While capacity development is a process with intrinsic values and can therefore be considered an end in itself, efforts to develop capacities generally have a more specifi c, fi nal objective, such as the achievement of EFA. This leads to the issue of which capacities we
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want to develop in educational planning and management for countries to be able to achieve EFA. Before examining this issue, it is useful to scan briefl y some related concepts and to look more widely at the range of capacities that may be necessary for sustainable development.
Some authors make a distinction between competencies, capabilities and capacities. Competencies are individual attributes, while capabilities are collective ones, and capacity is then the “emergent combination of individual competencies and collective capabilities that enables a human system to create value” (Baser and Morgan, 2008: 34). The exact terminology and defi nitions are of little importance. Box 1 shows that they are being used by different agencies in different ways. What is more signifi cant is the insight that the specifi c skill of an individual offi cer or the collective capability of a planning department can only be considered capacity when they are part of a creative and collaborative process. In the remainder of this paper, we use the term ‘capacity’ as a generic term rather than to propose and use different terms for different levels. However, in this section we will, where relevant, make the distinction between competence (as an individual attribute), capability (as an organizational attribute) and capacity (as a combination of competencies and capabilities). Improving the competencies of an individual planner or strengthening the capabilities of a planning department are elementary steps in a capacity development process, but the process will only succeed when the individuals and departments have the opportunity to use these competencies and capabilities in order to contribute in their specifi c way to development. In many cases, what an outsider may consider a capacity gap is an institutional or organizational constraint on the use of existing capacities.
This argument highlights the fact that technical skills are not the only ones needing to be strengthened and that in some cases they may not be the main ones. The literature contains many examples of more or less organized sets of capabilities or capacities that capacity development should ideally pay attention to. Box 1 provides a selection of such sets. We could produce a somewhat similar but more specifi c set related to educational planning and management. We could consider that, as a minimum, planners and managers should have three sets of competencies. They should have technical skills (for example, to calculate and analyse key indicators, or to make projections and
compare simulations), strategic intelligence (to be able to identify the most relevant strategies to solve development problems, such as girls’ low participation in school, or a lack of competent school leadership) and human relations skills (for example, related to communication or negotiation).
Box 1. Competencies, capabilities and capacities Five core capabilities:
• to commit and engage
• to carry out technical service delivery and logistical tasks • to relate and attract resources and support
• to balance diversity and coherence • to adapt and self-renew.
(Baser and Morgan, 2008: 26)
Ten key capacities:
• to set objectives • to develop strategies • to draw up action plans
• to develop and implement appropriate policies • to develop regulatory and legal frameworks • to build and manage partnerships
• to foster an enabling environment for civil society, especially the private sector
• to mobilize and manage resources • to implement action plans • to monitor progress.
(Lopes and Theisohn, 2003: 26)
Three main types of administrative competence:
• policy competence: the capability to provide informed advice to
policy-makers;
• implementation competence: the knowledge and skills required to manage the relevant processes of change;
• operational competence: the capability to stabilize and conclude the implementation of a reform programme.
(Askvik and Tjomsland, 2005: 73)
Three key ministry capacities:
• Capacity to design a project, to create a vision • capacity to operate and act
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While it is possible to defi ne in much more detail the required competencies of an ideal educational planner, this is not a useful exercise in this context, for two reasons. Firstly, it is counterproductive to prescribe what planners need to know, because planning is a profession and a fi eld of action, which are in evolution: the changes in mandates are linked to governance reforms and to the identifi cation of new policy priorities. Our analyses illustrate how planning and management change in character when priorities shift from expanding access to improving quality and when certain decisions are transferred from the central to regional level. The tasks expected of planners are to some extent the expression of a political vision and these will therefore be different from one country to another. Secondly, the identifi cation of those competencies and capacities that may need to be strengthened for organizational units and individual offi cers can best be done in a participatory fashion, with these offi cers and units taking the lead in defi ning their own needs.
The implication for UNESCO is that our capacity development efforts that aim at the achievement of EFA should not concentrate on helping countries to achieve EFA but rather on working with countries to develop sustainable educational planning and management systems,
• capacity to assess opportunities and act in function of them.
(Based on background paper on ministry reforms in Chile and Argentina, Aguerrondo, 2008).
UNDP key capacities:
• To engage in multi-stakeholder dialogue • to analyse a situation and create a vision • to formulate policy and strategy • to budget, manage and implement • to monitor and evaluate.
(UNDP, 2006: 10)
Sida skills analysis
• relationship skills • learning skills • strategic skills • functional skills • professional skills (Sida, 2005: 50)
which will increase their chances of achieving EFA. If we follow the former interpretation, there is a genuine risk that we will limit our support to the purely technical fi elds, which are undoubtedly necessary but not suffi cient. The latter interpretation obliges us to think more widely of the diverse sets of skills, competencies and capabilities, the absence of which help explain the ineffective performance of an educational planning and management unit. As our studies have shown, the capacity of staff to commit to and to participate in a change process may at times be the greatest challenge when the working environment offers little motivation and when the public service seems powerless in the face of severe development challenges. The capacity to adapt to a changing environment and to be ready for the unforeseen is a key element in a profession that is undergoing continuous transformation and which may face unexpected changes. A background document prepared for this programme (Ortiz and Taylor, 2008: 10-11 – see Annex 2) in this regard uses the concept ‘standing capacity’, which is divided into two areas: (1) basic functionalities, and (2) organizational talents. Basic functionalities are the minimal systems, infrastructure, resources and collective ability needed for an organization to perform consistently well over time. They are about its ability to be ready and able to respond to the range of logical and probable circumstances that normally present themselves. Organizational talents represent an organization’s ability to summon, draw upon or leverage a unique combination of capabilities, resources, synergies, intuitions, relationships, and so on, that allow it to be ready and able to modify plans, react, create, innovate and be constantly relevant in the face of uncertain waters, as well as in routine situations.
The concept of capacity refers to more than the technical skills needed for a specifi c purpose. Capacity development therefore implies refl ecting, through a participatory approach, on the wide range of individual competencies and group capabilities needed for sustainable and autonomous development.