capacity building

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the process of developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, processes, and resources that organisations, communities, and governments need to survive, adapt, and thrive in a changing environment; in international development discourse capacity building refers to technical assistance, training, institutional development, and organisational support provided by donors and international agencies to strengthen the human and institutional foundations for effective government, service delivery, and economic management in developing countries; the concept has evolved from earlier, more technocratic understandings of technical assistance toward more holistic approaches that recognise the importance of incentive systems, political economy, and locally-driven processes; critics of capacity building as practised by donors note the tendency toward short-term training rather than sustained institutional development, the imposition of external models inappropriate to local contexts, and the risk that capacity building substitutes for rather than reinforces locally-generated learning and adaptation