Capacity Building and Organizational Development
Click here to access more information about Capacity Building and Organizational Development
The administrator of El Quetzal National Park in Nicaragua was concerned with the terms of the new directive from headquarters: increase local communities' ability to attract ecotourism. She knew of the tremendous potential for ecotourism in the area, yet she had good reason to be concerned. Not only was this new directive going to further stress her already limited budget, but she wondered how her small yet dedicated staff would be able to tackle these new responsibilities, and how could they possibly comply with the directive in the underserved communities surrounding the park? Her staff had received most of their professional training in ecology and park management, not community development and business management. In addition, the communities were barely surviving with subsistence farming, so they were unlikely to be ready to engage in business development around ecotourism. Neither group had the capacity for the job at hand.
Capacity building, or the development of human capital, is needed at two different levels in this situation: organizational and community. A simple analysis of the situation would suggest that at the organizational level, the park staff may need training on leading focus groups, assessing ecotourism feasibility, how to conduct stakeholder and socio-economic analyses, and overall suggestions on how to work with communities. For their part, the communities may need training in financial management, leading nature tours, and conducting their own needs analyses to determine how ecotourism can best be incorporated into existing community structures. If the park manager chooses to ignore the capacity needs of her staff and the local communities, untrained staff will feel frustrated working with the communities; the communities, in turn, will feel that something they are unprepared for is being thrust upon them. Ultimately, the manager is unlikely to be able to comply with the directive.
What is capacity building?
While the previous anecdote is fictional, the challenges identified-and many related challenges-are familiar to many conservation practitioners. The term "capacity building" describes the process of strengthening the capabilities of individuals and institutions-government, private, non-governmental (NGOs), and community-based groups-to achieve their objectives. Obviously, there is a wide set of skills needed for successful conservation. The tools presented here focus on how to identify needs for training and how to deliver training to the right people, especially on topics of organizational development, decision-making structures, partnership, and leadership.
As illustrated in the fictional anecdote from Nicaragua, training and capacity building is not limited to communities and technical staff of conservation and development organizations. Government officials, business people, tour operators, bank officials, decision-makers also need training and capacity building. Each has specific capacity-building and awareness-raising needs and should be trained appropriately on links between conservation and their fields.
Yet, different people have different ways of learning (e.g., seeing, reading, hearing, doing, mapping, drawing, etc.) and the same holds true at the organizational level. Thus, each capacity building and organizational development strategy needs to be adapted to the specific context and needs of the people involved. For example, the Nicaraguan park staff and communities might participate in two distinct training programs, yet both serve to meet the project's common goal.
When it comes to implementing capacity building programs, field staff traditionally trained in technical fields are not always prepared for the task of designing, implementing and monitoring effective training programs. The Nicaraguan park official recognized her staff's disciplinary capacities and sought outside assistance from trained facilitators and from resource people who were experts in their fields. She knew that it did not make sense to have her staff biologist give long lectures to the community members about different birds in the reserve, if she really wanted to create a new cadre of tourist guides for bird-watchers. Even though her staff biologist was an expert on local birds and could write the training materials about bird habits and songs, his strength was not training other adults about guiding.
With all the work I have to do, why should I build capacity?
It may be obvious to conservation practitioners that there is value in training park staff or communities, but training is merely the beginning of the benefits of capacity building. The time you invest now will survive three hours or three days or three weeks of training and follow-up support. This is because it is not just an investment in individual staff members, who of course may come and go, but more fundamentally, an investment in the structures and processes by which your organization and its partners do conservation work.
The long-term benefits of building capacity for conservation at both the community and organizational levels include: - Stronger collaborations and partnerships with local organizations and government agencies;
- A stable organizational structure that attracts partners and donors;
- Clear institutional priorities and designs for appropriate responses;
- Increased communication and accountability both within and between organizations and agencies;
- More sustainable financing through improved grant writing techniques;
- Development of leadership skills in staff;
- Stronger managerial, organizational, and scientific skills;
- Greater public participation in environmental decision-making; and
- Solid paths to community priority setting around the environment.
The tools we present here can help you identify what training needs your staff, your partners, and the communities you work in have and show you how to give them the capacity they need to reach your conservation goals.
Click here to access more information about Capacity Building and Organizational Development
Back to Top
©2003 Community Conservation Coalition
|
Metafore Newsletter
