ABSTRACT

The international development community invests billions of dollars to improve organisational capacity. But real-life practice is poorly understood and undervalued as a distinct professional domain. Written by practitioners, this innovative publication is designed to make capacity development more professional and increasingly effective in achieving development goals. Practical illustrations draw on experiences from the civic, government and private sectors. A central theme is to understand capacity as more than something internal to organisations. This book shows how capacity also stems from connections between different types of actor and the levels in society at which they operate. The content is crafted for a broad audience of practitioners in capacity development: consultants, managers, front-line workers, trainers, facilitators, leaders, advisors, programme staff, activists, and funding agencies. Published with SNV

part I|46 pages

Perspectives on Capacity

chapter 1|14 pages

Multiple Dimensions

The Multi-Faceted Nature of Capacity: Two Leading Frameworks

chapter 2|17 pages

Multiple Actors

Capacity Lives Between Multiple Stakeholders

chapter 3|13 pages

Multiple Levels

Capacities at Multiple Levels and the Need for Connection: A Bhutan Example

part II|87 pages

Establishing your Practice

chapter 4|8 pages

Advisers' Roles

Choosing a Consulting Role: Principles and Dynamics of Matching Role to Situation

chapter 5|15 pages

Thematic and Change Expertise

The Balanced Practitioner

chapter 6|13 pages

Ownership, Authority and Conflict

Who is the Boss? Behavioural Guidance for the Practitioner in Complex Capacity-Development Settings

chapter 7|8 pages

Whose Values Count?

Voice, Values and Exclusion in Capacity-Development Processes: Experiences From India

chapter 8|16 pages

Organization Development as a Source

Riding the Pendulum Between ‘Clocks' and ‘Clouds’: The History of OD and its Relation to CD

chapter 9|14 pages

‘Reading' Situations

Looking to See the Whole

chapter 10|11 pages

Dialogue

The Place of Dialogue in Capacity Development

part III|93 pages

Working with Connections

chapter 11|12 pages

Institutions, Power and Politics

Looking for Change Beyond the Boundaries, the Formal and the Functional

chapter 12|10 pages

Public Accountability

Capacity is Political, not Technical: the Case of HakiElimu in Promoting Accountability in Education in Tanzania

chapter 13|13 pages

The Micro–Macro Gap

Bridging the Micro–Macro Gap: Gaining Capacity by Connecting Levels of Development Action

chapter 14|14 pages

Working with Value Chains

Using Multi-Stakeholder Processes for Capacity Development in an Agricultural Value Chain in Uganda

chapter 15|14 pages

Engaging With Community-Based Organizations

Lessons from Below: Capacity Development and Communities

chapter 16|17 pages

Leadership Development

Leadership, the Hidden Factor in Capacity Development: A West African Experience

chapter 17|11 pages

Knowledge Networking

Learning Together: Knowledge Networks in Capacity Development Initiatives

part IV|55 pages

Improving on Results

chapter 18|11 pages

Measuring Capacity Development

Combining the ‘Best of Two Worlds' in Monitoring and Evaluation of Capacity Development

chapter 19|14 pages

Time Matters

Effective Capacity Development: The Importance of Connecting Time Frames

chapter 20|13 pages

Self-Reflection

Monitoring and Evaluation for Personal Learning

chapter 21|15 pages

Accountability and Learning

Exploding the Myth of Incompatibility between Accountability and Learning

part V|36 pages

Looking Ahead

chapter 22|12 pages

Taking Stock

Learning about the Field of Capacity Development: Characteristics, Practitioner Challenges and Future Perspectives

chapter 23|16 pages

A Capacity Development Market?

Stimulating the Provision of Local Capacity Development Support

chapter 24|6 pages

Becoming Professional

A Professional Field in Formation?