Waking up to capacity development

This blog has been dormant for some time, but the subject keeps its importance.
Whether it is called "capacity building" or "capacity development" is not the issue.  Keeping focus on the need for capacity and doing something about it is essential.
At  World Urban Forum in Naples a number of sessions focused on the issue and many more highlighted its importance.  For example, the Asian Coalition for Human Rights which has been working at the slum level in Bangkok and other cities highlighted the need for capacity at city level to be able to interface in a creative way with slum communities and help take project innovations to scale.
For more comments on WUF and capacity development, you can also look at http://forbesdavidsonplanning.com/
We are having renewed discussions on lessons from experiences of capacity building.   If you have any experiences to share, they would be very welcome.

Capacity for what?

Earlier this year I was in Vietnam working on capacity building for local government concerning participatory planning and reviewing a new curriculum for planners education at undergraduate level.  The issue arising is the increasing demands, especially with the additional challenge of climate change in a major delta area.  At the same time there is no more time for study - so what goes out and what comes in?  The need to be able to innovate and adapt to change becomes a vital area.  The importance of ethics is also increasing in importance as planners often have to mediate between public interest and the pressures of the market.

I have just been to the World Habitat Day celebrations in Brussels. The focus was on urban planning - the theme that UN-HABITAT is promoting in its state of cities report - which is available for download in its abridged form - a welcome initative. The key word coming up is integration, in particular integration with preventative measures linked to climate change and disaster management. I agree, but a major issue is that capacity is already limited to do the often ineffective planning that is a weak response to a vital issue - managing fast growing cities with increasing informality.

The Brussels meeting was hot on the heals of the N-Aerus conference on Open Cities held at IHS in Rotterdam. Again the scale of the challenge was highlighted in terms of growing difference in access to services, made worse with gated communities in countries as diverse as Brazil and Egypt.

The challenge is not just to add additional tasks to often weak organizations, but to radically rethink the work that should be done and also to get rid of the barriers that stop effective action. Many enthusiastic young planners become disillusioned because of work place inertia, lack of politica and manageral support and often also corruption. Add in poor pay levels and it is not surprising that some of potentially the most significant tasks are being done poorly or not at all.  We need to find ways to better tap into human energies and potentials that we build and not to allow them to be sapped away.

Update - what's in a name?

A long time without posting - but the site was specially set up for events in the WUF in Vancouver in 2006. Since then, the issue has not gone away. Unfortunately in many cases a major impediment is the willingness or ability of governmental institutions to pay staff sufficiently to attract and keep good staff.

In the meantime, the terminology has moved on in some circles. "Capacity Development" is the term favored by UNDP, who have been doing a lot of work in the area. The difference in concept is explained as "capacity development" assumes that there is existing capacity to be built on, while "capacity building" does not. This is rather an artificial difference, because most of the use of "capacity building" is in contexts of working with existing capacity. What matters is that useful information can be found under both headings.

http://capacity.org/ is still a very useful site.

Promesha case

A case study has been prepared by Johnny Astrand of HDM, University of Lund of the experience of the Promesha programme in Central and South America. This is an interesting case illustrating the power of long term partnerships.

Download PROMESHA case

Capacity Building event in Vancouver

Nice idea to post daily updates, but the reality of an event like WUF means very little time. Anyway, the event went well, with standing room only and a lot of good participation. We are working on the report of the session, and will post it on this site.
Meanwhile a very full week with all our sessions going well and Holland managing to hold Brazil to a draw. The forum and the sessions are important, but the real work goes on in the corridors , which here gives a lot of space, and now that the weather is warmer, the terrace by the water is getting busy.

Now the last day, but not much time yet to reflect.

Setting up in Vancouver

9 hours time difference from Netherlands and some sensitive World Cup games conspire to make thinking less clear - but we have got the IHS stand up and running and met all the partners for the Capacity Building event. Sunday evening saw the opening reception, and very busy crowds at the stand. Many former colleagues and former participants - great to see people again.

Making sure there will be plent of people at the event needs aggressive marketing. People making calls may not find the right number, but they will find the best events. IHS is working with partners on 6 events - including generating mass support for Hollands match against Argentina on Wednesday.

MAPP, programme AP India as case

Banashree Banerjee writes:

The Municipal Action Plan for Poverty Reduction (MAPP) being used on DFID projects in India is an excellent on the job cap-build tool for local govt, civil society and for throwing up demand based training requirements. Also prompts policy and legislative action at higher levels.

APUSP Project Coordinator Mr Janardhan Reddy has been asked to send the case.

Links www.apusp.org
janardhana_b2001@yahoo.co.in.

Have also asked RADOL Bangladesh to contribute