Special Editions
Capacity development
So in many ways, organising to engage and build partnerships contributes to capability building, capacity building and capacity development. After all capacity building is about moving in to a place to introduce elements for capacity from almost a zero base situation while capacity development is about identifying and advancing the capabilities that already exist.
Oftentimes, these phrases are used almost interchangeably and their meanings are often defined by the authors who use these concepts. So to avoid using them as if there is one meaning, there are three questions that should always accompany the use of these terms: whose capacity, capacity for what and how will it be developed? We need to keep these questions as the starting point of discussions in order to make them more focused.
Most funders will also require that their investment or support leads to“ capacity development”. And by capacity development, funders usually mean the process by which people and organisations develop the ability to set and achieve their own objectives. So capacity development is about increased capacity which aims to have an empowered community that uses its strengths to respond to opportunities or challenges that come its way. With increased capacity, it is likely that the community is able to pick up more capacity.
Increasingly, funders are making it clear that they do not want to use money to buy results and want to see knowledge and skills-building capacity in people as a sustainable way for ingraining improvements.
Perceived this way, development is about process, and not just about outcomes. It takes cognizance of culture and context to transform institutional, grassroots and individual capacities. It aims to increase capacities that have longer term results and not short term or quick fixes.
Perhaps the main difference between developed and developing countries is not income but capacity. Capacity development has to work with context and culture. Building capability is more about technical issues and transfer of knowledge, skills and knowhow. The challenge is to capture capacity development in monitoring and evaluation since development often becomes apparent only years after any particular intervention.
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