Capacity Development Briefs

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The Capacity Development Briefs reports on The World Bank Institute's capacity development programs designed to build skills among groups of individuals involved in performing tasks, and also to strengthen the organizations in which they work, and the sociopolitical environment in which they operate

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
  • Publication
    Building Post-Crisis Capacity in the Solomon Islands
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-05) Bailey, Laura
    This capacity development brief summarizes the results of a multi-donor team review of four examples of post-crisis capacity development interventions in the Solomon Islands in 2005-08 whose performance was frequently cited as successful by local stakeholders. Although not based on post-project evaluations, the review found a number of patterns and potential lessons: (1) responding to immediate needs fosters national ownership; (2) 'quick wins' can lay the basis for wider system impact; (3) being clear on 'capacity for what' is key to project success, (4) critical mass in capacity means taking a team approach; (5) training must be grounded in time-relevant and actively operational tasks; (6) a coaching and partnering style is essential and, certainly, not optional; and (7) leadership becomes catalytic in capacity development when a broader coalition is engaged, and in some cases supports a 'heroic individual' as its leader.
  • Publication
    Learning by Doing : The Japanese PHRD Fund and Capacity Development
    (2008-06) Potten, David
    The Government of Japan has been supporting capacity development through the World Bank for 17 years. It has provided grants under its Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) Fund to support graduate scholarships, training activities, and preparation and implementation of loans and credits. Various evaluations have shown all three types of assistance to be effective, and grants to support project preparation in particular have generally been judged highly successful, because they have contributed to rapid and high-quality preparation of lending operations. A recent independent evaluation has shown that these grants have also contributed substantially to human capacity development in recipient countries, because recipient execution has led to strong ownership, the nature of project preparation has put a premium on capacity development needs, and the design of the program has favored capacity development activities.
  • Publication
    Parliament's Role in Poverty Reduction Strategies
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-05) Kroon, Cindy; Stapenhurst, Rick
    Parliaments play a crucial role in improving governance and public service delivery. Those countries with strong parliamentary oversight have been able to shape policy directions and priorities. This article explores the growing role of parliaments in crafting poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) since the process was first launched in 1999. Although the parliaments of many developing countries still have a long way to go before they will maximize their ability to strengthen the outcomes from country-level poverty reduction strategies (PRSs), the first decade of the poverty reduction strategy process has produced some important examples of the ways that parliaments can get involved, shape the debate, and learn from the experiences of legislatures in other countries. The cases of Tanzania and Malawi illustrate how parliamentary committees and parliaments can develop in terms of policy leverage and leadership.
  • Publication
    Assessing Governance and Strengthening Capacity in Haiti
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-12) Carrillo, Susana
    This Capacity Development Brief explores the experience of describes some of the findings of the diagnostic, which was completed in 2006. The indicators measures of governance are: voice and accountability, rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption, political stability, and absence of violence. The author have started to work to strengthen state structures and consider the legal and regulatory reforms needed in order for this endemic disease to disappear from our institutional practices, in politics as in business. Although Haiti's governance problems are fairly widespread, release of the survey has already started to have some impact, at least in terms of growing understanding and consensus on the nature of the problems the country faces. The survey served to focus minds on a set of critical areas that are impeding the country's economic and political stability.
  • Publication
    The FM Revolution in Niger : Radio's Impact on Capacity Development
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-10) Peter, Luc; Barbey, Stephanie; Tejasvi, Ajay
    In Niger, where only a fifth of the population is literate and poverty is rife, radio has taken on an extraordinarily important role in the lives of its citizens. Radio programs are not only the means through which people entertain themselves and get the daily news, they are also playing a proxy role for the health clinics, schools, social support networks, and continuing education needed for economic progress. Women debate their role in society; citizens call in to complain about poor local services; radio reporters, microphones in hand, chase down politicians and demand answers on the air. Although Niger has a long way to go in creating a viable and free media market, radio has nevertheless flourished in a remarkable way in this landlocked francophone country of 13 million and given people a taste of democracy. Providing the citizens of Niger with perspectives from around the world, radio is a major instrument in the process of capacity development in the country.
  • Publication
    A Market-Based Approach to Capacity Development : How Uganda's Local Governments are Breaking New Ground
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06) Nelson, Mark
    For many developing countries, capacity development means donor-sponsored training programs and outside experts. But a noteworthy example in Uganda shows that capacity development may work better and be more sustainable when local market forces are unleashed to provide for local capacity needs. The Uganda case spotlights an approach supported by the World Bank and other partners that has focused on improving the capacities of Uganda's local governments, which since the 1990s have been part of one of Africa's most ambitious decentralization processes. In that program, Uganda's ministry of local government has used World Bank and other donor financing to create a set of incentives aimed at improving the performance of the country's local governments. Part of the approach was not only a system to reward high-performing local governments, but actions aimed at stimulating both supply and demand for capacity development at the local level.
  • Publication
    Capacity Development in the World Bank Group : A Review of Nonlending Approaches
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06) Constantinou, Nansia
    This work on a review of non-lending approaches, which for the purposes of this brief is defined broadly as activities that have a stated goal of improving individual, organizational and broader institutional capacities in a country, is spread widely throughout the Bank. It includes specific, well-defined Bank products, such as non-lending technical assistance, training, some economic and sector work, as well as some research and other knowledge-sharing activities that the Bank facilitates for its partner countries. World Bank units directly carry out much of this work.
  • Publication
    Challenges for New Leadership Teams in Fragile States
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-05) Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen
    In this brief, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, shares lessons learned from her experience in leading a post-conflict country. She emphasizes the importance of taking a broader view of the national leadership system while building national leadership capacities and cautions against adopting a one size fits all approach. Drawing from Liberia's recent turnaround, she identifies key capacities that need to be developed. Fragile states pose a challenge for good leadership-for renewal and reform. States in the grip of poverty with broken socioeconomic infrastructure and a political culture of impunity, require courageous leadership, one that is unafraid of risks and able to challenge itself to be innovative and look toward the future. She points out that consciousness of ethics forces the setting of standards and requires leaders to lead by good example, particularly when it comes to demonstrating and imparting honesty, tolerance, participatory democracy, work ethics, and understanding.
  • Publication
    South-South Capacity Development : The Way to Grow?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-02) Tejasvi, Ajay
    A growing body of evidence suggests that learning and cooperation among developing nations is increasing n both frequency and complexity and expanding from just economic cooperation to include a variety of topics: health, education, communication, research, and development. Due to shared backgrounds and challenges, people in developing nations are banding together as peers to find new and innovative solutions to development issues. Reviews of technical cooperation suggest that South-South learning is often more effective in developing capacity than one-way knowledge transfers from the North. This brief identifies trends in this phenomenon for practitioners of capacity development and highlights some successful cases of South-South learning and cooperation.
  • Publication
    Linking Individual, Organizational, and Institutional Capacity Building to Results
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-12) Vinod, Thomas
    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.