“COVID-19 poses huge tests for NGOs. For many, their very existence is at stake. To survive in such a harsh and chaotic environment demands sustainable financing, strategic agility, and perhaps most of all, trustworthy leadership. To help NGOs rise to these challenges, they need access to skilled and committed in-country capacity building providers.”
This short paper by Rick James examines the topic of capacity strengthening in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the challenges to capacity building providers, the opportunities for action they have, and the changing emphases in capacity building.
This paper is inspired by discussions between capacity building providers from India (Kaustuv Bandyopadhyay, PRIA Educational Trust), Indonesia (Ibnu Mundzir, C4Change.Id1), Ethiopia (Hiwot Alemayehu), the UK (Lucy Morris, Rachel Hayman, Willemijn de Bruin & Rick James, INTRAC), Canada (Emily Wilson), and Mexico (Mariana Diaz -Ávila and Alfredo Cuaron, SACBÉ). The paper was produced with funding from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, as part of a small project aimed at exploring how capacity building language influences practice.
Another output from this project, the dialogue paper “Global perspectives on decolonising capacity strengthening” is also available.
Download:
Cultivating capacity amidst COVID-19 Final
.pdf (0.12mb)
