This capacity development brief summarizes the results of a multi-donor team review of four examples of post-crisis capacity development interventions in the Solomon Islands in 2005-08 whose performance was frequently cited as successful by local stakeholders. Although not based on post-project...

The Government of Japan has been supporting capacity development through the World Bank for 17 years. It has provided grants under its Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) Fund to support graduate scholarships, training activities, and preparation and implementation of loans and...

In Niger, where only a fifth of the population is literate and poverty is rife, radio has taken on an extraordinarily important role in the lives of its citizens. Radio programs are not only the means through which people entertain themselves and get the daily news, they are also playing a proxy...

This work on a review of non-lending approaches, which for the purposes of this brief is defined broadly as activities that have a stated goal of improving individual, organizational and broader institutional capacities in a country, is spread widely throughout the Bank. It includes specific,...

For many developing countries, capacity development means donor-sponsored training programs and outside experts. But a noteworthy example in Uganda shows that capacity development may work better and be more sustainable when local market forces are unleashed to provide for local capacity needs....

In this brief, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, shares lessons learned from her experience in leading a post-conflict country. She emphasizes the importance of taking a broader view of the national leadership system while building national leadership capacities and...

A growing body of evidence suggests that learning and cooperation among developing nations is increasing n both frequency and complexity and expanding from just economic cooperation to include a variety of topics: health, education, communication, research, and development. Due to shared...

In the past year, the donor community has paid unprecedented attention to the subject of capacity development. From the World Bank task force on capacity development in Africa to the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, donors have signaled both the importance of the issue to African...

This article examines the available evidence about training as an instrument of capacity development and asks whether it works and under which conditions it is most optimally pursued. The first part of the paper considers evidence from the World Bank and other international donors, which spend...

This paper from the water sector in Uganda turns on its head conventional wisdom about capacity growth and how long it takes to effect enduring change. This example of a transformational process that was driven by passionate leadership and, contrary to popular development wisdom, was front-ended...