Strength Based Approaches to Capacity Building

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Strength Based Approaches to Capacity Building

• A Paradigm Shift in our Development Approach to
• Capacity Building
• Christopher Dureau
• Engineers without Borders Conference
• November 2007

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A definition of Capacity Building

• Capacity building/development is the process of
  developing competencies and capabilities in
  individuals, groups, organisations, sectors or
  countries which will lead to sustained and
  self-generating performance improvement.
• AusAID, February 2004

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Historical Context Technical Support

• 60s In line positions/Tech Assistance
• Another teacher in the school, a departmental
  manager
• Doing the job of a local.
• 70s Tech Advisor/Counterpart Support
• Working along side a designated in line position
• Doing the job with a local person
• 80s Institutional Advisor/Systems Revised
• Curriculum advisor, policy development specialist
• Writing the guidelines for a new approach

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Emergence of Capacity Building

• Challenge of the mid 90s
• Becomes the central purpose for technical
  cooperation (UNDP 1998)
• Beginning to put emphasis on improving the
  overall systems, environments and context in
  which individuals, organisations and societies
  operate
• AusAID moves away from staffing assistance to
  capacity advisors
• World Bank, UN, ADB, CIDS, DIFID...AusAID all
  make capacity building central to their programs
  of ODA

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Capacity Development in the 2000s

• Paris Declaration March 2005
• Ownership
• partners have leadership of donor programs
• Alignment
• project objectives same as partners
• Harmonisation
• all donors work cooperatively
• Managing for Results
• both agree on desired results
• Mutual Accountability
• both take responsibility for the outcomes
• And indicators set for each.

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Comparing

• Technical Assistance Approach (traditional)
• Delivers goods and services tangible outcomes
• In Parallel to government programs
• Limited time and defined contract
• One teacher one learner
• Working from the outside in supply
  driven/planned
• Capacity Building Approach (since late 90s)
• Begins by acknowledging local knowledge/wisdom
• Integrate with local practice and builds on local
  assets
• Systemic or holistic
• Two learners (technical/local) teaching each
  other
• Working from the inside out demand driven/
  discovered

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Capacity Building
Goal
Who are the People
How to improve their Relationships
Review and Revise until it works to deliver
what is needed.
Effectiveness
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Capacity Building

• Builds on existing capacities
• Promotes self mobilisation the search and
  discovery of a new way of doing things beginning
  with what is there already.
• Mobilizes and motivates change from within a
  society or culture by helping what happens now to
  improve.

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Approaches to Capacity Building

• We will compare the
• Traditional Problem Approach
• Asks Why and where have you failed?
• New Strength Approach
• Asks What has worked What makes success?

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Half empty or Half full

• All societies has weaknesses and strengths,
  failure and successes, vulnerability and
  resilience
• Traditionally we focused on the glass half empty
• Some now choose to focus on the glass half full

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Problem Tree Logic

• Effects of the Problem
• Problem
• Causes of the Problem

Identify Core Problem
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Problem Tree Approach

• Typically conducts a Strategic Analysis by means
  of the following
• Needs Analysis
• Gap Analysis
• Root causes analysis
• Key Problem identification and reasons for
  failure
• Identifying the scares resources resource poor
• Focuses on the weakest link
• Looking for outside solutions to internal
  problems.

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Focus on Deficits

• focuses on segregated aspects of live, e.g
  water, nutrition, dentistry, maternal child care
  (rather than health promotion or healthy
  lifestyle),
• Has to think of ways to include gender
  mainstreaming and peoples participation as add
  ons to the technical aspects.
• often misses what is present, the strengths, the
  traditional wisdom and the potential solutions
  known but unable to be implemented

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Underlying Message

• You have many problems
• Being good at identifying problems is a way to
  get attention and assistance
• you will never achieve your own goals
• You need a solution from somewhere else
• So Dependence is desirable
• Basic Assumption our current situation is a
  problem to be solved

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Re-thinking Problem Analysis

• Problem Analysis approaches begin with asking
  beneficiaries to list all the negative aspects of
  situation in which they find themselves.
  Identify their root problems
• The potential beneficiaries end up with a long
  list of what is not going well or the many
  obstacles to their own development.
• The general conclusion we leave them with is You
  have not been successful so far
• The underlying message you will never achieve
  your goals
• Unless you seek outside help and leave the
  solution to the outside donor/expert.

