"The Transformation of Capacity in International Development" exposes the transformation of capacity within the development discourse through a discursive analysis of USAID projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan between 1977 and 2017. As development agendas increasingly call for human rights approaches to development and the foreign policies of donor states sound alarms over global security threats, capacity development has emerged as the solution to the complex problem of development. Through this examination of USAID’s attempts to build capacity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the book exposes how Western notions of progress, constructed by institutions, government offcials, scholars and private sector actors, are obscured by the transformation of capacity. As agendas are translated into projects, they perpetuate historical relationships of global inequality that have corrupted and compete with indigenous models of governance. The Transformation of Capacity in International Development has implications for those considering the future of human rights–based approaches to development, the international management of global security threats and the sustainability of donor investments.

The third and final in a series, this text bridges the conceptual foundations of capacity development and the difficulties and practical realities in the field. It demystifies the process of capacity development to make it more user-friendly. The book has two parts. The first shows how long-standing development dilemmas can be turned into opportunities for capacity development and societal transformation. It proposes a set of principles to guide the search for context-specific approaches as the norm, and based on these default principles the authors explore relevant issues in comprehensible stages through a capacity lens. The second part is a compilation of experiences and lessons from around the world, to showcase promising initiatives and innovative solutions. It forms a casebook of insights and good (rather than best) practices on how development stakeholders can turn development dilemmas into opportunities tailored to the needs of their societies.

This book considers specific and practical ways in which NGO's can contribute to enabling people to build on the capacities they already possess. It reviews the types of social organisation with which NGO's might consider working and the provision of training in a variety of relevant skills and activities.

Digital transformation is revolutionising economies and societies with rapid technological advances in AI, robotics and the Internet of Things. Low and middle-income countries are struggling to gain a foothold in the global digital economy in the face of limited digital capacity, skills, and fragmented global and regional rules.

This book explores new perspectives on how to improve the chances of success regarding capacity building in developing and emerging countries. Drawing on lessons learned in the course of six decades of capacity building research and practice, it identifies the required conditions for the success of capacity building efforts, and suggests that a radical change in mindset has become a critical aspect in developing countries. In addition, the book discusses capacity building in connection with entrepreneurship (especially female entrepreneurship), transnational diaspora remittances, and combating corruption, which it considers to be essential drivers of sustainable development in developing and emerging countries. The book’s contributing authors represent the leading minds in capacity building research and practice, and include researchers from prestigious universities in North America, Europe and Africa, as well as international development experts from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, African Development Bank, and African Capacity Building Foundation. All authors have considerable expertise regarding capacity building issues, and represent 26 emerging and developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Caribbean Islands, North America and Europe.

Pressures for transformational change have become a regular feature of most fields of human endeavour. Master-thinkers and visionaries alike have reframed existing divisions as connecting relationships, bringing together as dynamic systems the supposed opposites of parts and wholes, stability and change, individuals and society, and rational and creative thinking. This reframing of opposites as interconnected wholes has led to realisation of the power of a collective mind. This book offers ways and means of creating the synergies that are crucial in influencing a desired transformational change towards a just and sustainable future. It describes how and why our current decision-making on any complex issue is marked by clashes between the different interests involved. More optimistically, the book pursues a mode of thinking that brings together government, specialised and community interests at the local, regional and personal scales in a collective transformation process. Practical examples signal the emergence of a new knowledge tradition that promises to be as powerful as the scientific enlightenment. Written in accessible language, this book will be insightful reading for anyone struggling with transformational change, especially researchers, students and professionals in the fields of administration, governance, environmental management, international development, politics, public health, public law, sociology, and community development

This book argues that the international development sector is in crisis which can be mostly sourced to its side-stepping the dominant development question of our age, the neoliberal growth paradigm. It argues that this crisis can be addressed, at least in part, by the sector’s re-engagement with the radical development education process that it helped to foster and sustain for over two decades. The recent safeguarding scandal is symptomatic of a sector that is becoming overly hierarchical, brand conscious and disconnected from its base. This book argues that many of the problems the sector is facing can be sourced to its failings in grappling with the question of neoliberalism and formulating a coherent critique of how market orthodoxy has accelerated poverty in the global North and South. This book recommends re-embracing the radical origins of global learning, situated in the participative methodology and praxis (reflection and action) of Paulo Freire, both as internal capacity-building and external public engagement. The book proposes a new development paradigm, focusing on bottomup, participative approaches to policy-making based on the needs of those NGOs claim to represent – the poor, marginalised and voiceless – rather than constantly following the agenda of donors and governments. The recommendations made by this book will serve as an important resource for researchers and students of international development and global learning, as well as to NGOs, civil society activists and education practitioners looking for solutions to the problems within the sector.

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"This book contains seven chapters, each of which presents one of more cases of action learning or capacity development. These cases have engaged the research and non-governmental communities in diverse settings in -- mostly -- Africa. All aimed to strengthen intellectual engagement and the culture of enquiry, as part of a knowledge translation process. This means that not only knowledge institutes and researchers participated but also problem owners, policymakers, practitioners, advocates and other end-users of research."--Publisher.