The Capacity Collective is an initiative by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The “Capacity Collective” stands for a group of around 30 participants from practitioner, donor and academic institutions brought together by IDS in Sussex, UK from 25-27 September 2007. The aim of the workshop was to explore some of the key challenges facing capacity development for knowledge generation, sharing and application, and to identify ways of addressing these both theoretically and practically.

An important outcome from the workshop was the acknowledgement of the critical gap between what is “known” about capacity development, and what is actually done in practice. A key role for a "capacity collective" could be to energise debate around this gap. It was agreed that a rallying call is needed that articulates the group’s joint determination to address systemically (through a range of activities including research, practice and advocacy) some of the, so-far, intractable problems associated with capacity development processes – with the aim of engaging policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and donors in both North and South.