Capacity Development:

Strengthening Skills and Organisations

The development potential of many countries is held back by a lack of skills and appropriate institutional arrangements and organizational structures, particularly in the public sector.

Donors, NGOs, partner governments are investing vast resources in capacity development,  often with disappointing results. Mixed performance often stems from poor understanding of the local context: what are the real priorities, capacities and interests in place, and what is feasible to achieve with the limited time and resources available?  

Scanteam has carried out a number of evaluations of Capacity Development activities, assessing programmes and identifying strategies for improving performance. One Scanteam study looked at the more principled problems of working with poverty-relevant Capacity Development that focused on the need for stronger local participation to improve results, and the fact that there are few short-cuts for sustainability.

Strengthening Public Planning

Strategic planning and policy development are new concepts in many Balkan states. Scanteam led the work to develop a project to strengthen these functions across ministries and different levels of public administration, and will provide advisory support during implementation.

The project will first support diagnostic work within each sector while training local trainers. The project will strengthen strategic development through improving resources planning across the annual budgeting cycle. Evidence-based policy development will be developed through working on concrete issues. Strategy development will strengthen links between national frameworks and legislation, aligning resource allocations and policy development to these. Finally, the project will help sectors programme all resources available, including external loans and grants and all internal own funds.