Capacity Development

Core Issues

Capacity Development has evolved as a concept and an approach to replace the earlier emphasis on training and technical cooperation. From empirical work on the ground, CDG identifies four core areas where tactical interventions yield significant and lasting gains on capacity. These core issues, as they are called, are institutional arrangements, leadership, knowledge and accountability. In other words, a large number of capacity challenges fall into these broad categories and can be diagnosed through rigorous capacity assessments. (Read more about these four issues and the services that UNDP offers under the ‘core issues’ section on this site).

Application areas
Aligned with and additional to this core area of work on CD Policy and Practice, CDG provides services in a number of application areas, such as Aid Effectiveness, National Implementation Capacities and Capacity Development for Local Services Delivery. (Read more about these through the links provided in the navigation column)

Services Offered
CDG supports the five steps of the capacity development process through a tailored mix of dedicated methodologies and technical support. These services are informed by a rigorous body of evidence drawn from many years of experience on the ground.

The Group provides policy advice, helps develop policy guidance, collects and provides evidence on what works and what doesn’t, conducts research and analysis, and works as the in-house resource team for training country office and country team colleagues . On-the-ground technical support is provided in conducting capacity assessments, designing and executing capacity development responses, and helping set up systems that measure change in capacity over time.