1. Capacity Development: Measure it, Do it
Presented at the GTZ Eschborn Dialogue Conference, June
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2. Continue policy work
Must have some pilot/demonstration
Capacity to go to scale
Assess
Help
If decentralization: complications
When
Continue dialogue locally
Yes
Political
Will
Enough? No
Pilot efforts/demonstration
Dialogue, time, TRUE dialogue
SWAp

3. Do we need to be concerned about it? Capacity for what?
Leading questions
Do we need to be concerned about it?
Capacity for what?
How to assess it? – Case study

4. Do we need to be concerned about capacity?
In 7 first FTI countries, 3 policies per country were studied: 21 policies, approx.
Only some 40% had been accomplished, mostly for lack of capacity
Most countries’ plans for FTI did not do a formal capacity analysis
Most bilateral donors (USAID incl) do not formally assess capacity before starting projects
FTI / EFA recognition that money alone won’t solve problem: four gaps: financial, capacity, policy, and data

5. Do we need to be concerned about capacity?
Decentralization, happening for both political and educational reasons, complicates the capacity issue
FTI has launched a capacity-building approach in which I understand GTZ has played a key role:
"Capacity Development in the EFA-FTI Context:
Guidelines for assessing capacity 'gaps' and priorities for action" (Working Draft, March 2007)
Commissioned by BMZ
Thus, issue of capacity-building is being taken more seriously and is likely to receive much more funding
Capacity building not an academic issue

6. Types of capacity issues
Broad capacity issues
Policy-making
Technical
Consensus–reaching
Donor handling
Planning
Execution
Actual educational implementation

7. Types of capacity issues (cont’d)
Actual educational implementation
(List of main areas below, not exhaustive. For exhaustive list see clickable icon.)
Access
Low-cost construction
Site selection
Teacher numbers
Quality (see below)

8. Types of capacity issues (cont’d)
Quality
Failure to specify clear standards but achievable standards (current: abstract yet over-ambitious)
Failure to train teachers to standard
Failure to supervise and monitor teacher attendance and teaching
Problems coordinating and providing high quality pre-service and in-service training (esp. the latter)
Decentralization can help but also complicates

9. Ways to assess capacity
Against what research shows is effective/needed
Against national plans/ambitions
What does it take to implement nation’s ambitions?
Assess national plans, example Kenya
Against norms and regulations, if accountability exists
Self-report in plenary sessions of, say, district officers: polling

10. Ways to assess capacity
Assess locally below district level (schools, circuits, etc.)
Assessment: self report vs. measured capacity
Measured capacity vs. actual delivery
Example: Kenya district capacity assessment
All levels:
National, region, province, district, zone, division, and school
Census, not sample
Not self-report of leaders only
Assess direct performance benchmarks (reported by actors on each other)

11. Ways to assess capacity
Census or sample: what are issues?
Sample: assumes everyone has same problems or that they vary quite systemically
Census: tailor-fit
(But why bother if cannot tailor-fit.)

12. Kenya case study - 1 Kenya massive education effort
Free Primary Education
Decentralization
Massive and ambitious plan – KESSP
Like many countries, decentralizing and investing but without formal assessment of capacity
Government asks USAID and its EdData II project to carry out a large-scale capacity assessment

13. Kenya case study - 2 Study looks at all governmental levels
National
Provincial
District
Zone
Division
School
Up to district: censal: all units (78 or so)
Below district: choose zone, division, and 5-6 schools
Sample some schools

14. Kenya case study - 3 Detailed questionnaires custom-fit for each level
But asking common set of questions or set of issues:
a) organizational/operational constraints and generic skills (e.g., report-writing, project management),
b) some factual questions (such as ‘Does your office have a performance appraisal system?’)
c) some benchmarks (such as “how long does it take to transfer a teacher between schools?”), and
d) assessment of specific skills their unit’s staff have or should have
The questions for a) and b) could be the same in all units’ questionnaires.
Questions were “opinion” type, range 1 (worst) to 4 (best)

15. Kenya case study – Preliminary results
Very detailed capacity assessment is possible
Responses vary a lot by type of respondent
Cannot assume generic lack of skills: some in good supply, others not at all
Key issue:
Skills or capacities (self-assessed) not at all correlated with poverty
Presents serious dilemma for donors: using poverty for targeting is not a good idea???? This merits serious debate
Not random: Alpha coeff 0.94, and variability within respondent is high, so data are meaningful, yet uncorrelated with poverty
Results similar to less intense methods, but this method differentiates finely.

18. Next steps? Kenya General (over) Finish report
Government and USAID approve report
Share with donors
Develop large capacity-development plans or approach (approach better than a plan?) based on the details
Approach, but with known and planned funding…
General (over)

19. Advisory services to maintain quality as scale-up
General
Advisory services to maintain quality as scale-up
Cap dev trapped by cap dev: money not enough for programs, money not enough for cap dev…! Import skills to kick-start skills?
Decentralization and capacity
Standards, differentiation, choice, certification, self-evaluation
As part of stated obligations, not just “because it is good prof dev”
Distance learning? Modularized learning?
In-country interaction between civil society, the government and multilateral and bilateral donors for results
Pooled assistance? Only if there is a really organized “marketplace” or very good planning… Itself hampered by lack of capacity! (MoE to Crouch “do it through YOUR procurement”)
Cap dev for planning, data-based prioritization: no. 1 blockage?
If can’t do that, then everything else blocked, esp. in pooled assistance… but this kind of cap dev is harder to “sell” to parliaments?
Even then need “demonstration projects” and reality is that these are probably best organized by bilaterals… “system reform” is necessary but too abstract