Thomas Kerscher Capacity Building Specialist

In my expereince, there are four questions that should be addressed when considering the possibility of  launching a capacity building initiative:

1. Should We Invest In Capacity Building?

Capacity development must start by defining the need for such an effort. This is the question providing the initial impetus. It involves locating the sources of pressure to change the current situation, and differentiating the forces that are external to the system from those that are internal. External forces can be legislative, social, economic, political, technological etc. Where external forces prevail, leaders can only choose how to develop capacity. The European Union accession process in many Eastern European countries brings with it substantial changes in the legislative environment, which call for developing capacity in ministries and agencies. In other instances, such as increased demand for customer orientation and quality, or the need for more inclusive decision making, management will have greater leverage to decide if developing capacity is the right choice.

2. Are We Ready For Capacity Building?

A second important aspect in my experience is to assess the readiness and ability of a department or organisation to engage in a capacity development. An assessment of the present situation needs to involve an analysis of the attitudes of the system and its subsystems toward capacity development.  In general, a system will be ready for capacity development when avoiding the problems associated with a lack of capacity will cost more than dealing with them. In addition to the attitudes of the system, the capability to engage in the capacity development process should be reviewed. Whereas readiness for capacity development involves willingness, commitment, motives and aims, capability has to do with power, influence, information, expertise and the authority to make decisions and allocate resources.

3. Do We Need Help From Outside?

In most cases, capacity development involves a substantial number of assessments and interventions, requiring know-how and input. It is therefore legitimate for management to ask whether the system needs help from outside. In the event that commitment has been secured through designing a commitment strategy, the following criteria can be applied in deciding whether a system is able to embark on a capacity development programme without external assistance: 

• The system lacks resources, and chooses not to develop its own internal and fully qualified resources;
• The issues are highly technical, and non-recurring (otherwise consider job enlargement);
• Permanent employees must leave their positions to deal with the issues, and thus temporarily vacant positions are created;
• Permanent employees are competent enough to lead the capacity development process, but cannot be redeployed. 

If all of these four criteria are met, then there will probably be a need for external assistance. Development agencies should assess the extent to which the criteria are met, before offering their assistance. If a donor funded programme is launched although one or more of the criteria are not met, it will rather complement or substitute capacity rather than develop it.

How Do We Get Started?

In order to respond to supposed capacity shortages, build coalitions for change and commitment among stakeholders, convince skeptics and mobilise financial resources, it is useful to lay out a capacity development plan. A capacity development plan should consist of an organisational diagnosis, a process to convert data into useful information, a data feedback process, and an action planning process: 

1. An organisational diagnosis is a process through which we collect data about what contributes to your organisation attaining its objectives, or implementing its mission, and what prevents it from doing so. This process will involve people who have information on the issues in question, their root causes and consequences. The purpose of the organisational diagnosis is to validate, complement or change existing perceptions of your organisation’s capacity for dealing with its critical issues. 
2. A process to convert data into useful information describes how the data deriving from the diagnostics will be organised and made understandable and meaningful for the client system. 
3. A data feedback process demonstrates how you will be enabled to draw your own conclusions from the findings, establish priorities, set your own objectives and strategies on how to achieve those objectives. 
4. An action planning process illustrates how a programme will guide your department or organisation to create their own action plans and implementation schedules. Only at this stage we will agree specific interventions.