The 3 Dimensions of Capacity Development

The TAP Common Framework recognizes three dimensions of Capacity Development (CD): individuals, organizations and the enabling environment. The dimensions must be viewed as interconnected, affecting each other in complex ways through push and pull factors. Within the context of Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS), it is pertinent to stress the crucial importance of partnerships and networks in creating that interconnectedness, and in bringing together the three dimensions to create new knowledge.

Individuals

CD at the individual level entails the core knowledge, skills, attitudes and energies needed to work effectively.

Organizations

CD at organizational level addresses how organizations coordinate and useindividual competencies in such a way that organizations’ collective potential is realized. This includes the ‘collective’ ability of a group or system to function as effective organizations and provide the space for organizational learning, adapt to changing circumstances, build effective partnerships and take risks, not only to act towards organizational goals, but also to acquire and manage the necessary resources.

Enabing environment

CD at the enabling environment level refers to the context in which individuals and organizations put their competencies and capabilities into action.It includes the institutional set-up of a country, its implicit and explicit rules, its power structures and the policy and legal environment in which individuals and organizations function (FAO, 2010).