Capacity Development: Where Do EU Member States Stand on the Road to Busan?

While all European donors do not regard Capacity Development with the same degree of priority, they have become increasingly aware of the importance of supporting it as a way to achieve lasting development results, according to a recent European Commission study.

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Gwennaelle Corre, author of the EC study on ‘Supporting the Implementation of the Technical Cooperation for an Enhanced Capacity Development’, found, however that there is a noticeable difference between the Capacity Development practices and experiences of EU Member States.

"The support to Capacity Development among EU Member States varies drastically. Some have a long standing experience of working with Capacity Development - like Germany for instance," explained Ms Corre. For other Member States, and especially for the newer ones, capacity development represents a new field of engagement.

But regardless of their level of experience, Ms Corre found that all Member States have made an effort to improve their practices, as part of their commitment to implementing the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008).

"For both old and new Member States, the Aid Effectiveness Agenda was a boost to enhance their approach on Capacity Development and cooperation," Ms Corre added.

In November 2009, the Council of the EU adopted an "Operational Framework on Aid Effectiveness" which requires the European Commission and Member States to improve their practices with respect to: i) division of labour, ii) use of country systems and iii) technical cooperation for enhanced capacity development.

Against this background, the European Commission’s study sought to take stock of the progress that has been made by EU Member states to improve the quality of Technical Cooperation and Capacity Development interventions as well as to draw lessons of experience that can shape a possible European-wide approach to Capacity Development.

"The study shows that there is no specific or favourite approach to Capacity Development," explained Ms Corre. "What is important is to take Capacity Development seriously and that seems to be the case at the moment in Europe."

"The Capacity Development concept is well defined," said Ms Corre. "It is now time to move to the implementation of the concept which takes place at country level."

The European Commission's study found that European donors are indeed taking steps to make capacity development more operational. While a number have developed or are revising instruments and practices, including operational guidelines, others have recognised the need to support more demand-driven processes as well as to take greater account of local context and the level of country ownership.

Both the EU Operational Framework and the European Commission’s associated study call for EU Member States to act together to concretely apply Aid Effectiveness and capacity development principles.  

But of course, there are constraints. In a period of financial stringency and belt-tightening, national leaders are sometimes reluctant to fully embrace the reforms required to support Capacity Development effectively, according to Ms Corre. 

"It costs money and in the context of budget cuts, financial crisis, political pressure on delivering short term results, it is difficult to get sufficient political will to actually move forward on this extremely complex approach that is capacity development," she said..

The study also found that while Member States recognise the need to draw and share lessons of experience from the field, they often lack the ability and will to do so.

"There is a real expectation at EU level in terms of sharing information, learning best practices,” said Ms Corre, “but Member States are not necessarily equipped to capitalise on what they are doing or they are not necessarily eager to share what they have."

The study was presented at the workshop on Technical Cooperation reform and Capacity Development organised by the European Commission last July in Brussels, which brought together some 80 participants from the European Commission, EU Member States and country partners. It inspired the workshop's final messages adopted by the participants, highlighting the need to set Capacity Development as a priority at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which will take place in Busan in November.