impact of Capacity Building
Through our programs and support, organizations strengthen their ability to:
Identify the needs and assets of their communities.
Design and implement projects that harness these assets to meet community needs.
Mobilize participation and liaise effectively with local authorities and community stakeholders.
Know what resources are critical to sustaining their organization and how to get them.
Build a strong team and develop the systems required to take ideas to action.
Plan and budget effectively, and implement robust financial management systems.
Create monitoring and evaluation systems to know if programs are achieving intended results.
To evaluate the results of our capacity building programs, we developed a detailed tool to assess the needs and assets of both the organization and the community it serves on several dimensions. This comprehensive assessment looks at the leaders (Individual), the organization (Institutional), and the community (Systemic), as HDI believes that the results of our work should be able to be seen at all three levels.
The data provides clear baseline information against which to measure progress in capacity building on each of the three levels. We re-assess participants in our capacity building programs on all relevant indicators both at the end of the engagement and again a few years later. This of course is the most meaningful indicator of whether improvements in capacity are sustainable and translate to improvements in community well-being.