Capacity Building In Developing Countries

This book explores new perspectives on how to improve the chances of success regarding capacity building in developing and emerging countries. Drawing on lessons learned in the course of six decades of capacity building research and practice, it identifies the required conditions for the success of capacity building efforts, and suggests that a radical change in mindset has become a critical aspect in developing countries. In addition, the book discusses capacity building in connection with entrepreneurship (especially female entrepreneurship), transnational diaspora remittances, and combating corruption, which it considers to be essential drivers of sustainable development in developing and emerging countries. The book’s contributing authors represent the leading minds in capacity building research and practice, and include researchers from prestigious universities in North America, Europe and Africa, as well as international development experts from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, African Development Bank, and African Capacity Building Foundation. All authors have considerable expertise regarding capacity building issues, and represent 26 emerging and developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Caribbean Islands, North America and Europe.

'The United Nations system was a pioneer in the field of technical cooperation, and capacity development is its central mandate. UNDP has long played an important leadership role in both, as a source of technical cooperation funds and advisory services and as the home of innovative intellectual research and analysis on how to make them more efficient and effective. This book [presents] a vision that builds on new possibilities for knowledge-sharing, for which the revolution in information and communications technologies offers ample opportunities... a vision that is firmly founded on genuine ownership by the ultimate beneficiaries of development efforts: the government and citizens of developing countries' From the Foreword by MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Administrator, UNDP Capacity for Development brings together innovative and well-supported studies of technical cooperation along with its potential to build sustainable capacities in developing countries, by enhancing the knowledge, skills and productive aptitudes of their populations. A team of eminent development professionals and economists examine the achievements of technical cooperation and offer recommendations for reform in the context of globalization, democratisation, the information revolution and the growth of capacities in the South. They analyse the issues from three perspectives: ownership, capacity enablers and knowledge. The team show how the complex processes involved can be restructured to produce local involvement and empowerment, set out a normative framework for the input from society, and describe a new paradigm of knowledge for capacity building in the network age. This book will be essential reading for all development professionals and policy-makers, as well as providing an invaluable research and teaching resource.

The perspective that informs this important book is that every evaluation of a capacity development effort should itself contribute to the capacity development effort and ultimately to the organization’s performance. This is a revolutionary idea in evaluation. With the idea have come the questions: Can it be done? And, if it is done, what will be the consequences? This book elucidates and deepens the idea, shows it can be done, and examines the consequences, both intended and unintended, of engaging in capacity development evaluation

This book contributes to our understanding of a neglected and poorly-understood concept within the development field: ‘capacity development’ in the context of human and organisational sustainable development. Relating ‘capacity development’ to other perspectives in development thinking and practice and giving an account of the concept’s genesis, the book introduces readers to recent empirical research initiatives that help to elucidate the concepts of capacity, capacity development, and capacity management. While capacity development initiatives and programmes have been used by most international and national agencies over the course of the last five decades, the term means different things to different people and especially to different major players in the international community. This weakens its effectiveness. This book therefore strives first of all to set ground rules that can be utilised by international aid providers such as UNDP, OECD, World Bank, and CIDA and practitioners alike.

The term capacity building refers to enabling the indigenous people of developing countries to carry out development processes successfully by empowering them through strengthened domestic institutions, provision of domestic markets, and improvement of local government efforts to sustain infrastructures, social institutions, and commercial institutions. Capacity building also involves the need to recognize indigenous interest groups, encourage local efforts, provide incentives for privatization, and coordinate local, regional, and international strategies to enhance productivity and wise use of natural and human resources. Most important, capacity building encourages a bottom-up or grassroots effort for sustainable development. The grassroots effort begins with the family unit. Capacity building addresses all areas of social, economic and health, and environmental processes through a holistic approach. The chapters of this book, written by experts in their fields, address these three areas of the developing societies.

This book considers specific and practical ways in which NGO's can contribute to enabling people to build on the capacities they already possess. It reviews the types of social organisation with which NGO's might consider working and the provision of training in a variety of relevant skills and activities.

McCarthy, Bader, and Pleskovic discuss a variety of experiences in a number of transition and developing countries to build institutional capacity for economics education. A flexible approach met with some success. The approach uses partnerships that combine the often different needs of a number of private donors with the World Bank on the supply side. Much of the success was due to adopting each effort to the individual country situation. The authors also provide a brief summary of five academic institutions and four research networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.This paper - a product of Partnerships, Capacity Building, and Outreach, Development Economics - is part of a larger effort in the Bank to build capacity for economic education.

McCarthy, Bader, and Pleskovic discuss a variety of experiences in a number of transition and developing countries to build institutional capacity for economics education. A flexible approach met with some success. The approach uses partnerships that combine the often different needs of a number of private donors with the World Bank on the supply side. Much of the success was due to adopting each effort to the individual country situation. The authors also provide a brief summary of five academic institutions and four research networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This paper--a product of Partnerships, Capacity Building, and Outreach, Development Economics--is part of a larger effort in the Bank to build capacity for economic education.