Rising to the Challenges: Assessing the Impacts of Organisational Capacity Building
Oxford: INTRAC (2005), 29 pp.
Series: Praxis Paper, 2
ISBN 1-897748-91-4
"This Praxis Paper offers a brief overview of current thinking and practice in relation to the impact assessment of organisational capacity building interventions. The paper highlights some of the conceptual, methodological and practical challenges (issues of clarity, power and culture, among others) and then goes on to provide an overview of some of the practical approaches that have been adopted by NGOs and CSOs to overcome these challenges. It is a thought piece designed to engage practitioners (particularly those from developing and transitional countries) in a fruitful debate." (Executive summary)
1 OVERVIEW OF CHALLENGES, 6
Unclear Programme and Process Design -- Power, Control and Ownership: Whose needs and agenda? -- Measuring Complex and Intangible Change -- Demonstrating Causality and Attribution -- Responding to Context and Culture -- Committing to the Investment Costs
2 OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, 12
Stakeholder Involvement and Prioritisation -- Self-Assessment -- Triangulation -- Balance of Different Methods and Tools -- Simple and Systemic -- Accept Plausible Association, not Direct Attribution -- Recognise Levels of Investment -- Organisational Learning: Linking Assessment with Action
3 CONCLUDING REMARKS, 23
Unclear Programme and Process Design -- Power, Control and Ownership: Whose needs and agenda? -- Measuring Complex and Intangible Change -- Demonstrating Causality and Attribution -- Responding to Context and Culture -- Committing to the Investment Costs
2 OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, 12
Stakeholder Involvement and Prioritisation -- Self-Assessment -- Triangulation -- Balance of Different Methods and Tools -- Simple and Systemic -- Accept Plausible Association, not Direct Attribution -- Recognise Levels of Investment -- Organisational Learning: Linking Assessment with Action
3 CONCLUDING REMARKS, 23
