An update on the performance monitoring of capacity development programs. What are we learning? By Peter Morgan

http://www.capacity.org/pubs/cida/cida1-morgan.htm

Paper presented at the meeting of the Development assistance Committee (DAC) Informal Network on
Institutional and Capacity Development held in Ottawa, May 3-5th, 1999

Prepared for the Policy Branch Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

This update sets out some tentative observations about what the international development community, including participants in both funding and host countries, are learning about the interrelationships between capacity issues and monitoring. The good news is that CDM is evolving slowly beyond the initial phase which tended to emphasize centralized direction, information extraction and methodological complexity. In particular, the development community is learning more about three key challenges:

How to better understand capacity development issues for what they are - complex phenomena of personal, organizational and institutional change at all levels of a society

How to convert conventional monitoring techniques into a participant-driven activity focused on creating self-awareness and an improved ability to manage.

How to help induce an approach to learning and experimentation on capacity development programs.