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Strength Oriented

• Focuses on the following activities.
• Strengths Analysis
• Asset Analysis
• Identifies abundant resources i.e. untapped
  potential resource rich or mobilisation of
  resources
• Looking for a way for people to address their own
  future challenges.

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Strength Oriented

• Focus on concepts such as
• History of success
• Description of what is.
• Past achievements
• Dreams based on what is possible
• Designs based on mobilisation of resources and
  ownership of plans

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Strength Approach

• What have been the source and inspiration for a
  community
• What has been the successes and the way they have
  achieved success so far
• Creates conditions enabling people to discover,
  value and mobilise their own strengths, assets,
  wisdom and capabilities

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Strength Approach

• We look to the past
• For where we did it well before
• We look to the future
• For where we want to get to
• Basic Assumption our current situation contains
  the source of our energy for a future we look
  forward to embracing

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Principles of a positive approach

• If you focus on the obstacle you repeatedly
  hit the obstacle
• If you focus on the problems you find more
  problems
• What you look for is what you end up with
• If you focus on the way out you miss the
  obstacle and go in the direction you want
• There is great energy in building on success

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A Strength/Asset Approach

• What has worked/ what works
• What direction do we want to move towards
• What assets exist now
• What options are there for getting there (based
  on 1 2 above).
• Lets begin now

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5 D Cycle
Define Topic Choice
Discovery What gives life? (The best of what
is) Appreciating
Dream What might be? (What is the world calling
for) Envisioning Results
Deliver How to empower, learn, and
adjust/improvise? Sustaining
Positive Core
Design What Assets have we got Co-constructing


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1. What works Discovery Phase

• Delineation of peak moments when things worked in
  the past through stories shared by community
  members.
• Identification of themes underlying those peak
  moments or key success factors

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1. Focus on what works leads to

• Improved self confidence
• Inclusive participation
• Creative ideas unexpected indicators of how
  things get done
• Excitement and passion release with realisation
  of existing capacity
• Transfer of responsibility (ownership) to local
  context

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2.What direction Dream Phase

• Articulation of new possibilities based upon the
  peak moments or success stories of the past
• Embodiment of these possibilities into an agreed
  desirable future
• Representing a commitment from all members of the
  group
• Described in a statement, proposition, goal or
  vision.

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2. This leads to

• Clear vision and end goal determined from within
  the community
• Evoking Imaginative, creative thinking
• Problems turned into Objectives
• Opportunity for debate among different sub-groups
  such as women, youth, poorer.

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3. What assets Define/Determine

• Analyse existing capacity and resource potential
• To determine what contributions the community has
  to achieve their agreed goal
• Divide up Assets into Human, Social, Physical,
  Natural and Financial
• Or People skills, Organisations and Institutions
• Head, Heart, Hands
• Gender analysis and respective contributions

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3 Looking for Assets leads to

• Identify champions and leaders who demonstrate
  capacity
• People seen as survivors not victims
• Model behaviour becomes source of inspiration
• Positive deviance spotlighted

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4. What options Design Phase

• Design based on what is possible, desirable and
  available resources
• External resources supplement local contribution
  the donors contribution is now sought at this
  point
• External technical expertise supplements and
  guides process directed and managed by the
  beneficiaries

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5 Do it now Deliver Phase

• Action Plan describes what the community think
  they can do beginning from the present
• Based on their own resources
• Immediate and tangible results identified
• Immediate feedback, reflection and learning
• Self confidence, self esteem reinforced

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• Based on Appreciative Inquiry this is a simple
  technique
• It has been used successfully all over the world
  to
• consult with people and learn from their
  experiences,
• involve whole organizations and communities in
  change b
• build a vision for the future that everyone can
  share and help put into practice.
• . It is an approach that
• engages people.
• listening and communication skills and above all
  it
• empowers individuals and demonstrates respect for
  each others views.

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Five Elements of AI

• The deeply valued in the past becomes the
  Desirable future
• Shifts responsibility to local entity by building
  self esteem
• Draw attention away from outsider back to local
  resources
• Redefine problems towards desirable
  opportunities or objectives
• Relinquish leadership role and set in motion
  expanding process

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Eight Principles

• Constructionist Principle Words create worlds
  meaning is socially created, through language
  conversations.
• Principle of Simultaneity Inquiry creates
  change the moment we ask a question, we begin to
  create change
• Poetic Principle We can choose what we study
  organizations, like open books, are endless
  sources of information learning.
• Anticipatory Principle Human systems move in the
  direction of their images what we choose to
  study makes a difference.

