Building Capable Communities

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Building Capable Communities

• Unpacking community capacity

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What are capacity domains?

• The organisational influences of community
• empowerment that allow individuals and
• groups to organise and mobilise themselves
• towards change.
• Present a robust measure of a capable
• community.

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Nine domains of community capacity

• Stakeholder participation.
• Problem assessment capacities.
• Equitable relationship with outside agents.
• Organisational structures.
• Resource mobilisation.
• Links to other organisations and people.
• Stakeholder ability to ask why.
• Control over programme management.
• Local leadership. (Laverack, 2001).

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The empirical basis for the domains

• A textual analysis of relevant literature.
• Validity cross-checked using a confusion matrix
  (Robson, 1993).
• Cross-checked using historical literature in
  community development.
• Field-tested in Fiji using focus group responses.

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A programme context

• How does the programme, through planning,
• implementation and evaluation, increase
• capacity in each domain, where all
• stakeholders (community members,
• practitioners and agencies) recognise that
• there is a need for improvement?

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Unpacking community capacity

• A description of the capacity domains

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1. Improves stakeholder participation

• Participation is basic to community capacity.
• Only by participating, for example in small
• groups or organisations, can individual
• community members better define, analyse
• and act on issues of general concern to the
• broader community.

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2. Increases problem assessment capacities

• Capacity building presumes that the
• identification of problems, solutions to the
• problems and actions to resolve the problems
• are carried out by the community. This
• process assists communities to develop a
• sense of self-determination and the skills
• necessary for greater capacity.

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3. Creates an equitable relationship with the
outside agents

• In a programme context the outside agents are
• often an important link between communities
• and external resources. Their role includes
• the process of building capacity in the
• community. The outside agent can help to
• transform power relationships with the
• community such that it gains more control.

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4. Builds empowering organisational structures

• Organisational structures include small groups
• such as committees and youth unions. These
• represent the ways in which people come
• together in order to socialise and to address
• their concerns and problems. The existence of
• and the level at which these organisations
• function is crucial to building capacity.

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5. Improves resource mobilisation

• The ability of the community to mobilise
• resources both from within and the ability to
• negotiate resources from beyond itself is an
• important factor to achieve successes in its
• efforts towards capacity building.

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6. Strengthens links to organisations people

• Links with people and organisations,
• including partnerships, coalitions and
• voluntary alliances between the community
• and others, can assist the community in
• addressing its issues and in mobilising
• resources.

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7. Enhances stakeholder ability to ask why

• The ability of the community to critically
• assess the social, political, economic and
• other causes of inequalities is a crucial stage
• towards developing appropriate personal and
• social change strategies.

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8. Increases control over programme management

• In a programme context community control
• should extend to decisions over planning,
• implementation, evaluation, finances and
• administration. The first step is to have
• clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all
  
• the programme stakeholders.

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9. Develops local leadership

• Participation and leadership are closely
• connected. Leadership requires a strong
• participant base just as participation requires
• the direction and structure of strong
• leadership. Both play an important role in the
• development of small groups and community
• organisations.