Doing some work on capacity strengthening (I'll leave unpacking that term for another time) and ploughing through a LOT of literature to find lessons.
I quite like this short reflection of lessons relating to environmental governance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
What I'm struggling with is despite many reflections like this that articulate that regional workshops are the least effective way to support long term skills development, their use seems to be as ingrained as ever. If you've come across any written analysis that looks at the pressures driving this - time pressures and ease of logistics - easier to tick that every country has received training through one large workshop that 14 in-country ones, the use of per diems as supplements to income for staff, the need to push funds out in large discrete chunks etc - could you send my way? Vinaka!
Lessons learned in capacity development by SPREP from 20 years of working with the Pacific Island member countries are summarised as follows:
On‐the‐job training is most effective, with regional workshops being the least effective
Workshops should be seen as part of the capacity process – i.e. as training events - and not as the entire process
Exchanges and attachments are valuable, recognized as such, but not used as much as they should be. Its too easy to take the "workshop" option
Internships generally take the person away from their job for too long. Gap filling can be done with professional volunteers.
Follow-up to capacity building events is essential.
A lot of professionals actually have the technical knowledge but lack the confidence and/or institutional support to deliver. This is where follow-up and support can be most powerful.
Achieving conservation benefits is about showing people what success looks like and then supporting them on their own path to achieve it
Recognise champions and support them
Getting the right people to attend can be difficult – for all sorts of reasons
These can be for the "right" reasons
The country doesn't have enough people to cover all the meetings going on at the same time but wants to be involved and sends whoever they can
More usually they are for the "wrong" reasons
Participation is taken by senior staff who are not interested in the subject
Participation is delegated down to junior staff not in a position to implement the training, or unlikely to stay in the post long
Strategic planning can be very useful, and often the process is more important than the resulting plan
Multi-sector strategic planning helps breakdown organisational barriers
Select the battles you can win
Clear institutional strategies are needed, owned by stakeholders, management and staff
Effective performance management systems are needed within institutions
Weak coordination of projects, activities and training events affects capacity development at all levels (individual, organisational and enabling environment) in the region.
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