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Local capacity developers and service environments
All countries today – whether rich or poor – are confronted with an array of economic, ecological and social challenges, calling for increasingly sophisticated capabilities. The development of such capacities cannot, however, simply be induced from the outside. All countries need a critical mass of local professionals and a conducive service environment in which capacity needs can be matched to the right expertise and support.
One of the by-products of the rise in expertise for ‘doing development’ in countries that
receive external development support, has been the growth of specialized home-grown organizations
and support structures that focus on building capacity. However, this emerging support sector is
still weak in most countries. Moreover, there has been little analysis or discussion so far of how
this ‘service environment’ for capacity development is evolving, or how it may be strategically
supported.
Some possible sub-themes under this emerging topic include:
- The (lack of) factual information on the market / service environment for CD and related research and M&E techniques/issues
- Analysis of the types of service providers / support actors and the prevailing pattern of centralization, patchy outreach to sub-national actors and little ‘demand power’
- The roles, services and products of LCDs and directions to improve relevance and quality
- The demand-supply-financing interface and required changes in these
- Assistance strategies and policy directions, including recent emphasis under the Accra Agenda for Action and upcoming Seoul 2011 summit on South-South exchange
This section aims to stimulate thinking and action in this vital area by providing an overview of available resources. While the list is quite meagre to begin with, will keep adding new material as it becomes available and would encourage interested readers to visit our blog, where we will regularly feature this and other emerging capacity development issues.
Featured Article
Rise of local capacity developers
Little is known about local capacity developers
in the South. The SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, supported by the UK Overseas
Development Institute (ODI), carried out an exploratory study in five countries.
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Recent Articles
Resource mobilization: A practical guide for research and community-based organizations
15 January 2012
Donor scoping studies commissioned by IDRC in 2004 and 2008 showed that multilateral and
bilateral agencies are now more focused on large-scale, sector-wide funding, awarding bigger grants
to fewer organizations, with less money available for medium to small groups. The second edition of
this guidebook, co-pubished by IDRC’s Donor Partnership Division and the Philippines-based Venture
for Fundraising in 2010, pays specific attention to the resource mobilization needs of
community-based development research organizations, contained within their South and Southeast
Asian contexts.
Capacity building for local NGOs: A guidance manual for good practice
15 January 2012
In the early 1990s, as Somaliland emerged from civil war and conflict, indigenous
non-governmental and community-based organisations mushroomed. International organisations began
targeting reconstruction and development aid through local organisations and quickly came to
realise the need for institutional strengthening and capacity building. To coordinate these
efforts, a number of organisations came together to create an international NGO forum known as the
Capacity Building Caucus (CBC) in 1999. The aim of the CBC was to ensure learning from best
practice, coordinate, capacity-building activities, and eventually to promote sustainability
through a ‘training of trainers’ programme for Somali capacity- building officers.
This package of manuals was developed in part as a curriculum for the training of trainers programme, and in part for use by individual local organisations to assist them in the ongoing process of developing their own capacity.
MoreTraining opportunity: Facilitating value chains
10 November 2011
Enterprise Development through Value Chains and Business Service Markets: A Market Development approach to Pro-Poor Growth is an 8-month distance learning course offered by the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITC ILO) in Turin, Italy. The course will appeal to professionals involved in developing and implementing Value Chain and enterprise development projects. The course starts on 19th March 2012 and will comprise four modules of two months each.
MoreFacilitating resourcefulness: Synthesis evaluation report of Dutch support for capacity development published
29 August 2011
A long-awaited evaluation report of Dutch support for capacity development carried out by the
Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been
published. The report synthesizes the findings of seven separate evaluations carried out since
2008, and covering 26 individual case studies. The evaluation is the result of collaboration
between IOB and six Dutch NGOs (Agriterra, Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment,
Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Partos, PSO, SNV) and the Ghana Ministry of
Health.
Case study: Strengthening district health systems in Karamoja
29 May 2011
Inside the district health system
In Karamoja in northern Uganda, many children do not live to see their fifth birthday. In an initiative to improve child survival, Doctors with Africa, Cuamm has formed a partnership with UNICEF to strengthen Karamoja’s district health systems.
MoreOnline 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.
Other Topics
Essential Readings
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Local capacity developers (Capacity.org issue 38, December 2009)
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Jan Ubels (2010) "Stimulating the Provision of Local Capacity Development Support" in Ubels, J., N. Acquaye-Baddoo and A. Fowler (eds) Capacity Development in Practice, Earthscan, pp. 307-322
