This rapid literature review has been commissioned as an update to a previous report on technical assistance produced by the K4D programme in 2018 by Hannah Timmis. This report concentrates on technical assistance or capacity building in North Africa. This review found only one comprehensive study on technical assistance published after Timmis (2018) and a few recent examples ...» more
Capacity building
Public Sector Reform and Capacity Building in Small Island Developing States
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) experience capacity constraints relating to their small size, remoteness and dispersion (in the case of island archipelagos), which impinge on the quality of the public sector (Horscroft, 2014; Mycoo & Donovan, 2017). This rapid literature review summarises the evidence on public sector reform and capacity building initiatives in SIDS. ...» more
Institutional partnerships and twinning between civil service organisations
‘Twinning’ typically entails a form of formalised partnership between similar institutions in the North and South for an indefinite period (Jensen, 2007; Baud et al., 2010), with the aim of strengthening the capacity of partners in developing countries (Jones and Blunt, 1999; Ouchi, 2004). Institutional twinning inherently implies that the primary focus of the capacity ...» more
Donor funded alliances promoting regional cooperation
There are a significant number of donor funded regional cooperation arrangements across a broad range of thematic areas. However, the level of their success varies considerably, and the literature search carried out for this report did not identify any unqualified successes. Areas of cooperation include defence, environmental issues and economic integration. There is a ...» more
Capacity building in the Ministry of Interior in fragile and post-conflict countries
This report reviews the literature engaging with a key issue, the reform of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) in fragile and post-conflict countries. While MoI reform is crucial to the success of Security Sector Reform (SSR), as it enables management and oversight of the internal security forces, it has often been neglected by international actors and by the SSR literature. The ...» more
Capacity building for social protection
Research for this rapid literature review was unable to find specific material on impacts and lessons for supporting sustainable government capacity building of the social protection sector in general. There is, however, general guidance material on social protection, and lessons and impacts from specific programmes and projects. Consequently this report identifies ...» more
Capacity development at the national level in fragile and conflict-affected states
There is a clear international consensus on desirable principles for capacity development in fragile states, which include country ownership, use of country systems, improvements to technical assistance and training, adapting initiatives to local contexts, a focus on adaptive and flexible approaches, a focus on results, improved coordination, and a focus on a clear set of ...» more
Evaluation Capacity Development
While donors’ efforts to support evaluation capacities of developing countries have increased over the last 20 years, this rapid review of the literature finds a limited evidence base on evaluation capacity development (ECD) approaches and their effectiveness. There are more reports of innovative and good practices than rigorous evidence on what has worked. Nevertheless, the ...» more
New thinking on technical assistance to resolve knowledge and capacity gaps
There is a wide and diverse literature on technical assistance, much of which refers to addressing knowledge and capacity gaps in lower- and middle-income countries. This report identifies some novel or emerging approaches which appear to move away from the traditional approaches that commonly centre on short-term filling of capacity gaps and being primarily ...» more
Indonesian and Philippine engagement in South-South and Triangular Cooperation
Both Indonesia and the Philippines provide considerable assistance to other developing countries, typically capacity building and sharing expertise about a range of development themes from agriculture and rural development to ICT, microfinance, education, health and welfare, amongst others. While most cooperation occurs at a regional Asia-Pacific level, Indonesia and the ...» more
Impact and VFM of Capacity Building Support for Conflict Parties in Negotiations
This report assesses the impact and value for money (VFM) of international support to government and rebel capacity building for negotiations. It finds that there has been little sustained analysis of the impact of this kind of support. Few donor evaluations focus specifically on these activities and those that do are often not made public (expert comments). No studies were ...» more
Research Capacity Strengthening
Lack of an enabling legal framework, poor quality of secondary-school education, an absence of research leaders and role models, and the relatively low priority attached to research are all frequently cited as barriers to research capacity development in developing countries as a whole, and Africa in particular (Whitworth et al 2008). Studies have noted that previous research ...» more
Civil Service Reform in Rwanda
It is generally asserted that the Government of Rwanda has embarked on an impressive array of public sector reforms, with little criticism of their commitment or political willingness to support change. Public sector reform is discussed in the following policy contexts: human resource development; good governance and institutional strengthening; decentralisation to district- ...» more
