Beyond Human and Organizational Capacity Development
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COUNTRY SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING: BEYOND HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND PAPER FOR THE USAID EXPERIENCE SUMMIT ON STRENGTHENING COUNTRY SYSTEMS JOHN GILLIES, FHI 360 AND FELIX ALVARADO, VITRUVIAN CONSULTING NOVEMBER 2012 This document was produced for review by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Knowledge-Driven Microenterprise Development (KDMD) Project, implemented by the QED Group, LLC. The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. CONTENTS About the Authors ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 II. Toward a Common Understanding of Terms and Issues .............................................................................................................................. 4 Capacity Building .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Country Systems Strengthening .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 III. A Review of Strategies and Modalities for Capacity Building and Country System Strengthening .................................................... 8 Bet on the Individual .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Observations and Lessons Learned..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Bet on the Organization ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Observations and Lessons Learned.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Bet on the System............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Observations and Lessons Learned.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 IV. Illustrative Cases .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 The Guatemala Dialogue for Social Investment Project: An experiment in adaptive international assistance in education and health ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 V. Towards a Framework for USAID Programming for Country Systems Strengthening ...................................................................... 16 Assumptions Underlying USAID’s Support ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Elements Needed to Support Country Systems Strengthening ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Moving Forward ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 21 References ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Country Systems Strengthening: Beyond Human and Organizational Capacity Development 2 A BOUT THE AUTHORS John Gillies is the Director of FHI 360’s education practice. He has over 35 years of experience in international development, including as a Peace Corps Volunteer, USAID Foreign Service officer, consultant, researcher, and technical specialist. He has been an adviser to donors and national officials in numerous countries on education policy, program design, management, evaluation, and strategic planning. From 2003-2010, he was the director of the USAID Education Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2) and led a consortium of 15 universities, NGOs, and consulting firms in conducting policy research and advocacy for improving education policy, systems, and management. Prior to his work with FHI 360 and AED, Gillies ran a consulting firm with diverse clients ranging from USAID, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), community development agencies, and various international NGOs. In the early 1980s, he was a Foreign Service Officer and served as Project Development Officer in USAID/Honduras. Felix Alvarado, M.D., Ph.D., has over 15 years experience as a senior consultant and manager. For eight years, he successfully delivered results as an education and health manager and analyst in field offices and headquarters for an international non-profit organization. A further nine years as a consultant in organization studies, social policy, strategic planning and external evaluation, have given him broad experience and skills working with donor and government agencies and NGOs at the interface between technical work, policy and politics. He has assisted managers, helped implementation teams and conducted research in 15 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, as well as in the US. Key areas of experience and skills include: organizational systems analysis and design, project design, management and leadership, project evaluation, facilitation and application of information technologies to policy dialogue. Country Systems Strengthening: Beyond Human and Organizational Capacity Development 3 If a factory is torn down, but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding. Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I. INTRODUCTION After 60 years of evolving development theory and programmatic interventions, it is time for a more holistic and pragmatic approach to country systems strengthening. For decades, the central question of systems strengthening in international development has seldom been explicitly defined or operationalized, and is more subject to generic rhetorical assertions than to rigorous analysis based on a theory of change. This background paper explores USAID’s experience in human and organizational capacity in the context of systems strengthening, exploring the following issues: How has human and institutional capacity building contributed to country system strengthening? What are the primary factors that contribute to successful country systems strengthening? What implementation modalities have proven effective for developing national capacity? How do we know that interventions are actually improving systems? What are the implications for donors, and USAID in particular, in the context of changing international assistance? II. TOWARD A COMMON UNDERSTANDING OF TERMS AND ISSUES A starting point for a discussion on the complex issues of capacity building and country systems is having a clear and shared understanding of these often nebulous terms. Capacity Building The discussion about capacity has evolved considerably in the past decades, moving from a narrow focus on the types of skills needed for results, toward being increasingly concerned with the nature of capacity and how it is enabled. However, the discussion has remained at a conceptual level because there is no underlying discipline or body of subject knowledge (Morgan, 2006). To lessen the confusion, we need a definition that is sufficiently meaningful to be operational, and that reduces ambiguity. In operational terms, capacity building is discussed in the literature in three distinct ways: • an end in itself – the primary objective is capacity building of individuals, NGOs, government institutions,