Follow Us:
Learning
Without learning, there can be no capacity development. Learning is the ability to acquire new knowledge and skills. It enables individuals, organizations and higher level human systems adapt, self-renew and respond to sudden changes and crises.
The available body of knowledge on learning is vast and encompasses areas of psychology, pedagogy, education, neuroscience, and increasing also economy and management sciences. The resources available on this page explore some of the challenges of bringing about learning at three levels: individual, organizational and institutional.
At the individual level capacity development practitioners need to engage in personal learning through self reflection. They also guide others in growing their personal competencies through learning. At the organizational level capacity development practitioners help facilitate collective learning processes that are aimed at enhancing overall performance. Furthermore, they contribute to building a learning culture, whereby learning becomes part and parcel of the organisation's day-to-day work processes. Finally, capacity development practitioners are increasingly being called upon to support learning within more complex multi-actor processes processes, in which individuals and organizations from a diverse social, political and professional spectrum attempt to work together for the common good.
Featured Article
USAID Learning Lab launched
USAID has launched a new Learning Lab website, which consolidates previous learning initiatives (such as the Learning Lab Library and Strengthening Technical Practice), with expanded interactive features. The objective is to provide a collaborative space where USAID staff and partners jointly create, share, refine, and apply practical approaches in order to ground our programs in evidence and adapt quickly to new learning and changing contexts, maximizing development outcomes.
More- Search Terms:
- communities of practice
- e-learning
- knowledge sharing
Recent Articles
Building institutional capacity in South Sudan through triangular cooperation
09 May 2013
This policy brief from the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre highlights experiences from a regional capacity development initiative in Eastern Africa coordinated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The project brings civil servant support officers (CSSOs) from neighbouring countries and twins them with counterparts in various government ministries in South Sudan, with the aim of rapidly develop core government capacity in a coaching and mentoring scheme.
MoreCapacity development tools for community empowerment
09 May 2013
The US Office of Community Services partners with states, communities and agencies to eliminate causes of poverty, increase self-sufficiency of individuals and families and revitalize communities. As part of its support role, OCS offers access to a wide range of learning tools on its website. These range from how to analyze data and communicate results, design outcome-oriented projects, develop collaborative platforms and implement value-driven donor development.
MoreMonitoring and evaluation for value chain projects: 5 things every practitioner should know
05 April 2013
The rise of "Making Markets Work for the Poor" approaches in recent years has been driven in part by critique about the sustainability of impact, scalability and/or cost-effectiveness of traditional value chain interventions. However, according to this brief from the GROOVE Learning Network - an initiative of the USAID Microlinks programme - these new approaches bring with them new challenges related to the role of development practitioners and "how we should be pursuing that role." How, for instance, should development practitioners ensure that they serve as "facilitators" rather than getting involved directly as "market actors"?
MoreUSAID Learning Lab launched
14 February 2013
USAID has launched a new Learning Lab website, which consolidates previous learning initiatives (such as the Learning Lab Library and Strengthening Technical Practice), with expanded interactive features. The objective is to provide a collaborative space where USAID staff and partners jointly create, share, refine, and apply practical approaches in order to ground our programs in evidence and adapt quickly to new learning and changing contexts, maximizing development outcomes.
MoreInter-organisational learning in South African education
25 January 2013
The
importance of defining outcomes
The questions practitioners repeatedly face when facilitating inter-organisational learning processes are: what does collaboration precisely mean and what are its goals? How pragmatic is collaboration? And is it indeed the answer or merely a layer of additional complexity? This is particularly relevant in the South African context where the country’s successes – such as the transition from apartheid and the 2010 World Cup – are seen as examples of collaboration. In reality, however, these successes seem to be more the exception than the norm, and the complexity of collaboration and resulting inter-organisational learning is severely underestimated.
MoreDilemmas of partnerships
25 January 2013
GUEST
COLUMN
"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." Nowadays, policymakers and leaders of businesses and NGOs habitually quote this old African proverb in support of their partnering strategy. Partnering is the most institutionalised form of inter-organisational learning. But the partnering process is anything but straightforward. Indeed, it is replete with (learning) dilemmas.
MoreOther Topics
Essential Readings
-
Irene Guijt (2010) Accountability and learning: Exploding the myth of incompatibility between accountability and learning” in Ubels, J., N. Acquaye-Baddoo and A. Fowler (eds) Capacity Development in Practice, Earthscan, pp. 277-292
-
Bruce Britton (2010) Self Reflection: monitoring and evaluation for personal learning, in Ubels, J., N. Acquaye-Baddoo and A. Fowler (eds) Capacity Development in Practice, Earthscan, pp. 264-276
-
Simon Hearn & Nancy White (2009) Communities of practice: Linking knowledge policy and practice, ODI, November 2009
-
Ben Ramalingam (2009) Organizational learning for aid, and learning aid organizations, Capacity.org # 33
-
Peter Senge (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Currency Doubleday
More Web Resources
-
GIZ E-Academy: Online training on a range of development topics
-
LenCD learning package on capacity development
-
The e-Institute: A global learning and knowledge-sharing portal (The World Bank)
-
The Development Gateway: Zunia Knowledge Exchange
-
Knowledge-Driven International Development (KDID) Portal
-
IMARK e-learning module on Knowledge Sharing for Development
Featured Community
Featured communities
Capacity Development is a professional community of practice on Ning (a social
networking platform). Hosted by the World Bank Institute, the community currently has close to
700 members.
Capacity Development aims to unite a community of practitioners and experts
to encourage discussion on capacity development practice and results and the sharing of
related resources and experiences. The community is open to new members and includes practitioners
engaged or interested in capacity development in several contexts, such strategy, planning,
diagnostics, programme design, monitoring and evaluation, and systematic learning about what
works.
The
Learning Network on Capacity Development (LenCD) is an informal network of analysts and
practitioners aimed at creating a global community of practice around capacity development. Its
objectives are to facilitate the sharing of lessons and distill quality criteria for good practice;
promote research, share experiences, monitor outcomes and carry out other empirical work; foster
country-level, regional and international dialogue and collaboration; promote the mainstreaming of
capacity development issues into agency operations; and act as a key partner to advance the
OECD/DAC’s capacity development agenda.
