Imperative of Capacity Building for Sustainable Local Economic development.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Increasingly economic development is becoming a localized phenomenon and with it there is a
shift in the locus of responsibility for economic development from national to locallevels. Thus,
local governments should have adequate capacity and capacity building has been deployed as
means to accelerate economic development, reduce poverty, and improves service delivery.
Along with this theoretical framework; the theories, principles, and practices of Public Sector
capacity Buildings underpin the study.
The objective of the study was to assess the current practices of capacity building conducted by
Bole Sub City in light of the theories and principle of Capacity Building. In order to achieve the
stated objective,six factors/indicatorswere used. These were capacity need assessment,
Leadership and Management, level of Capacity Building, Availability of resource, Stakeholder
Participation, and M & E.
Primary data were collected through questionnaires, interview, and focus group discussion;
whereas secondary data were collected through document review. The statistical method used
to analyze the quantitative data was percentage.
The major findings of the study were capacity need assessment was conducting prior to capacity
building,citizens were involved in capacity gap identification, and evaluationof capacity building
was conducted. In addition, the leadership and management were supportive and committed.
The findings also indicated some problems, for instance non state actors were not involved in
capacity need assessment, capacity building was not conducted at three levels in an integrated
manner to address the human, organizational and institutional changes needed for improved
capacity, capacity building interventions mainly focused on individual training, and therewas
shortage of budget to carry out training & staff development.
Generally, the findings indicated that the office has made encouraging progress in practicing
some of the factors/indicators of capacity building; however, many works need to be done to
translate the theory of capacity building into practice. Examining capacity building from the
broader environment, involving non-state actors, adopting integrated and holistic capacity
building frameworks, among others, need immediate actions by the sub city. Therefore,
conducting capacity need assessment at the institutional level, involving non state actors,
enhancingthe technical capacities of technical experts, employee, integrating capacity building
activities at various levels, deploying sufficient budge for training, designing frameworks for
capacity need assessment are recommended
Description
Keywords
Sustainable local Economic development