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Module 21: Capacity Development
21.2. What is capacity?
Capacity is the ability of individuals, organisations and societies
to perform functions, solve problems and set and achieve goals. Capacity
development entails the sustainable creation, utilisation and retention
of that capacity, in order to reduce poverty, enhance self-reliance and
improve people's lives.
Capacity development builds on and harnesses rather than
replaces indigenous capacity. It is about promoting learning, boosting
empowerment, developing social capital, creating enabling environments,
integrating cultures and orientating personal and societal behaviour
[UNDP, 2003].
An issue of capacity
“….The shift towards PSP/PPP in so-called public sector
functions may be a significant change for private sector actors, but
for the municipality it is part of a series of far more structural and
procedural changes in the way services are to be delivered. In many countries,
municipalities are only beginning to absorb demand-led and participatory
approaches, in others they are grappling with the concept of multi-sectoral
responses to poverty reduction. Seen in this context a key opportunity
and constraint of private sector involvement in service delivery is actually
the capacity of municipal government to integrate policies and formulate
public-private partnerships that are pro-poor. …”
© 2004 UNDP, Manufactured
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