By Design or by Default: Capacity Development in Fragile States and the Limits of Program Planning

Abstract

This practice note offers an analytical narrative that is intended to provoke thinking about the design of capacity development programmes. It takes as its example the IGAD Initiative, a regional capacity development initiative for South Sudan. Based on extensive fieldwork, the authors point out how some of the IGAD Initiative’s biggest successes have developed out of freedom, voluntarism and decentralised initiatives rather than through detailed top-down design and implementation. A vague project design appears to have afforded the space needed for capacity development to genuinely take the context as the starting point. The authors suggest that the IGAD experience provides important lessons for the discussion and design of capacity development initiatives in fragile states.