ABSTRACT

Capacity Building (CB) in the context of Lessons Learned LL refers to organizational growth and development in Project Management and Evaluation (PM&E). It is an ongoing process that involves competency development of employees as well as implementing and maturing supporting processes (i.e., project management [PM] methodology) and systems (Lessons Learned Repository, LLR). CB is directed toward enhancing an organization’s performance in LL. ere must be an appreciation of PM&E for an organization to embrace CB. ere are many benets to CB for an organization because it

• Supports ecient and eective decision-making processes • Streamlines projects, programs, and portfolios • Improves policies, procedures, and practices • Reduces operating costs (direct and indirect) • Enhances metrics reporting (quantitative) as well as qualitative analyses • Strengthens evaluation use (summative and formative)

How is capacity built within an organization? ere are many ways:

• Training in how to evaluate projects • Conferences to support networking • Reviewing Best Practices (BP) • Benchmarking • Partnering with resources (e.g., evaluation consultants) • Tracking the use of LL in audits or inspections (summative) • Monitoring the application of LL on future projects (formative)

What are the barriers to building capacity within an organization?