Capacity Development in Practice Capacity development is now targeted at the political, economic, social, and legal institutions that promote an open market economy, economic policy making and implementation, good governance including plural political systems, judicial, legislative and state administrative systems, the media and civil society organizations. Looking at the lessons from capacity development, aid agencies have not proved effective at supporting successful initiatives. It cannot be programmed in detail from the outset. Capacity development projects are still donor driven . Donors have a poor understanding of local realities, and often push imported and inappropriate organizational and institutional models.
Capacity development is inherently difficult .
There is still a poor understanding of how to develop capacity well and by consequence there are few benchmarks for evaluating how much capacity has been developed. This may explain the high rate of perceived failure. They also do not benefit powerful interest groups such as contractors, and therefore enjoy little political support. Capacity development requires special human skills for dealing with organisational development, change and turbulence. But there is uncertainty as to how to develop these skills, which go beyond standard management and administration training.