CAPACITY BUILDING
By Mai Dang and Shoko Takemoto
May 2010
History and Definitions:
According to the United Nations (UN), “Capacity building encompasses the country’s human, scientific, technological, organizational, institutional and resource capabilities. A fundamental goal of capacity building is to enhance the ability to evaluate and address the crucial questions related to policy choices and modes of implementation among development options, based on an understanding of environment potentials and limits and of needs perceived by the people of the country concerned” (UNCED, 1992).
Capacity building takes into account the existing base of capacities in each situation as the starting point and works to extend and retain these capacities. For example, to increase the capacity of an organization goes beyond mere technical training. To increase the capacity of an organization requires organizational development, human resource development, and institutional and legal framework development (Wikipedia, Capacity Building). The goal is to ensure that the organization can continue to carry out more of its technical and analytical work itself without the need for consultant or technical assistant providers (Rubin, 1998).
In regards to community engagement, capacity building efforts aim at developing human skills so societal infrastructure with a community or organization to improve the community. This definition is under the understanding that capacity is a combination of all the strengths and resources available with a community, society or organization that can improve the community (UNISDR). Capacity building has many different definitions, another one that can be used is, capacity building is the mobilizing of individuals and organizational assets from the community and combining those assets with others to achieve community building goals (BDBMC).
What is today known as capacity building was initially called institution building by the UN in the early 1970s. This program was housed in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and was tasked with providing guidance to the staff and members through building the ability of these members to operate. The program utilized UN specialized groups such as the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization to provide support in capacity building in their respective fields of health, and agriculture. It wasn’t until 1991 that the UNDP started using the term capacity building, which became a central topic in the United Nations Conference on Environmental and Development agreements (CoastalWiki).
Capacity building was initially developed in international work as a means to help developing countries and to provide international aid. Local governments, non-profits, and universities now use the concept to strengthen local communities. The main concepts and levels of capacity building as defined by the UNDP, are the following:
Concepts of Capacity Building:
- Human resource development: equipping individuals with the understanding, skills, information, knowledge, and training in order to improve the community.
- Organizational development: improvements in management, processes, and procedures both within and between different organizations and sectors.
- Institutional and legal framework development: legal and policy changes that allow for organizations to improve their capacities to operate.
Levels of Capacity Building:
- Individual: process of changing attitudes, sharing knowledge, and developing skills to maximize participation, ownerships of individual and collective knowledge, a nd knowledge exchange.
- Institutional: focus organizational performance and ability to adapt to change.
- Systemic: Increasing the ability for individuals and organizations to operate with external factors such as non-profits, government agencies, policy makers, and private sector.
The major point of capacity building is to look at an overall picture of the community to identify and strengthen the existing capacities utilizing those capacities to address and solve problems.
Methods:
Capacity building through university and community partnerships:
One method of capacity building is through the partnership between a university and a local community. There are many examples of this including the MIT@Lawrence Program where students and faculty from the university are engaged at the community level and community members of the City of Lawrence are engaged in activities associated with the MIT@Lawrence Program. Some of the programs include green job initiatives and story telling. Another example is a partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and East St. Louis, Illinois. Through this partnership the East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP) was establish to accomplish initiatives such as development of neighborhood plans and improvement on recreation and open space. One feature that makes both the ESLARP and MIT@Lawrence project successful in capacity building is their ability to sustain engagement over an extended period of time. The ESLARP was established in 1987 and the MIT@Lawrence program in 1999.
What is important to note about capacity-building and community-building initiatives undertaken with university and community partnerships is that these initiatives take a comprehensive view of the neighborhood and tries to find the intersections between the physical, social, cultural, and economic components of the neighborhood in order to improve a neighborhood. The purpose of the universities in these partnerships is to partner with the local community to exchange knowledge and skills so that the community can eventually conduct the work that students are able to do on their own. Universities bring information and a level of technical expertise, but the community must agree, participate, and be willing to implement in order to sustain a project (Rubin, 1998). This would be an ideal case of capacity building through university and community partnerships, but it does not always result in the same goals and actions.
Capacity building through empowerment planning:
Empowerment planning is a method of capacity building that brings in a combination of approaches in community engagement. Kenneth Reardon uses the term empowerment planning to describe the following:
- Principles and methods of participatory action including but not exclusive to research and community building events
- Direct action organizing
- Education for critical consciousness by creating and understanding of systemic problems and change (Reardon, 1998)
This approach recognizes that there is a need for both technical knowledge and the mobilization and support of the community in order for projects to be successful. For example a community development corporation can have the financing plan, design, and site control for an affordable housing planning in their community. However, the city has decided to turn the area into a dumpsite. The people in the community must mobilize and organize to fight the opening of a landfill; otherwise the building of a couple affordable housing units is irrelevant given the decrease in value of land and potential dangers to the health of the future of the community.
