Building Potential

What is capacity? Specific aspects of the functioning of an organisation (often referred to as functionalities) such as finance, human resources, research Individual capacities such as technical capacities, organising skills Hidden capacities such as culture, beliefs Cross-organisational capacities such as management Future focused capacities like growth or survival Hierarchy of capacities

Issues in the Literature Definitional - language, concepts, overlap, confusion How to Capacity development within organisations and within fields/sectors Philosophical and ideological

Whole-organisation frameworks

Developing Capacity

Capacity development as Organisation Development An OD approach to capacity building emphasises: Empowerment, learning The consultant as facilitator The organisation as contested space Capacity building as change management

Approaches to developing capacity Include: Building specific functionalities – there is a multiplicity of approaches Building capabilities Working with a hierarchy of interdependent capacities – the sequence of interventions may matter Distributed capabilities

Influences on capacity development Context matters Capacity development takes time Change must be planned Evaluation is key to progress Stakeholders are allies Capacity development requires absorptive capacity and knowledge management

Questions about capacity How do you think about organisational capacity in practice? How does the idea of a hierarchy of capacities fit with your experience? How would you locate your organisations capacities in the following framework -- capacity to do work ? – capacity to organise ? – capacity to shape the future? How have capacity development interventions mapped onto capacities in your organisation? Are there capacities that are missing or underdeveloped in your organisation? How do you know? What do you do about it? Are there relative strengths (capacities) that dominate or shape practice or direction? How do you know? What do you do about it?