Capacity Development - Defining Capacity Development

Defining Capacity Development

The past decade has witness a resurgence of interest in the issue of capacity development and with it the redefinition of the concept, with the intent of moving away from the traditional acceptation of capacity development based on technical training and foreign expertise and to capture the concept in its complexity and entirety.

The following are the definitions of capacity development that have been articulated by some of the multilateral and bilateral development organisations engaged in supporting capacity development.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines capacity development as the process through which individuals, organisations, and societies obtain, strengthen, and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time.

The United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Office (UNISDR) defines capacity development in the DRR domain as the process by which people, organizations and society systematically stimulate and develop their capability over time to achieve social and economic goals, including through improvement of knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions - within a wider social and cultural enabling environment.

For the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) capacity development is the process whereby people, organisations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and maintain capacity over time.

For the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH capacity development is the process of strengthening the abilities of individuals, organizations and societies to make effective use of the resources, in order to achieve their own goals on a sustainable basis.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) defines capacity development as the activities, approaches, strategies, and methodologies which help organizations, groups and individuals to improve their performance, generate development benefits and achieve their objectives.

The World Bank - Africa Region - defines capacity as the proven ability of key actors in a society to achieve socio-economic goals on their own. This is demonstrated through the functional presence of a combination of most of the following factors: viable institutions and respective organizations; commitment and vision of leadership; financial and material resources; skilled human resources.

Some common elements and learning emerge from the definitions above:

- Capacity development is a process of change, and hence is about managing transformations. People's capacities and institutional capacity and a society’s capacity change over time. A focus on what development policies and investments work best to strengthen the abilities, networks, skills and knowledge base cannot be a one-off intervention.

- There can be short term results. And often in crises and post conflict situations there is a need for such. But even short term capacity gains, such as increase in monetary incentives or introducing a new information system, must be supported by a sustained resource and political commitment to yield longer term results that truly impact on existing capacities.

- Capacity development takes place at three different levels: the individual level, the organizational level and the societal level. These three levels are interlinked and interdependent. An investment in capacity development must design and account for impact at these multiple levels.

- Capacity development is about who and how and where the decisions are made, management takes place, services are delivered and results are monitored and evaluated. It is primarily an endogenous process, and whilst supported and facilitated by the international development community, it cannot be owned or driven from the outside. At the end of the day, it is about capable and transformational states, which enable capable and resilient societies to achieve their own development objectives over time.