Issue 41 of Capacity.org
(www.capacity.org) has just been published. In the practice of capacity
development, we have seen a gradual shift away from training individuals to
strengthening organizations. Currenty, the emphasis seems to be shifting again;
from working with single organisations to facilitating multi-stakeholder
processes (MSPs). But it would be a mistake to assume that MSPs are just the
latest fad in the discourse on capacity development (CD). In fact, they have
always been an integral part of human interaction. MSPs spring up whenever
people or organisations see that collaboration can help to seize development
opportunities.
The
Public Sector Capacity Building Secretariat (PSCBS) in Rwanda wishes to develop
an annual report on the state of capacity building in the public sector, to
serve as an accountability tool and provide an update on the progress of
matching capacity building investments with national priorities. PSCBS is
seeking expressions of interests from consulting firms to prepare this report.
Terms of reference are accessible at:
http://main.pscbs.gov.rw/opportunities/vacancies. Expressions of interest
from consulting firms must be addressed to the Executive Secretary of PSCBS and
delivered by email not later than Tuesday, 25th January 2011 to:
procu...@pscbs.gov.rw; peter....@pscbs.gov.rw; and
in...@pscbs.gov.rw
INTRAC's
latest Praxis Paper looks at current practice, experiences and theory in
advocacy capacity building. The paper’s findings are primarily directed at civil
society support organisations globally, but the insights are relevant to CSOs,
donors, research institutions and individuals from a variety of backgrounds.
Driven by the need to find effective solutions to the problems of poverty and
injustice, recent thinking about civil society has begun placing a greater
emphasis on advocacy. There is a growing expectation that civil society
organisations (CSOs) should be conducting advocacy, engaging with and
influencing key policies and decision makers to complement the service delivery
role of CSOs. To facilitate the shift, considerable effort has been invested in
capacity building for advocacy. What has been learnt in the
process?
The
OECD has recently published a "Handbook on Contracting Out Government Functions
and Services in Post-Conflict and Fragile Situations". Chapter 3 of the
Handbook is dedicated to the issue of capacity development. It notes that
fragile states should evaluate whether they have adequate laws, administrative
structure and regulatory capacity to contract out services; contracting out is
not a replacement for internal and country-led capacity development; and that a
clear capacity development strategy right from the beginning of the contracting
out process is important because failure to develop government capacity to
assume responsibility for the delivery of services, either as
regulator/facilitator or as direct provider, may undermine the legitimacy of the
state.