How to enhance capacity building?

Do what you are good at, but try to do it in the broader context of capacity building.

Recognise the pitfalls and learn to avoid them

The problems that may be encountered in capacity building are clear. Being aware of them and taking suitable measures to anticipate them can prevent problems and assure you of success. So be sure to put yourself in the shoes of the local partner in its local situation; do not simply regard sport as an activity but take its development seriously and view capacity building in the broader sense of the word.

Offer an overall programme

Capacity building can be divided into interventions at three levels: Human Resource Development (HRD), Organisational Development (OD) and Institutional Development (ID). Good and sustainable capacity building is conditional upon investing at all three levels. When it comes to sports, this is generally not done - investments mainly go to HRD and to some extent to OD. ID is much neglected.

It is difficult for sport organisations to be active at all three levels. It is difficult to negotiate with ministries for the recognition of diplomas, for supporting legislation (for example, physical education), so that trained sport instructors can work in schools. As a consequence, in some countries the sport projects of sport and development organisations are just filling the gap caused when physical education is no longer given at school. This is of course far from ideal. Investments will therefore also have to be made at OD and ID levels. Sport organisations cannot tackle all three levels at once, and so they should work at capacity building levels for which they have expertise. But it must be clear at all times to the organisation that its activities are just one aspect of a broader overall programme. The ownership of the overall capacity building must lie with the local organisation, and this organisation will also have to decide the route it chooses to follow and how it wants to bring about social change. A joint consultation process should take place to decide what changes are needed internally and what possibilities there are for institutional change, perhaps by concluding agreements with governments.

There are so many examples of different forms of cooperation. For instance, KNVB and Unicef offer their core capacities within the MYSA project, in which KNVB concentrates on activities in relation to football and Unicef handles elements that relate more to society at large. Go to the section Learning examples for a full description of the MYSA project.

Local ownership is essential

If we review the long list of projects taking place in sport and development, we see that a great many of them are not locally owned. Many projects are "airlifted" from the West to the South. Experience has shown that this is not very effective. A cooperative relationship must be developed with a local partner organisation before starting a project.

Assessment of partner and possible cooperation

Not every potential partner is suitable. It is important to assess a potential partner organisation before joining forces. You will need to address questions such as: Do our two organisations match in terms of mission and vision? What is the capacity of the partner organisation? Does the partner organisation have enough absorption capacity to assume ownership of the project? To what extent is this partner in a position to develop itself further?

A tool has been developed by Commonwealth Games Canada for the selection of a suitable partner: the Partnership Filter. Potential partners are screened on the basis of several criteria. The instrument, examples of how it can be used and a complete toolbox for selecting and developing successful partnerships can be found in the section Tools & tips.

Qualifications of trainers posted abroad

Consultation of experts and professionals has shown that a shift is now taking place in the background of people who are posted overseas. They used to be people who had actually been trained as sport leaders (Dutch training programmes ALO, CIOS). Now they are often simply trained as sport administrators or sport managers. Because of this, they lack knowledge specific to a sport. Frequently, volunteers or students with insufficient knowledge of the situation in developing countries and too little experience are sent abroad. This has a negative effect on the quality of locally trained sport leaders and thus on local sport development. Qualified staff need to be enlisted, and there should be less reliance on volunteers with a less than suitable background. Not everyone can be a sport instructor in a developing country.

Guarantee of continuity

Many projects train local people. This is capacity building at the level of HRD. Often the project is dropped after this training is completed. But then what happens with the individual capacity that has been built up? Is it really utilised by the partner organisation or other organisations? Are more sport activities offered? To what extent does the target group take part? It is of great importance to evaluate the implementation of capacity that has been built up and to plan measures in the design phase of projects and programmes that will lead to a sustainable effect.