Capacity Development

Capacity development has been the centerpiece of international development assistance since the end of II World War and the start of the decolonization period. However, the general acceptation of the concept has been very much influenced by the role of the Marshall Plan in the reconstruction of Europe and, ultimately, by its successful implementation. The general view that has dominated development thinking for decades since the inception of international development cooperation has been that the main drivers of socio- economic development, regarded as the ultimate development goal of decolonised countries, were capital and ‘know how’.

On these premise international development assistance unfolded along two main lines: aid, aimed at filling developing countries’ resource and financial gaps; and technical cooperation, tasked with driving capacity development. With technical training and foreign expertise as its main components, technical cooperation’s main objectives were to fill developing countries’ skill gaps and transfer of ‘know how’.

This general acceptation of capacity development, however, neglected the role that knowledge, as a much wider concept that extends beyond technical training and know how; leadership, as the catalyst of societal transformations; institutions, as complex systems of policies, legislative frameworks, ethics and values; and social capital play in any country’s socio-economic development.