Facilitating resourcefulness: Synthesis evaluation report of Dutch support for capacity development published

29 August 2011

The evaluation identifies four key lessons for enhancing the impact of Dutch-funded capacity development policy and support:

• There is a need to organize and provide Dutch aid in ways that allow Southern organizations to follow endogenous capacity development paths, to be more downward responsive and become learning organizations.
• Time and effort are needed to make Dutch expertise – that is potentially highly relevant - available in such a way that the Southern organizations apply it effectively.
• It is important to conduct evaluations that assess the real potential of innovative approaches for supporting capacity development. And it is necessary to make clear exactly what would be required from outside agencies to support these processes professionally. Dutch Development Patners' support for innovation is potentially strong and offers promising approaches to capacity development at institutional level. This is borne out in the success of the cases where support was given to collaborative associations such as the value chains, environmental impact assessment systems and multi-party systems.
• It is necessary to shift support for capacity development in such a way that it helps Southern organizations to learn from their practice – particularly in terms of encouragement to probe the assumptions on which their strategies are based (second-order learning).

The full report can be downloaded at the IOB website, using the link below.