Civil society organisations in the ‘driving seat’ of their capacity development

Anyone who reads about development cooperation at local level will have noticed that authors frequently underline the importance for implemented actions to be chosen by the people concerned and reflect their needs as much as possible. This also applies to the capacity support to CSOs. Demand-driven and locally-owned Capacity Development (CD) support are the arrows that point CD initiatives in the right direction and that helps to facilitate a dialogue with CSOs about support strategies beyond‘participation’ and ‘consultation’.Simon Forrester and Tine Veldkamp, two practitioners in the realm of CD support to CSOs, explore these driving directions…

Although many donors and experts have ideas about ‘the right’ or even ‘the best’ capacity development path for CSOs in a specific context, CSOs themselves are the primary actors to define how they can and want to develop their capacities. They belong in the ‘driving seat’ of any capacity development effort that concerns them since the organisational challenges that they face are resting on their shoulders. Both ownership and leadership appear to be critical for the success of capacity development interventions. Ownership means that CSOs internalize capacity development as a relevant organisational support practice. Ownership occurs when CSOs experience the support process as ‘their’ process, for which they feel responsible and in which they take the lead.Ownership develops over time, it starts from the moment that CSOs recognise that the organisation is not going to succeed without changes in capacity up to the moment that new organisational practices are visible and effective. Leadership is a key success factor in this process of setting organisational direction, defining capacity development strategies, and guiding organisational change. That’s why, from the onset of any CD initiative, external supporters should endeavour to facilitate CSOs major role and inclusiveness in all stages of the process.

Supporting CSOs to unpack its CD demands and to design and implement their own organizational development plans, is much more beneficial than a sole focus on building specific capacities to achieve project outputs. The organisational search process of goal-and-agenda setting to overcome capacity constraints isequally important as the capacity development intervention itself. When CSOs are being engaged on the basis of their own ‘change plans’ developed from participatory capacity assessments, the management has the opportunity to develop a vision for the future they would like to see and an understanding at organisational level of the need for change. Looking at the organisation from different perspectives enables CSOs to tailor their demand with their team or with members in the case of membership organisations, to define the purpose of capacity development support, and to generate internal commitment for the process. Overcoming capacity constraints will then become an inclusive process for which CSOs themselves take the main responsibility.This responsibility touches upon the selection of support providers and the organisation of the process as well. They may appoint an internal capacity development committee to further elaborate a capacity development plan and agenda, which highlights specific capacity development interventions over time, as well as the moments to measure capacity changes and to appreciate the quality and effectiveness of the CD support.

Thus, whether they are legally constituted or more loosely structured, CSOs need to play a major role in the design, selection, and evaluation of processes that provide them with capacity development support. CSOs ‘change plans’ based on organisational assessments are the best entry points for dialogue regarding locally owned capacity development. And perhaps these can be the inspiration for the authors of future success stories?

Sharing insights into how CD support can be more locally driven is something that we can all benefit from, so, please provide comments and your tips on supporting CSOs as drivers of their own CD.

Organisational development of CSOs is the main focus of guidance currently being developed for the European Commission. The Guidance is a response to the September 2012 Civil Society Communication which emphasizes the importance of strengthening civil society actors to perform their roles more effectively, particularly local actors. The guidance will be made available later in 2014.Materials from a series of seminars on support to the capacity development of CSOs are available for download (http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/public-governance-civilsociety/minisite/capacity-development-civil-society-organisations-exchange-seminar)

(Disclaimer: This posting and the related materials have been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents are the sole responsibility of the contractors providing the technical assistance and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union)