication argues for a reframing of capacity development for
emancipatory social change.
People-centred M&E: Aligning Incentives So Agriculture Does More to Reduce Hunger (Special Issue, November 2010)
14 December 2010
After more than two decades of hiatus agriculture is back
on the agenda of donors and governments. Issues of harmonisation, results orientation, mutual
accountability and payments for performance have become mantras in development assistance. Placing
intended beneficiaries at the centre stage is the new motto. But the articles in this seminal IDS
Bulletin provide systematic evidence to lay open the widely shared secret among development
practitioners that the cupboard of agricultural monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is bare.
Agricultural M&E has been weak at best. Where it exists it has concentrated on tools and
methods, a narrow focus on project performance ratings and 'rates of return' with accountability
upwards to donors rather than downwards to the intended beneficiaries of programmes.
The Change Alliance
10 December 2010
The Change
Alliance is an emerging global network that aspires to increase the effectiveness of
multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) working for transformational social change, particularly in
complex settings.
Knowledge to policy: Making the most of development research
28 November 2010
Does research influence public policy and decision-making and, if so, how? Published in 2009, this book analyses the outcomes of 23 research projects funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre in Asia, Africa and Latin America to understand the effects of research in the field of international development. Written in a reader-friendly, journalistic style, the analysis gives the reader a deeper grasp and understanding of approaches, contexts, relationships, and events.
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MoreAfrican learning platform on capacity development
21 November 2010
The African Capacity Development Learning Platform emerged from a collaborative initiative in the lead up to the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011.
MoreThe interactive Organizational Assessment (OA) website
19 November 2010
The Organizational Assessment (OA) website offers guidance for organizations to help them choose appropriate frameworks and models for self-evaluation and self-reflection.
MoreCombining local knowledge and global science: A practical guide
11 November 2010
This
practical guide developed by DFID’s Research Into Use programme draws on practical experience in
Nepal to show how the combination of external and local knowledge helps improve the lives of
small-scale farmers by producing practical solutions suited to their needs.
Can social networking give a leg-up to the poor?
10 November 2010
Can “Web 2.0 tools” directly influence the poor themselves? Would those interested in eradicating poverty do better to start with the “situation” rather than the “technology”?
MoreCapacity Development: Improving the results of learning programmes
08 November 2010
This network was created in June 2009 following a learning forum organized by the World Bank Institute and InWEnt Capacity Building International in Washington DC. The goal is to unite international partners in the development learning community with a shared agenda to improve the practice and results of learning programmes.
MoreBarefoot Guide to working with organizations and social change
08 November 2010
This practical, do-it-yourself guide is aimed at leaders and facilitators wanting to help civil society organizations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society.
MoreLearning how to learn collectively
29 October 2010
CABUNGO, a Malawian NGO providing organisational development services to local NGOs, recently evaluated its own performance using the Most Significant Change approach. Rebecca Wrigley describes how, with the support of stakeholders, CABUNGO learned to improve its services.
MoreRobust concepts and dedicated willpower
29 October 2010
The Community Development Resource Association is a South African NGO that serves social development and civil society initiatives around the world. Sue Soal describes CDRA’s approach to organisational learning.
MoreLearning alliances for poverty reduction
29 October 2010
Agriculture is back on the international agenda. The most recent World Development Report looks at learning for farmers but largely ignores the need for learning in institutions, including agricultural research centres.
MoreLinking learning to decision making
29 October 2010
In many aid agencies the rhetoric of learning is rarely matched in practice. Charles Owusu describes the efforts of ActionAid to make systems and structures part of the solution to becoming a learning organisation, rather than part of the problem.
MoreWhy truth and power don't mix
29 October 2010
The recent National Intelligence Estimate of the US intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.
MoreOrganisational learning for aid, and learning aid organisations
29 October 2010
Although many aid agencies claim to be learning organisations, a recent review found that they still need to address some major challenges, especially at field level. Ben Ramalingam asks why this is the case, and what aid agencies can do to learn more effectively.
MoreLearning in teams
29 October 2010
Moussiliou Adiloy, an independent consultant based in Benin, has many years’ experience in capacity development with various organisations. Here he identifies the barriers to team learning, and ways to overcome them.
MoreLENPA forum on capacity development
29 October 2010
Réal Lavergne reports on a meeting on the interface between capacity development and programme-based approaches. Support for capacity development is most highly developed in the areas of financial management and procurement, but remains incipient in many other areas, in particular service delivery. Further work is needed.
MoreApproaches to learning at organisational and societal level
29 October 2010
Monitoring and evaluation and research are important tools for learning from past performance. To achieve learning at institutional and societal levels, however, effective communication channels are needed to share evidence and insights and enable collective learning for development.
MoreThe wisdom of crowds? An innovative development experiment called to account
04 October 2010
Can the internet phenomenon of “crowdsourcing,” or collective intelligence, which has been successfully applied in such areas as open source software development and medical solutions, also be chanelled to promoting rural development?
MoreThe knowledge translation toolkit: Bridging the Know-Do Gap
20 May 2010
Published
in May 2011 by Sage India and IDRC, this resource provides a thorough overview of what
knowledge translation (KT) is and how to use it most effectively to bridge the “know–do” gap
between research, policy, practice, and people. It presents the theories, tools, and strategies
required to encourage and enable evidence-informed decision-making.
More
Rethinking capacity building
29 October 2009
Capacity building projects are often seen as a means of providing NGOs with the tools they need to effectively deliver programmes or services, and of ensuring the ability of recipients to demonstrate accountability for the financial aid received. However, insights from over fifty years of experience suggest that conventional types of capacity building have often failed to bring about improvements in organisational effectiveness, performance, and accountability.
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