Conclusion: Critical Capacity Building

Abstract

As discussed in this book, capacity building as a concept and a set of practices is now well settled into development projects in both the North and the South, regardless of whether these projects are operating through large international agencies, humanitarian programmes, local government initiatives or community-based organisations. Yet the concept has different applications. For example, in some circumstances the description of a programme as capacity building is simply a piece of rhetoric to give credibility to the implementing agency. Alternatively, it may be that the implementing agency is genuine in its commitment to building capacity (in whatever guise) and initiating activities to do just that. Regardless of the use and application of the term, though, the authors of the book have pointed out that the idea of capacity building carries a heavy normative load. Perhaps because of its heavy normative load, there has been little critical interrogation of the concept in the relevant literature. As with many of ‘buzzwords’ within development, it is generally been adopted without appropriate review.