The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) devotes a significant proportion of its resources—up to 24 percent—to capacity-building efforts. In line with its mission, this is aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to better understand emerging disaster risks, reduce their vulnerabilities to natural hazards, and adapt to climate change. Capacity-building activities are generally integrated into GFDRR projects to support the overall objectives, rather than standalone projects.
However, despite the level of investment, capacity building is often considered secondary to larger activities. To date, some of GFDRR’s capacity-building activities have been perceived as scattered by clients, partners, and colleagues at the World Bank. Moreover, there is little systemic knowledge about the effectiveness and long-term impact of capacity-building activities within GFDRR or, more generally, within the broader disaster risk management (DRM) community. It appears, even anecdotally from current practice, that GFDRR could better leverage the impact of capacity building.
In order to address this analysis and practice gap, this study assesses the effectiveness of capacity building across the GFDRR portfolio. The report evaluated projects active in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 (FY14 and FY15), focusing on “human capacity building – developing and sharing knowledge and skills, as well as consensus and network building. This study is composed of a stocktaking exercise and the development of in-depth case studies. This approach offers a baseline methodology to more strategically capture the role of capacity building in GFDRR, and more broadly, DRM operations.
This report is aimed at a two-fold audience: (i) the World Bank and GFDRR, to encourage better planning and strategic thinking about the value of capacity building; (ii) GFDRR’s Consultative Group and DRM community more generally, to highlight the critical role of capacity building in enhancing the effectiveness of operations.
At an operational level, three key questions underline the study and frame its recommendations:
Planning. How can capacity building be effectively planned?
Management. How can the impact of capacity building be identified and managed?
Sustainability. How can capacity-building activities be designed to have a lasting impact?
After a summary of the analysis underpinning the report, these three questions are answered with operational recommendations. This section is of use both for program managers [e.g.
Task Team Leaders (TTLs)] and grant making facilities (e.g. GFDRR) in order to determine which operational steps and considerations can lead to the most effective and valuable activities.