A fairer world - The Tasmanian Center for Global Learning
Did you know?


  • Since the World Bank instituted health reforms in Uganda, the immunisation rate for measles has dropped from 82% to 30%.*
  • For Ghana, the required annual public investments for reaching its Millennium Development Goals add up to $80 per capita in 2006, scaling up to $124 in 2015.*
  • In 2005, the world will pass the trillion dollar mark in the expenditure, annually, on arms.  We're fighting for $50 billion for foreign aid for Africa: the military total outstrips human need by 20:1. (Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary-General's special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa)


Capacity

In the presence of the [HIV/AIDs] pandemic, capacity-building is a palpable misnomer.  When so much of your human capacity is dead or ill,it's necessary to talk about capacity replacement or capacity replenishment.

Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary-General's special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa

Essential prerequisites for a country to provide for the basic needs of its citizens are sound government and a vibrant civil society - effective organisations and institutions for law and order, education, health, culture, religion, agriculture, finance, markets, labour, media, environment, community and family.

All of these organisations need the capacity to perform functions, solve problems and achieve goals.  They also require the capacity – and a mandate - to act in the interests of all citizens, rather than the interests of particular groups. 

A healthy civil society depends on peoples’ organisations which “maintain a degree of autonomy and independence and have the potential to provide alternative views, policies and actions to those promoted by the state and market”*.  Frequently, however governments are not inclined to aid the creation of organisations that might oppose the priorities of vested interests.   “Strengthening people's capacity to determine their values and priorities, and to act on these, is the basis of development”*.

It is a long-term process that requires an investment in education, training and infrastructure.  Its key mechanisms are empowerment and participation – approaches that cannot be imposed from above and seem to remain elusive in practice.  The greatest barrier to empowerment and participation remains the inequality in power between members of a community.  These inequalities may be based on wealth, education, gender, class, religion or culture.

Capacity building is essential to the sustainability of development efforts.   

See also pages on Participation and Empowerment and Justice and Equity.

 


Find out more about capacity building: 

Capacity building can range from individual training to the reform of national institutions and so there is an abundance of resources available on both its theory and practice.

  • The United Nations Development Programme capacity development resource provides comprehensive policy, practice, networks and tools on capacity building, governance, and participatory development.
  • The Impact Alliance portal provides resources, links and discussion on a wide variety of capacity building topics such as: advocacy, governance, HIVS/AIDS and financial management. It links experienced practitioners with organisations requiring capacity building services.
  • OneWorld.net brings together news and information from over 1,600 organisations: its capacity building guide has articles and case studies on a wide range of community topics.
  • World Neighbors case studies are available free on-line; other resources and a newsletter for development practitioners can be ordered on-line.
  • International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC) provides a searchable resource database and information on: Organisational Capacity Building; Strengthening Civil Society; and Participatory Development.  Includes the Praxis Programme which links with practitioners around the world to identify and share innovative approaches to organisational capacity building.
  • CDNet is an open source virtual workspace for dialogue, exchange and learning on capacity development.
  • A sourcebook of tools and techniques for institutional and organisational development is available to download from the UK Department for International Development.
  • ACCESS is an example of an Australian government capacity building project with civil society in Indonesia


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