Evaluating Communication for Development by June Lennie & Jo Tacchi

Author:June Lennie & Jo Tacchi
Language: eng
Format: epub

(Djamankulova, Temirova and Sobirdjonova, 2010;

Hay, 2010; Horton et al., 2003)

These needs are exemplified by Hay (2010) in relation to evaluation field building in South Asia:

In the context of capacity building, evaluation field building entails moving away from an instrumentalist approach that sees the overall goal as improving evaluation for donors, to supporting researchers and evaluation practitioners to build evaluation communities, culture, theory, and practice in support of local, national, and regional development strategies and programs.

(Hay, 2010: 228–229)

Hay also tells us that we need to move beyond an approach to training that is about technical transfer. As Horton et al. (2003) suggest, local initiative is required for positive local capacity development. While external agencies can provide training, information and other services, ‘each organization must ultimately take responsibility for developing its own capacities to meet its own needs’ (Horton et al., 2003: 54). Horton et al. (2003: 52) argue that the traditional linear approach to capacity development is flawed since it makes the assumption that developing individual and project-level capacities ‘will lead to improved organizational capacity and performance’. From their extensive evaluation studies of capacity development in research and development organizations around the world, they conclude that ‘organizational capacities are not developed through training individuals, delivering information, or participating in collaborative projects alone. These can be important components of a capacity development strategy, but only when they address organizational priorities’ (Horton et al., 2003: 50). Their research identifies the following weaknesses of traditional approaches to capacity development:

Individual staff or project-focused support seldom addresses the organization's priority needs.

A focus on individuals or projects misses the ‘big-picture’ issues facing the organization.

Trained individuals may not find an environment conducive to the use of their new knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

A focus on individuals and projects may even undermine the organization's capacity.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.