Capacity-Building Guidance: Guideline and Tools for Getting the Most from Your Technical Assistance

Capacity building can take many forms, from enhancing an organization’s stock of information technology and equipment, to growing its membership and increasing its fundraising activities. Yet, in these and other regards, most common capacity-building activities are training, workshops, and seminars to build staff skills. In addition, capacity building often includes on-the-job training, which has proven to be an even more powerful training mode than those previously mentioned. On-the-job training typically accompanies in-house technical assistance from organizational staff and often figures in external consultancies contracted to deliver capacity-building services.

This module provides private voluntary organizations (PVOs) with the tools and forms needed to simplify, systematize, plan, manage, evaluate, and report on the delivery of all types of capacity-building technical assistance that involve the transfer or sharing of knowledge and skills. The module is designed to serve across all sectors (agriculture, health, and so on); all themes (global solidarity, peace building, and so on); and all functions (monitoring and evaluation [M&E], finance, administration, personnel management, and so on)—whether for training, workshops, on-the-job training, or various forms of learning or sharing technical assistance.

This package includes components on how to:

1. Prepare a scope of work (SOW) for the delivery of specific capacity-building technical assistance
2. Evaluate the technical assistance delivered
3. Write a technical assistance delivery report
4. Follow up on the technical assistance provided