ABSTRACT
Any capacity-development activity takes place within the wider setting of institutions, governance and politics. This reality poses for practitioners critical and difficult questions that are too seldom confronted in the open. For example: how can one best tackle the complex webs of power and informal relations that surround organizations? How does capacity development relate to governance dynamics? How can one explore, and maybe even widen the space for capacity development by working with ‘political’ forces and factors?
Traditionally, most attention is directed at capacity development from the ‘inside out’. In this compelling contribution, Nils Boesen shows that a focus on governance and stakeholders opens additional perspectives on how change can be and often is stimulated from the ‘outside in’, or demand-side. He also discusses the political dimensions that shape capacity and the importance of change management – particularly the political tasks that it entails – is stressed.
