Institutional capacity building
Subject overview
In the context of national forest programmes, institutional capacity building means creating the capability for national and local level government institutions and partners to implement their proposed action plans. Capacity building is a broad term with a range of interpretations, philosophies and implementations. As with other policy themes, useful material for foresters can be found in the literature of other sectors in addition to forestry.
Subject scope
The more traditional interpretation of capacity building is in relation to human resources development, training, extension and education. A number of resources on human resources development in forestry are available, including organizations offering specialist courses.
In terms of institutions, considerable literature is available on tools and techniques for institutional analysis, much of which has been developed by donors as methodologies for project identification. Such analysis seeks to study the operation of an organization and identify areas for streamlining, reform and strengthening.
Recent commitments to sustainable development goals have highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships between government, the private sector, ngos and civil society in creating the capacity to meet targets. In exactly the same way, partnerships are now seen as integral to the successful implementation of nfps
Interfaces with other digests
Capacity building is inextricably linked with finance and increasingly with decentralisation issues, as it seeks to ensure that staff and institutions are adequately funded and skilled both at central and local level.
The development of partnerships for nfp implementation is, of course, one of the highest levels of stakeholder participation that can be attained.