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International and Cross Cultural Evaluation

Measuring strengthened organizational capacity in international development: Three approaches to operationalizing capacity-building indicators

Stream: International Evaluation, Diversity, and Specific Populations

Saturday, October 26, 2024
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM PST
Location: D137-139
Abstract Information: International development interventions are increasingly seeking to strengthen the capacity of local development actors, partner organizations, and stakeholders to play and lead a variety of critical development roles. This focus on capacity building, particularly in international cooperation projects, has led funding agencies to focus additional attention on developing indicators of capacity strengthening with cross-context applicability. These indicators are broad and flexible enough to be adapted across a wide range of local contexts but are challenging to implement in practice, as they require significant additional specification by local implementing teams. This session presents three approaches to operationalizing capacity-building indicator frameworks and developing implementable assessment tools for measuring changes in capacity at the organizational and group levels, shared by evaluation teams working on three USAID-funded projects, LASER-Pulse, SHARE, and ASPIRE (BRIDGE-Train). Presenters will share distinct approaches to operationalizing a standard USAID capacity-building indicator, CBLD-9, as well as an approach to developing a custom project indicator for capacity building focused specifically on assessing changes in local partners’ capacity to innovate. The presenters will be joined by a representative from USAID’s Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation as a Discussant, who will provide a broader context beyond the three projects presented and reflect on transferable lessons from the presenters’ experiences.