Capacity development

Links
Capacity.org
Useful site including a newsletter on the role of capacity development

Development efforts increasingly recognise the need to support people to decide for themselves what their problems and solutions are, and to find their own voice and means of expression. From this perspective, development is about facilitation and supporting people to develop the skills and capacities they need to organise themselves around their own agendas.

Building capable communities: promoting and evaluating community capacity
Exchange lunchtime discussion 16 March 2004
Glenn Laverack, author of Health Promotion Practice: Power and Empowerment, believes the "domains approach" can help a community shape the agendas of "top-down" health and development programmes and develop skills and knowledge that will last when the programme ends.
Key points | Full report

Lessons from Capacity Development in HIV and AIDS communication
Exchange lunchtime discussion 1 April 2003
David Musendo presents the experience of Family Aids Caring Trust (FACT) in Zimbabwe. Issues include how capacity development outcomes are conceived and measured; ownership of capacity development efforts; and how longer term processes can be supported when projects emphasise short term results.
Full report

Quest - Supporting the local design of appropriate health learning materials
Exchange lunchtime discussion 16 July 2002
David Curtis from Healthlink Worldwide introduces the international debate about the importance of appropriate local content and materials.
Key points | Full report