The capacity building process starts with an organisation diagnosis to identify the key problem statement, risks and absorptive capacity. This stems from the fact that solution development for organisations depends on several factors; the exogenous external ecosystem the organisation functions in and the organisations’ endogenous absorptive capacity, readiness and life cycle. The appropriate mechanism of delivery is selected and solutions are co-created with the organization and customised to fit the unique objectives and limitations of the organisation. Finally, milestone setting and regular governance facilitate successful implementation, tracking of progress and course correction.
The mechanism of delivery for capacity building can vary from a shorter learning cohort that transfers skills through knowledge dissemination to a more intensive expert-driven consulting assignment. However, a cohort may seem insufficient to drive any change while an intensive consulting or coaching assignment may not fit within the resource constraints of an organisation. To this end, we work with a blended capacity-building model. This commences with a learning cohort that facilitates group learning sessions that focus on combining real-world insights with industry best-practices to facilitate practical and experiential learning. This then leads on to a short one-on-one activity where each organisation is provided with the tools, knowledge and resources to administer the recommendations provided.
We measure success at various levels through the learning journey. This starts off by assessing how engaged the participants are with the solutions, how much they learn, the change in behaviours, and finally their ability to apply the recommendations towards targeted outcomes and advocate for them. In the short term, we focus on integrating capacity building systematically within existing capabilities and processes. In the long term, the success of the capacity building is marked by increased impact to end beneficiaries, improved institutional outcomes and more efficient resource use. The outcomes we expect to see are that organisations can absorb shocks, processes are systemized, resource hours are saved less money is used.
Overall the aim is to help develop, maintain and strengthen capacities to be able to fulfil the requirements of the organisation in the current context and sustainably achieve their own development objectives over time.
