Cross Cutting Key Topic: Values and Power in Capacity Building

Introduction to the Topic

Our capacity building practice is fundamentally influenced by the values we hold and the power dynamics in which we are immersed. However, as practitioners we do not have a shared language or forum to jointly reflect upon such issues as:

• How power dynamics influence our choices regarding the design and implementation of capacity building processes?
• How explicit we are prepared to be about the values we ‘carry’ into the process?
• Whether we are prepared to embrace an approach to capacity building which brings values and power to the forefront, or actually are far more comfortable with the ‘technocratic’ or ‘instrumentalist’ approaches?
• Even if we wanted to, do we have the means and opportunities to analyse and ‘hold’ the resulting understanding of how values and power relations are influencing our work at each and every stage of the process?
• Is there scope to be talking about a global ‘family’ of capacity building practitioners who are prepared to sign up to, and be held accountable for, an ‘ethical’ capacity building practice? What would that look like? Could we ever agree?

In the light of the increasingly dominant ‘accountability’ and ‘results’ agendas that influence capacity building processes, the Praxis programme wishes to open a debate on the above.

Is there anything you would like to add to this debate? Click on Edit Page to add your thoughts directly to this page.

Experiences from Practice

Do you have any practical experiences relating to these issues that you would like to share? Please click on Edit Page to add them here or contact us at praxis@intrac.org if you would like to write up your experiences as a Praxis Note.

References and Links

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