CAPACITY EMPOWERMENT BASED ON LOCAL RESOURCES FOR HUMAN WELL BEING: UNIQUENESS, SELLING POINT, VALUE CREATION (original) (raw)

Empowerment through local citizenship

Poverty Reduction and Pro-Poor Growth, 2012

Poor people live their daily lives at the local level where they engage with the state, public services, markets and the political system. Their empowerment requires participation and accountability in local governance and decision making through effective and inclusive local citizenship. Supporting inclusion requires an understanding of existing power relationships and the practical obstacles to participation faced by poor people. Public sector decentralisation is an important opportunity for empowerment through increased accountability for public expenditure allocations and local delivery of pro-poor policies. Capacity development, for both communities and citizens, must promote leadership and facilitation, communication, advocacy and political skills. Widely available, transparent and substantive information is a critical but easily achievable first step in capacity development. All development aidmodalities can support local empowerment and donors should coordinate to identify and maximise opportunities for empowerment at the local level. Empowerment through local citizenship Catherine Dom (Mokoro) on behalf of Irish Aid Poverty reduction and Pro-Poor Growth: the role of emPowerment-© oecd 2012 3. emPowerment throuGh local citizenshiP 3. Empowerment through local citizenship catherine dom (mokoro) on behalf of irish aid Poor people live their daily lives at the local level where they engage with the state, public services, markets and the political system. Their empowerment requires participation and accountability in local governance and decision making through effective and inclusive local citizenship. Supporting inclusion requires an understanding of existing power relationships and the practical obstacles to participation faced by poor people. Public sector decentralisation is an important opportunity for empowerment through increased accountability for public expenditure allocations and local delivery of pro-poor policies. Capacity development, for both communities and citizens, must promote leadership and facilitation, communication, advocacy and political skills. Widely available, transparent and substantive information is a critical but easily achievable first step in capacity development. All development aid modalities can support local empowerment and donors should coordinate to identify and maximise opportunities for empowerment at the local level. Poverty reduction and Pro-Poor Growth: the role of emPowerment-© oecd 2012 3. emPowerment throuGh local citizenshiP Empowerment: happens when people, individually or collectively, conceive of, define and pursue better lives for themselves. from a Pro-Poor Growth perspective, poor women and men need to change existing power relations and gain and exert influence over the political, economic and social processes that determine and, all too often, constrain their livelihood opportunities. Pro-poor growth is economic growth occurring at a pace and with a pattern such that this enhances the ability of poor people to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from growth.

From local empowerment to aid harmonisation

Although there are many different interpretations of capacity and how it develops, recent trends point to an emerging consensus on the challenges that professionals need to address. This introductory article traces the evolution of the debate on capacity development, and outlines our ambitions for Capacity.org as a forum for discussion and a gateway to relevant information.

Capacity development in pursuit of social change: an examination of processes and outcomes

Development in Practice, 2021

Understanding "what works" for capacity development support in an international development setting remains an important area for operational research. This mixed-methods study explored this topic within a global programme that supports civil society organisations in fifteen countries to secure the health and human rights of marginalised and underserved populations. Taking a complex adaptive systems approach, and seeking to understand the phenomena from the "receiver" perspective, the study found that the programme fostered the development of four interconnected domains of capacity through a reflexive, user-led approach. These capacity gains could be linked, although not causally, to important programmatic achievements for the programme's focus populations.

Capacity Development Initiatives for Grass Roots Communities: Two Cases

2011

The twenty-first century predominately constitutes a information and knowledge-based society, where every country aspires to achieve its goal of social and economic development, including education, food security, health, environment, gender equity and cultural pluralism. However, the most important problem would remain as attaining and sustaining those goals. Therefore, every continent EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Challenging Capacity Building: Comparative Perspectives

Community Development Journal, 2012

This book provokes much thought about the area of community development and/or community capacity building (CCB) and its chapters offer some profound contributions and insights. While the collection deals with both the theoretical and practical challenges associated with the concepts of capacity building and community development, it is worth noting that almost all its chapters acknowledge the complexity in defining them. For example, in Chapter 2, Miller acknowledges that capacity building is an ambiguous concept which has simply replaced the equally ambiguous concept of community development. On the other hand, Ife, in Chapter 4, sees capacity building as synonymous with community development since the same expectations are made of both, i.e. community participation, empowerment, community resilience, etc. Examining the meaning of 'community' in Chapter 3, Gary Craig believes that it too is an elusive concept: one that policy-makers and politicians use to convey a sense of ownership of programmes to the intended beneficiaries. In actual fact, 'communities' do not own such programmes since their members do not make any of the major decisions. It is particularly clear from this account that the word 'community' is used to divert people's attention from 'nitty-gritty' issues. However, it is not apparent as to why policy-makers would want to give people such a false sense of Book reviews 161

Measuring capacity building in communities: a review of the literature

BMC Public Health, 2011

Background: Although communities have long been exhorted to make efforts to enhance their own health, such approaches have often floundered and resulted in little or no health benefits when the capacity of the community has not been adequately strengthened. Thus being able to assess the capacity building process is paramount in facilitating action in communities for social and health improvement. The current review aims to i) identify all domains used in systematically documented frameworks developed by other authors to assess community capacity building; and ii) to identify the dimensions and attributes of each of the domains as ascribed by these authors and reassemble them into a comprehensive compilation. Methods: Relevant published articles were identified through systematic electronic searches of selected databases and the examination of the bibliographies of retrieved articles. Studies assessing capacity building or community development or community participation were selected and assessed for methodological quality, and quality in relation to the development and application of domains which were identified as constituents of community capacity building. Data extraction and analysis were undertaken using a realist synthesis approach. Results: Eighteen articles met the criteria for this review. The various domains to assess community capacity building were identified and reassembled into nine comprehensive domains: "learning opportunities and skills development", "resource mobilization", "partnership/linkages/networking", "leadership", "participatory decisionmaking", "assets-based approach", "sense of community", "communication", and "development pathway". Six subdomains were also identified: "shared vision and clear goals", "community needs assessment", "process and outcome monitoring", "sustainability", "commitment to action" and "dissemination". Conclusions: The set of domains compiled in this review serve as a foundation for community-based work by those in the field seeking to support and nurture the development of competent communities. Further research is required to examine the robustness of capacity domains over time and to examine capacity development in association with health or other social outcomes.