February 2017
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Dear ,
Greetings from the Partnership and Capacity Strengthening (PCS) team and welcome to our periodical newsletter on CRS and partner achievements. This month’s issue includes an update on Perfecting Partnership 2017, and the release of four new learning resources and tools:
- MENTOR: Civil Society Strengthening in North Africa and Middle East
- SGPM I: Short-term Interventions Can Lead to Sustained Improvement
- THRIVE: Using CRS Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Approaches to Improve Early Childhood Development Service Quality
- CapTrack: Keeping Track of Capacity Strengthening Activities in Proposals.
The Partnership and Capacity Strengthening team
Update on Perfecting Partnership 2017: Theory Meets the Real World
Preparations and participant selection are underway for the first Perfecting Partnership workshop, scheduled for July 12–19, 2017, at Villanova University. Designed as an intensive learning opportunity for CRS global staff, Perfecting Partnership 2017 aims to hone the intermediate to advanced PCS knowledge, skills and attitudes of already experienced practitioners, and to build a vibrant and meaningful PCS community of practice.
Participants for Perfecting Partnership 2017 will be selected through a competitive process. One hundred twenty CRS staff worldwide submitted applications (for 30 places), attended an online orientation session to learn more about the workshop’s expectations and offerings, and completed an interactive competency demonstration (also online). The organizing team notified all applicants of their status by January 31; continuing applicants will participate in a second competency demonstration prior to the final selection of participants in April.
The PCS unit sees Perfecting Partnership 2017 (conducted in English) as a pilot experience which will inform similar workshops in French, Spanish, and perhaps Arabic in 2018 and beyond.
MENTOR: Civil Society Strengthening in North Africa and Middle East
Developed in response to a request from CRS’ country program in Lebanon, the PCS unit provided technical and financial support to conduct a structured learning exercise on aspects of the Middle East-North Africa CSO Training and Organizational Development Response (MENTOR) project.
Focused on MENTOR’s approaches and their impact on communities, the exercise and subsequent analysis aim to contribute to the existing knowledge base on capacity strengthening, to inspire additional discussion and research on capacity strengthening’s value and impact, and to document MENTOR’s approaches for future application. The paper reflects data and analysis available as of May 2015 (about three-quarters through the project) and presents detail on the project’s process, timeline, key achievements (quantitative and qualitative) and lessons learned.
MENTOR (2012–2016) worked with local lead training partner organizations in Lebanon and Tunisia to provide sustainable training support and organizational development resources that, in turn, help strengthen the capacity of nascent civil society organizations in their communities. These capacity strengthening efforts are also helping establish and promote networks and linkages among organizations working across similar issue areas in order to maximize their impact.
SGPM I: Short-term Interventions Can Lead to Sustained Improvement
Sustained social change requires profound change among individuals, teams, institutions and even the external environment. Enabling and strengthening the capacity of these actors and systems requires time and often intensive resources. Yet those who could most benefit from strengthened capacity are frequently under-resourced and need short-term results.
Facing these challenges in Darfur, Sudan, a CRS-led consortium (Small Grants Project Manager, or SGPM I) developed a short-term capacity strengthening program (2011–2013) that quickly improved key organizational functions. Assessment data gathered at baseline (November 2011 and February 2012), endline (February 2013) and follow-up (April 2014) show that the partner civil society organizations sustained many improvements for more than one year after the end of the intervention.
Related resource: Capacity Building Training Modules from Sudan
THRIVE: Using Partnership and Capacity Strengthening to Improve Early Childhood Development Service Quality
The THRIVE project (2012–2015) improved early childhood development support services in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania for children under five affected by HIV. THRIVE worked with 10 local implementing partners to strengthen the capacity of more than 200 community-based organizations and community volunteers to expand ECD services and improve the quality of care and support for vulnerable children.
Developed by PCS, this learning brief summarizes the capacity strengthening processes, approaches and tools applied by the THRIVE team; results of the different interventions and lessons learned. The brief’s findings draw from structured assessments (e.g., those associated with specific tools) and individual and focus group interviews with THRIVE staff, local implementing partners and the community-based organizations and volunteers targeted by interventions.
CapTrack: Keeping Track of Capacity Strengthening Activities in Proposals
Designed to help project design teams quickly and easily coordinate capacity strengthening activity plans, CapTrack is a simple table that captures basic activity information (e.g., activity purpose, duration, required resources and responsible parties). CapTrack can be used for most projects, though it is especially helpful for projects that involve multiple partners/beneficiary groups and a variety of capacity strengthening activities.
CapTrack users do not need specialized capacity strengthening knowledge. The tool is easy to use and includes specific instructions and examples for each heading. Designed to complement other capacity strengthening tools (see related resources below), CapTrack can be used as-is or can be adapted.
Related resources: