3 mins read
In recent times, capacity building has garnered a lot of interest with discussions centred around aiding an organisation’s growth and scaling of impact with capacity building support. A concept that started off as a practice to strengthen individual skills, it has evolved to a more holistic approach towards the strengthening of people skills, systems, and processes in an organisation.
The past several years of working with various organisations on capacity building has strongly led Social Lens to arrive at the hypothesis that capacity building will lend to building sustainable organisations which allow for functioning more efficiently and independently as well as for amplifying their social impact. As practitioners in the development space, it is evident that when sustainable organisational development is the focus of such capacity building, organisations can meet their needs while also developing their ability to independently fulfil future requirements. It is therefore essential that the design of capacity building initiatives and programs allow for long-term change and institutionalising solutions.
The bedrock of successful capacity building rests on a thorough diagnosis that considers a holistic assessment of an organisation, the program, external influences, risk vulnerability checks, as well as the absorptive capacity of the said organisation. Absorptive capacity determination enables the design of solutions that are human-centric with solutions that can be co-created with the organisation and tailored to fit their unique objectives and limitations.
In a recently concluded program that Social Lens conceptualised and executed where the focus was supporting a few social purpose organisations through an intensive capacity building exercise, an organisation (name withheld for confidentiality purposes), found that setting aside time for documenting all their processes including poor performance, hiring, internal communication, and exit interviews as well as adding timelines for their tasks brought about improved structure and efficiency. The organisation underwent a series of review tools and assessments designed explicitly to address the gaps they faced in the human resource management (HRM) domain. The outcome of this program, which was spread over ten weeks, allowed them to overhaul key HR processes. While this has allowed for an improved understanding of their employee’s performance, it has brought in necessary changes to the HRM function.
Assessing how much the participants have learnt and the change in behaviours, as well as a focus on integrating capacity building systematically within existing capabilities and processes in the short-term, is a very crucial outcome of any capacity building efforts that an organisation undertakes. In the long-term, successful capacity building is marked by improved institutional outcomes, more efficient utilisation of resources and the organisation being able to absorb shocks, systemise processes, save resource hours and money, as well as reduce overall expenses.
~ For more information and resources on capacity building, visit www.slens.co ~
