Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Vices and Virtues in Capacity Development by International NGOs

2010; Wiley; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1759-5436.2010.00133.x

1759-5436

Rick James,

Peacebuilding and International Security

We know what works in capacity development: a succession of studies from official agencies, academics and NGO practitioners have all highlighted similar principles of good practice.The issue is not about knowledge.The problem is that development agencies are not putting into practice what they know.Self-interest takes precedence.To narrow the gap between what we know and what we do, requires us to acknowledge and manage our self-interests; to put into practice virtues of humility, honesty, justice, determination and hope.This article is developed from an INTRAC publication Capacity Building for NGOs: Making it Work (James and Hailey 2007).It starts by highlighting some key principles of good practice that have emerged from 20 years of INTRAC experience in capacity development with NGOs.These findings resonate with other studies both with NGOs and from the public sector.The article goes on to analyse the current practice of international development agencies in the light of these principles.It identifies a serious gap between what agencies know about capacity development and what they practice.The article then explores the reasons for this failure to implement good practice.It highlights constraints that arise from the changing aid context and from a lack of resources and skills.Ultimately, however, it concludes that capacity development is driven more by self-interest than by knowledge of what works.Until agencies' pride, greed and self-interest can be restrained, much capacity development will continue to be disappointing and ineffective.But if agencies are able to combine sound professional knowledge with the virtues of humility, patience and a genuine commitment to others, then capacity development becomes a real possibility. We know what to doCapacity development, or capacity building as some prefer, has suffered from the lack of a tight, internationally-accepted definition.It is a nebulous concept -broad, contested, ambiguous, and imprecise.This causes confusion within and between agencies.The elasticity allows different stakeholders to ascribe their own meaning to capacity development and interpret it, unchallenged, from their own perspective.Yet there has been progress in defining capacity development and in distilling good practice.A number of recent studies from a diversity of Vices and Virtues in Capacity Development by International NGOs