ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: To better understand how capacity develops endogenously and is sustained, sixteen widely varied case studies are analysed through the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS), providing empirical evidence and implications of what has and has not worked. A careful examination of three themes: a systems approach to capacity; what capacity is; and what induces capacity development, leads to better understanding of what is externally or internally driven; of planned, incremental, and emergence strategies; of the issue of time and sequencing; and of necessary combinations of approaches. This raises complex issues (and challenges some current thinking), such as the decreasing predictability of many capacity issues, the need to have a conscious understanding of the processes that stimulate change, and the need for a certain amount of misfit between context and activities to energise capacity development.
