Effective capacity building efforts require commitment from the onset across the programme vision, operational plans and resource investments. This can be achieved by funders including capacity building as a core deliverable with specific resource allocation in requests for proposals. This then allows programme managers to develop a capacity building strategy for all levels of the programme including of the programme team, implementing partners, other partners, field staff, local champions and community facilitators.

Lessons learned from Spotlight Initiative, United Nations Trust Fund (UNTF) as well as other relevant organisations found that having a dedicated capacity development manager to oversee a capacity building strategy across programmes was key to championing and driving capacity building efforts forward. This can involve establishing a dedicated team to work closely with programme participants to develop strong relationships, identify capacity gaps, facilitate reciprocal learning, and channel resources to further strengthen their capacity. Without adequate resources and leadership, programmes may struggle to implement effective and meaningful capacity building initiatives in practice. Capacity building efforts should also integrate strong knowledge management to ensure that lessons learned and promising practices from activities are captured and can feed into future capacity building activities.

Capacity building efforts need to be demand-driven and informed by the needs, aspirations and interests of partners. The most effective way to achieve this is to conduct participatory capacity assessments with partners to review skills and knowledge across a range of areas critical for effective VAWG programme delivery e.g. technical skills on VAWG prevention and response; foundational skills around financial and project management, report writing, or proposal writing. Tools and guidance to support capacity assessments include:

• Spotlight Initiative Guidance on Capacity Development
• UN Women (2014) Gender Equality Capacity Assessment Tool
• Oxfam Canada (2021)
  Organisational Capacity Assessment Tool for Gender-Just Organisational Strengthening

Capacity building efforts should be tailored to the needs of partners and their contexts. Involving partners in the design of capacity building efforts can help identify which approaches they have found useful or less effective in the past. Capacity building efforts can also introduce new approaches informed by best and innovative practice but should be mindful of partner preferences.

Involving partners in the design of capacity building initiatives can also help identify what is achievable within resource constraints. Partner engagement at this stage can help build an understanding of the limits of what a programme can achieve and increase buy-in for the capacity building initiatives that are pursued. Implement participatory learning approaches that actively engage partners in the learning process. Encourage discussions, group activities, and real-life case studies to promote a deeper understanding.

Reciprocal learning approaches recognise that different partners already have a range of varied skills and experiences and proactively create opportunities to share those skills. This helps to value all types of expertise and dismantle inequitable relationships and power dynamics between partners. For example, WROs may have more practical and lived experience of the needs of communities on the ground and what works when advocating to end VAWG in that context. On the other hand, an INGO may have more experience writing funding proposals and navigating donor applications. UN and Government entities may have more experience and comfort presenting to high-level stakeholders. Partners may also have different contextual experiences which others can learn from.

There can be great value in bringing together partners from different geographies within and across regions to share lessons. Spotlight Initiative has supported regional learning through their Regional Programmes (e.g. in the Caribbean and the Pacific). Some programmes and organisations have developed communities of practice and journal clubs where organisations came together to discuss recent evidence, and the annual programme meetings with a strong emphasis on reciprocal learning. Spotlight Initiative also hosted a Global Learning Symposium in 2022, bringing together over 200 stakeholders from governments, civil society and the UN system, along with other partners. Read more on how to capture and share learning

There can also be value in taking a “train the trainer” approach to capacity development, to support partners to become better equipped to conduct capacity development activities themselves for their networks and communities.

For capacity building efforts to be truly responsive to the needs of partners, it is important for initiatives to be flexible. While programmes should try to identify needs during initial capacity assessments, new needs may emerge during the programme. Programmes will be well placed to meet emerging needs if they build in flexible resourcing arrangements, conduct close monitoring, and provide opportunities for ongoing reflection with partners about capacity building needs and approaches.

In order to challenge longstanding inequalities in the international development sector, it is important to engage and strengthen expertise in the Global South. For example, rather than recruiting an international researcher to conduct data analysis, programmes could support research teams from the Global South who are collecting the data to develop skills to conduct this analysis and present the findings themselves. Some programmes in the ending VAWG sector - such as the What Works programme - engaged a team of Technical Advisors who were mainly based in the Global South and, in some cases, paired up advisors from the Global North and South to work together and share expertise.

Monitoring and evaluating capacity building efforts can support programmes to learn and build from what has worked well and what could be improved. Programmes should consider conducting pre- and post- training assessments; participant feedback surveys; self-assessment tools, training facilitator surveys; satisfaction surveys; and progress reports. These should be linked to baselines that are set at the start of the capacity building process. Employing multiple evaluation methods in the short, medium and long-term supports comprehensive evaluations which can capture learning and be used to inform the design of future capacity building initiatives.