Alternative approaches to capacity building – emerging practices abroad

Cypriot Civil Society Strengthening Programme

Context
The Cypriot Civil Society Strengthening Programme (CCSSP) implemented by the
International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC), the NGO Support Centre
(NGO-SC) (GCC) and The Management Centre (MC-Med) (TCC) ran from January 2007
to July 2008.

CCSSP formed part of UNDP’s Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT) initiative aimed
at deepening trust and cooperation between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot
communities. It was funded by UNDP (with support from USAID). A strong and engaged
civil society (CS) was viewed as an essential aspect of building a lasting solution to the
Cyprus problem. The aims of CSSP mirrored this intent with a focus on strengthening
civil society’s role in deepening citizen dialogue within and across communities, and
enhancing sustainable capacity building support for civil society. Related objectives of
CCSSP focused on building capacities of civil society at the individual, organisational
and sector levels.

Logic of the approach

The CCSSP has the following objectives:

 Develop the skills of individual leaders, staff and volunteers to improve

conceptual understanding and practical skills in a number of key areas

 Develop organisations’ knowledge and skills in designing, planning and

managing their own organisational development processes

 Increase capacity of CSOs to develop broader and stronger relationships with

each other, inter-communally, and with authorities and policy-makers, and raise
the visibility and profile of the sector as a whole

 Develop local trainers and consultants’/ CSOs’ capacity and skills to design and
develop appropriate capacity assessment and development plans

 Increase debate, knowledge and understanding of key issues facing civil society,
through dialogue within and outside civil society
 Alternative approaches to capacity building – emerging practices abroad

Methods and processes:

Four programme components contribute to these objectives; these are outlined below:

Component One: Open Training

The intent of the Open Training Programme was to provide direct training to GC and TC
CSOs and individuals with a focus on Nicosia and various locations across the island,
whilst simultaneously strengthening the capacity of local trainers to deliver participatory
training to the civil society sector in Cyprus. The strategy developed to realise this intent
was to operate training of trainer (TOT) courses for GC and TC trainers (three in the
programme period), joint INTRAC, MC and NGO SC delivery of training on a range of
topics addressing capacity issues identified during the Needs Assessment, plus
mentoring for local trainers by INTRAC specialists. In addition, for each topic-based
course, a training ‘toolkit’ was prepared, which included materials, further reading, key
terms, and trainer notes on methodology. This area of Programme activity represented a
major undertaking, in terms of scale (e.g. 80 courses over 18 months), management
(e.g. identification, recruitment and monitoring of local trainers; quality assurance), and
logistics/ marketing (e.g. multiple multi-lingual participant groups, advertising/
communications).

Component Two: Tailor-made Technical Assistance

Under Component Two, there was a dual strategy of strengthening the knowledge/skills
development of local civil society consultants and of providing technical support to
individual CSOs. In the GCC, there were experienced and skilled consultants delivering
a range of services to the private sector, but very few individuals provided civil society
capacity building. In the TCC, a consultancy culture was almost nonexistent, and there
was a significant gap in the skills and knowledge-base required to provide appropriate
support to CSOs. This area of programme activity was demand driven, guided by
specific requests from Cypriot CSOs. Local consultants were provided training and
mentoring, filling a gap in local capacity for providing consultancy to the sector.
Consultancy was provided free of charge, as local CSOs would not be able to afford to
pay for such services.

Component Three: Long-term Capacity Building Support

 Alternative approaches to capacity building – emerging practices abroad

This component provided capacity building support to a selected number of Cypriot

CSOs, involving these organisations in the design of the methods and tools utilised.
CSOs were supported by CCSSP consultants in assessment and diagnosis of their
organisational capacity and in the design, implementation and review of a medium term
2-year development plan. INTRAC’s consultant lead worked with 5 local consultants in
the delivery of this process, providing technical inputs and ongoing support, face-to-face
and at-distance.

Component Four: Dialoguing Events

This component of the CCSSP was intended to raise the profile of the civil society sector
as a whole and comprised a) the programme’s communications activities and b) a
number of events designed to address knowledge development, learning and cross-
sector relationship building through community-level, island-wide and international
events.
Alternative approaches to capacity building – emerging practices abroad