Our Sectors

Capacity Building

Capacity building is an essential element to all CHF projects. We typically assist and support partner organizations to improve their organizational capacity to design, deliver, monitor and evaluate sustainable livelihoods projects benefiting the rural poor. CHF ensures the active participation of partners in developing a strategic framework for their organization, identifying organizational strengths and weaknesses, and developing long‑term plans to strengthen capacity in areas such as organizational management, human and financial resource management, and program planning, monitoring and evaluation.

CHF’s capacity building model is based on two core approaches: long-term partnership and coaching, and organization-specific interventions. In most projects, CHF enters into a partnership with a local organization and builds its capacity to design, implement and manage projects. Our partnership model promotes local ownership and relevance, and provides an effective avenue for developing sustainable local capacity. Our approach is holistic and creates an opportunity to build both soft and hard capacities within an organization. We do not believe in generic capacity building packages. Instead, long-term partnerships allow us to develop appropriate interventions that address the specific needs of our partners at any given time.

Example of CHF Capacity Building projects:

In the 1997 to 2008 Building Community Capacity Project, CHF worked with a broad range of non-governmental organizations which benefited from an extensive range of technical assistance customized to enhance their capacity to deliver poverty reduction programs and services to their communities. The following results were observed: Guyanese organizations were able to upgrade their delivery capacity, increase their collaboration and partnerships with other civil society and government bodies, and increase their reach and the range and availability of services offered.

In Northern Ghana, the Farmer Responsive Mechanisms in Extension and Research project strengthened the links between research institutions and extension agencies and, through them, fostered the promotion of innovative agricultural techniques and approaches. The project also strengthened the institutional capacity of both government and civil society partner organizations at district and regional levels.