Capacity Development - DAC Initiative

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Capacity Development is at the core of development processes

“Capacity” is indispensable for country ownership and leadership of its policies and programmes. It is central to sustainable national development. Work on this topic is most commonly referred to as capacity development, capacity building, or state building.

According to DAC guidelines:

Capacity refers to the ability of people, organisations, and society as a whole to manage their affairs successfully.
Capacity development is the process by which people, organisations and society as a whole create, strengthen and maintain their capacity over time.

A development priority for the DAC

> Working Towards Good Practice

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is one of the leading forums for bilateral donors to shape their collective approaches to effective and meaningful aid policy. For many years, the DAC has considered capacity development as a key priority. Since issuing Working Towards Good Practice, the DAC has sought to help the donor community identify and apply capacity development operational good practice that is consistent with these guidance principles.

In early 2008, the DAC set about raising the visibility of capacity development in the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Accra, September 2008). It worked with donors and partner countries to generate the Bonn Consensus, which lists six capacity development operational priorities, the majority of which found their way into the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA). The AAA refers to the importance of capacity in 16 different passages, relating broadly to: enabling environment issues; country systems; technical and South-South co-operation; national, sector and thematic strategic coordination; the role of civil society and the private sector; and state building in fragile situations.

A new DAC initiative on capacity development

In October 2008 the DAC approved a work plan for its role in capacity development, which focuses on implementing the capacity development priorities of the AAA through 2011. It contains two separate, but often related work streams:

International Partnership: At the international level, a small Capacity Development unit in the DAC Secretariat is coordinating with two partners: LenCD (learning platforms) and the Southern led “CD Alliance” (partner country advocacy).
OECD Working Group on Capacity Development: Within the OECD, a working group has been formed to promote greater organisational coherence on the topic of capacity development.