Capacity

The availability of resources and the efficiency and effectiveness with which societies deploy these resources to identify and pursue their development goals on a sustainable basis.  

Capacity Development 

A locally driven process of learning by leaders, coalitions and other agents of change that brings about changes in sociopolitical, policy-related, and organizational factors to enhance local ownership for and the effectiveness and efficiency of efforts to achieve a development goal.

Some Related Resources: 

• Charles Lusthaus et al (1999) Capacity Development: Definitions, Issues and Implications for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

• OECD (2006) The Challenge of Capacity Development. Working Toward Good Practice

• On Capacity Development: An Interview with Jens Wandel (2008)  

Capacity Development Goal

High-level impact at the top of the results chain in terms of improved social or economic conditions. The goal is generally achieved through a set of development efforts, in which the intended capacity development program is one of the contributing activities. The goal determines general purpose and direction of capacity development programs, and should be marked by strong consensus among stakeholders. A local champion should set the goal and assume responsibility for its attainment.  In conjunction with stakeholders, the capacity development program team should review and validate (or embrace) the goal, agreeing on a specific definition and target. The goal should derive from a broader long-term development strategy (sector, country, or regional) that establishes the priority and compatibility of the goal with other development priorities (e.g. from national development strategies, five-year plans, country assistance strategies, and poverty reduction strategies).

Some Related Resources:

• Economic Commission for Africa; African Union (2006) National Strategies for Poverty Reduction and Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals: An Issues Paper

• UNIFEM (2007) Capacity Development for Promoting Gender Equality in the Aid Effectiveness Agenda

• Joseph K. Langat; Rudolf Glotzbach (2006) Beyond sharing sand... Capacity development for poverty reduction 

Capacity

Factors

Capacity factors determine the extent of local ownership of the effort to achieve the stated development goal(s), as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of that effort. Capacity factors are socipolitical, policy-related, and organizational. In a capacity development program capacity factor are a resource to: define the potential results areas in terms of changes in capacity; prepare capacity development objectives; identify capacity challenges, opportunities and specific indicators of the development situation and specific areas for change.

The capacity factors that affect the achievement of development goals are related to the:  

Conduciveness of the Sociopolitical Environment - Made up of the political and social forces that determine the priority given to the development goal by government, civil society and the private sector.

Efficiency of Policy Instruments - Or the formal mechanisms to be used to guide stakeholder actions toward achievement of the development goal. These formal mechanisms include administrative rules, laws, regulations, and standards.
Effectiveness of Organizational Arrangements - Systems, rules of action, processes, personnel and other resources that government and non-government stakeholders bring together to achieve the development goal.

Some Related Resources:

• Jenny Gold (2009) Implementing a results framework for capacity development
  

• Niels Boesen (2005) Institutional Assessment and Capacity Development: Why, what and how

World Bank Institute 

November 2009

Capacity Constraints/

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges or opportunities related to specific sociopolitical, policy related and organizational capacity factors that govern local ownership and the efficiency and effectiveness with which resources are used, toward the achievement of a development goal. In a capacity development program capacity constraints/ challenges and opportunities can be used to: define the potential results areas in terms of changes in capacity; prepare capacity development objectives; identify specific indicators of the development situation and areas for change.

World Bank Institute

November 2009

Capacity Development Objective

The capacity development objective(s) should be stated in terms of the specific capacity factors that are expected to be changed by the project. The objective(s) provide a logical base for connecting a program’s results in terms of capacity to its intermediate outcomes and activities. A well-specified capacity development objective is measurable, tightly connected to the program logic, and reasonably attainable through capacity development interventions. The definition should include the indicators to be used in measuring achievement. The capacity development objective(s) should be defined so that stakeholders and specifically agents of change agree that they can influence its achievement. For a country-focused program, the objective(s) should explicitly relate to at least one development goal specified in country’s strategy documents. For smaller programs, the objective(s) might be narrower in scope, but it should still be specific, measurable, and logically connected to a development goal.

World Bank Institute

November 2009

Agents of Change 

Individuals, groups, teams or organizations that can initiate and drive needed project outcomes toward the achievement of a development goal. Agents of change play a critical role in the goal-oriented capacity development. The program team and stakeholder(s) should identify the agents best placed and best qualified to initiate and manage the change process. In some contexts, strengthening agents of change themselves might be an important component of a capacity development strategy. Further, multiple agents of change could be necessary to address challenges in different capacity factors and build enough critical mass to make a change process sustainable.  

World Bank Institute

November 2009

Change Process 

Process by which capacity development activities bring about results towards a specific development goal.  

World Bank Institute

November 2009

Resource Inputs

Inputs into capacity building or the capacity development process. For example, human and financial capital, technological resources, natural resources, and other endowments may be resources inputs in processes or programs to invest in capacity or build capacity.

World Bank Institute

November 2009

Outputs

Outputs are the products, capital goods and services which result from a development intervention (e.g., construction of a school, a new policy or institutional arrangement).  Outputs are designed to generate outcomes.  The key distinction between an output (a specific good or service) and an outcome is that an output typically takes the form of an increase in supply, while an outcome typically reflects changes in the utilization of goods and services, that is, demand side change which can be plausibly linked to longer term and/or higher order impacts.

World Bank Institute

November 2009