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Civil society development activities

CBO capacity analysis toolkit: a toolkit for assessing and building capacities for high quality responses to HIV

Improving community-based organisation responses to HIV through capacity

Authors: J. Shepherd; DFID
Publisher: International HIV/AIDS Alliance, 2007

Full text of document

Building the organisational, HIV technical and policy capacity of civil society organisations is key to planning and delivering high quality responses to HIV. This toolkit is is one of a series aimed at civil society and presents structured approaches to the participatory identification of capacity building needs and planning of responses. It is designed to facilitate group discussions between members of community organisations and external facilitators providing capacity building support.  [adapted from the author]

The toolkit provides help in creating an organisation profile, facilitators guidance, areas of capacity and setting up a capacity development action plan. The key areas of capacity identified and discussed are: 

  • governance and strategy: helping the organisation assess how it governs itself and how it plans for the future 
  • finance: helping the organisation assess its financial management skills 
  • administration and human resources: aiming to help the organisation assess how it organises staff and administrative functions 
  • project design and management: assessing how the organisation develops, manages and evaluates its projects 
  • technical capacity: helping the organisation assess its knowledge of HIV and other areas necessary for carrying out its projects 
  • networking and advocacy: assessing how the organisation forms partnerships with other groups and how it advocates for the rights of the people it works with 
  • community ownership and accountability: helping the organisation assess how it involves members of its community and how it communicates with them.