ABSTRACT

In capacity development, time is an ever present force. But how time influences and complicates a practitioner’s work is not fully appreciated. This chapter highlights different ways in which time appears in capacity-development initiatives. It discusses the often competing demands of different actors’ time frames, cycles and core processes that must somehow be brought together.

A case example introduces a model which shapes the primary process of a capacity-development support organization. It helps the practitioner to work consciously across short-, medium- and long-term objectives and time frames depending on the scale of ambition involved. The approach described shows how practitioners can apply adaptive planning and ‘learning in action’.