Capacity building for local NGOs: A guidance manual for good practice

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.