___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A recent visit to Uttaranchal and Uttar  Pradesh has helped me get a new perspective on Capacity Building (CB). During a field visit to border areas around Gorakhpur, the issue being discussed with the communities was of human trafficking, but the communities linked the issue with various other vulnerability factors and their limitations to deal with them. On further probing, they themselves came out with  possible solutions that will reduce  vulnerability at community level and enable dealing with collateral issues, including trafficking. However, such participation with communities brings a sense of insecurity at NGO levels since their aspiration appears to be to patronize the issue and hang to it for ever. This disconnect reflects the difference in perception of the issue by the communities and the NGOs and it  made me reflect - whose capacities are we trying to build?

        Changes in society are inevitable and in today’s world, socio- economic changes are almost on a gallop. While the development sector has been a ‘torch bearer’ for many decades in India, suddenly it seems as though the pace of the sector has slowed down - the main reason for this would be its ‘stereotyped’ approach in dealing with issues and the in built competition between Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who are more busy proving their ‘ worth’ to each other than reaching out to the communities and making  them aware of the changing scenario and adopting new mechanisms and strategies for development. The need of the hour is that Capacity Building initiatives have to be re-looked and re-assessed.

        We have to first address the issue of Capacity Building of the Capacity Builders and change their mindsets to develop mechanisms that are more community oriented rather than personal or institutional aspiration driven.

        As the times are changing capacity building initiatives cannot be provided in isolation with short term attitude of ‘offering of help’, but their entire context of needs is to be developed keeping in mind their available socio-economic and geographic resources and their level of understanding in order to scale it up. It also needs to be linked with the broader development goal of ‘self reliance’ for individuals of communities  at the periphery  which will be channelized through the institutionalized systems.

        The capacity building providers also face a predicament in their inability to bring in the people at the periphery into mainstream activities. One of the ways could be by undertaking `participatory' needs assessment. The approach of imposing Capacity Building  Initiatives and then replicating  them rampantly, needs to be changed; the other issue of ‘participation’ needs to be re -looked. Development intelligentsia in the name of participation  is getting  the communities to say “yes” to their aspirations rather than understanding community aspirations.

        The participatory approach with community can only work when CSOs make the CB initiatives with deliverables defined and with an exit plan in place; so that communities understand that CSOs are only service providers and not patrons of the issue; they need to stand up and fight against their vulnerabilities and think beyond their disadvantages of caste, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and so on.

        Capacity Building by CSOs must represent the whole gamut of change, by which an entire social system, tuned to the diverse basic needs and desires of individual and social groups within that system, moves away from a condition of life, widely perceived as unsatisfactory towards a condition of life regarded as materially and spiritually “better”; in the long run managed by them. This would be a multidimensional process, involving  major changes in social structures, popular attitudes and national institution as well as acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and addressing the core issues undertaken by the CSOs.

        In the changing scenario of development world today, where funds are drying up, we also need to see Capacity Building from the angle of its sustainability. This can be put into action by applying the concept of filtering down effect. Thus Capacity Building also needs to be given in such a way that the the providers create a path and mechanism for it to pass on to the rest who are still to be covered.   In conclusion, Capacity Building should  never be seen  in isolation.  But in harmony with the needs of the people.  It should be undertaken in line with  the changing scenario of markets and policies which relate to the needs of the people.
                                                                                                                                                                 Dr KK Upadhyay

q

Back to Contents