Linking Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Capacity Building to Results

Abstract

Achieving rapid development calls for improved capacity in the public and private sectors to support development policies and projects. The World Bank recognizes that capacity building is a long-term process requiring a systemic approach. That is why many Bank projects in Africa and elsewhere include capacity development activities. But three drawbacks have limited the effectiveness of these efforts: many operations do not -- but need to -- take an integrated view of solutions involving the individual, organizational, and institutional contexts; individual, organizational, and institutional links vary greatly across sectors -- not addressing these differences has led to less effective capacity building; and capacity goals as they relate to this understanding of the individual, organizational, and institutional aspects have not been explicit. This Capacity Brief discusses and illustrates the importance of integrating capacity-building efforts at all three levels, and addressing differences among sectors in their integration, while setting forth explicit capacity goals and monitoring and evaluating progress toward them.