The Challenge of Capacity Development: Working towards good practice

The publication reviews forty years of development experience and concludes that donors and partner countries alike have tended to look at capacity development as mainly a technical process, or as a transfer of knowledge or institutions from North to South. It explains how donors have often failed to recognize the critical importance of country ownership and leadership, and how they underestimated the importance of the broader political context within which capacity development efforts take place. The paper draws on the wealth of evaluations and analysis carried out by bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as on the work of academics.