Strengths and Critiques:
One of the major critiques of the capacity building approach is the gap between the theory and concepts and the actual application and process. The best ways to describe these gaps are through critiques of the methods of capacity building, specifically the university and community partnerships. One major critique is when university begin to utilize the “professional expert” model. This is a model critique by William F. Whyet and other because it gives all the power to the university and practitioners who are considered to be trained. In this model trained practitioners produce plans that do not address community needs and end up never being implemented (Reardon, 1998). This approach can be solved if universities actually practice some of the methods mentioned in the previous sections such as empowerment planning and participatory planning.
Another major critique of the university community partnership model is focused on the commitment of the universities. While universities may be interested in service learning and participatory action research they do not value the faculty who are doing more hands on work and public service. In order to receive tenure and promotion faculty is still pressured to research and publish. Due to this constraint some faculty withdraw from their role in these partnerships to pursue academic research and publication. The final issue has to do with the students who staff these partnerships. The high turnover of research assistants and graduate students is a major concern in the sustainability of these partnerships (Reardon, 1998).
The issues found in university and community partnerships can be found in international development work and in the public and private sectors. Some examples are relationships between foundations and granting organizations and non-governmental organizations and countries in the development work. For example some foundations give their grant making power to Program Officers. When these Program Officers leave so do the relationships with the grantees resulting in a lost of funds for grantees. Foundations are also run by their boards and donors. When the goal of a foundation’s board and donor changes, the funding of initiatives and organizations can also change.
INTERSECTIONS:
Intersection of Knowledge Building and Capacity Building:
Knowledge building and capacity building have significant areas where their objectives and implementation approaches intersect. This is because knowledge building and capacity building are mutually reinforcing approaches. Knowledge building and creation by the non-experts and marginalized population in communities can and should lead to building the capacity of these populations to be able to create knowledge by themselves in the future. Simultaneously, in order to implement capacity building, the knowledge of how a particular community can implement such sustainable process must be created by the members of the community, and the community must develop the capacity to build such knowledge.
Few approaches acknowledge the effectiveness of utilizing both knowledge-building and capacity-building philosophies. Participatory (Action) Research is one example of an approach that embodies both knowledge and capacity building. As indicated in the methods section, it is based on a knowledge-building process that breaks down the distinction between the researcher and the researched within the knowledge creation process. Furthermore, it is capacity building because its ultimate objective is to build the capacity of the marginalized community in order to create radical social change.
Intersection of Knowledge & Capacity Building with Other Community Engagement Methods:
While knowledge and capacity building are distinct approaches to engaging communities, they may also be a part of other approaches and may be utilized in different degrees in participatory design, advocacy, community organizing and consensus building. Most importantly, knowledge building and capacity building can often complement the other approaches and allow for increased communication in planning.
Questions Raised By This Approach:
– Since capacity building can not be taken in isolation is it possible o take into consideration all the capacities of individuals and communities?
– Can capacity building be successful in unstable and constantly changing environments?
– How can University’s and students participate in capacity building when public service is not at the forefront of a University’s mission and tenure criteria for faculty.
Links:
United Nations Development Program: Capacity Development
Works of Heart: Building Village Through The Arts
East St. Louis Action Research Project
Bibliography:
BDBMC. “Business Development Board of Martin County Glossary of ED Terms” Accessed on May 7, 2010 <
http://www.bdbmc.org/index.php?submenu=_GET&src=gendocs&ref=Glossary%20of%20ED%20Terms&category=Residents#Capacity%20Building>
Coastalwiki. “The Capacity Building Concept” Accessed on March 30, 2010 <http://www.coastalwiki.org/coastalwiki/The_Capacity_Building_Concept>
Reardon, Kenneth (1998). “Enhancing the Capacity of Community-Based Organizations in East St. Louis,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 17: 4, pp. 323-333
Rubin, Victor (1998). “The Roles of Universities in Community-Building Initiatives,” J. of Planning Education and Research 17, pp. 302-311
UNCED (1992). “Chapter 37, Agenda 21” Accessed on March 30, 2010. <http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_37.shtml>
UNISDR. “ISDR: Teminology ” Accessed on May 7, 2010. <http://www.unisdr.org/eng/library/lib-terminology-eng%20home.htm>
Wikipedia. “Capacity Building” Accessed on March 30, 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_building>