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Eight Principles Continued
Positive Principle Positive questions lead to
positive change.Wholeness Principle Wholeness
brings out the best in people organization
bringing all stakeholders together in a group
forum that stimulates creativity and builds
collective capacity.Enactment Principle To
really make change, we must be the change we
want to see.Free Choice Principle People
perform better and are more committed when they
have the freedom to choose how and what they want
to contribute.
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Lessons learned from Strength Based Approaches

• Capacity building involves the development of a
  cooperative consciousness generated by
  integrating two distinct processes
• a historical recounting of what is deeply valued
  by community members (a reflective process) and
• a collective inquiry into the communitys vision
  of its ideal future (an imaginative process).

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Lessons learned from Strength Based Approaches

• 2. Capacity building involves a fundamental shift
  in the locus of responsibility
• communities and individuals reframe their
  accountability for their circumstances by moving
  in the direction of enhanced personal
  responsibility.

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Lessons learned from Strength Based Approaches

• 3. Capacity building helps refocus a communitys
  attention on the resources available to it
  locally
• and by so doing helps the community mobilize
  local competencies in meeting the challenges of a
  particular situation..

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Lessons learned from Strength Based Approaches

• 4. Capacity building is facilitated through a
  process of reframing all the problem conditions
  into affirmative intentions or objectives -
• When a problem condition is so described in terms
  of potential or objective it becomes a malleable
  construction amenable to reframing rather than as
  an objective condition existing independently in
  the external world.
• I.e. teaching the person or group to view
  circumstances as possibilities calling to be
  realized rather than as causes of failure or lack
  of progress

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Lessons learned from Strength Based Approaches

• 5. Capacity building involves setting in motion
  locally driven patterns of change that find their
  own direction as part of the process of
  searching.
• Interventions gather a momentum of their own as
  they move outward, encompassing more and more
  people in expanding circles of inquiry and
  dialogue around possibility.

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5 key elements of the AI approaches

• The deeply valued in the past
  Desirable future
• Shift responsibility to local entity
  by building self esteem
• Draw attention back to local
  resources
• Redefine problems
  opportunities or objectives
• Relinquish leadership role s et
  in motion expanding process

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Successful Capacity Building Lessons from
Appreciative Inquiry Approaches.

• engage participants in deep processes that honour
  participants capacity for constructive
  self-determination.
• seek to create learning contexts in which
  participants become "turned on" to their own
  strengths and collectively experience an
  enhancement of their capacities.
• enable recipient communities to invent creative
  responses to situations by delving into their own
  history and experience.

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Case Study

• PNG Basic Education Development Program Primary
  School Improvement
• 3000 village school communities
• Focused on increasing capacity of community to
  manage their own local school
• Finding local solutions
• Building a demand for better educational services
• Gender equality a primary focus

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BEDP uses a Strength Based Approach

• Discover telling stories of successful efforts
  in the past and analyzing why they were
  successful
• Dream - drawing up a proposition of where
  everyone wants to go in the future
• Design - making a plan of action about how to
  get to our agreed future
• Define make a list of all the assets you can
  contribute
• Destiny how we are going to do it and keep
  reviewing it in the future.

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The 5 Ds Process of BEDP
D1- DISCOVER
D1- We have done it before.
D5 We have an action plan start implementing
it.
D2 - DREAM
D2 We have a vision for our future.
D5 DELIVER/DO IT
D4 -DEFINE
D3-DESIGN
D3 We agree on what could be done.
D4 We have a list of our resources to draw from.
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An example of strength based

• ABCD - Assets Based Approach to Capacity
  Development
• Help people identify that they have something to
  contribute through story telling and a
  listening encouraging environment
• Help people list and feel confident about
  assessing their assets

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Models

• Sustainable Livelihoods using 5 Capitals
• Community Economies for Development
• Assets Based Community Development (ABCD)
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Social Capital Strengthening
• Positive Deviance in Nutrition
• Ford Foundations Framework for Asset Buidling

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Tools

• Asset Mapping
• Story Telling about past successes
• Drama
• Gender Analysis - what women men contribute
• Success Analysis
• Training capacity Analysis

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Helen Keller said

• "So much has been given to me, I have not time to
  ponder over that which has been denied."