Building capacity
What is capacity building?
Natural resource management (NRM) problems are extremely complex. They occur across broad areas of the country and can have impacts over long time periods. They are also likely to involve difficult trade-offs between different land uses and users at local, regional and national levels. Individuals within communities and government require the skills, knowledge and will to respond to new challenges and adopt an integrated approach to finding long-term solutions.
People who live and work directly with our natural resources have a central role in achieving long-term environmental outcomes. Capacity building for natural resource management is focused on enhancing genuine community involvement in all aspects of NRM, from planning to on-ground action. It is a process by which individuals, groups and communities further develop their understanding, ability and motivation to undertake actions leading to sustainable NRM.
The NRM Monitoring and Evaluation Framework identifies intermediate outcomes for capacity building as Management Action Targets. Outcomes include changes in attitude, behaviour and practices and increased involvement in sustainable NRM. Successful capacity building can lead to long-term changes through:
- awareness raising
- information and knowledge development and sharing
- development of new skills and training
- facilitation and support
Capacity building aims to encourage greater and more effective community involvement in the development and implementation of regional NRM plans.
Guiding Principles
Capacity building should:
- ensure priority issues and key interest groups are targeted to meet priority NRM outcomes in a region
- ensure priority issues and key interest groups are targeted to meet priority NRM outcomes in a region
- encourage partnerships between key interest groups
- value and use Indigenous expertise and knowledge
- be based on learning from each other through sharing resources, experience and expertise
- build on 'learning by doing' and other appropriate learning styles
- be accessible to the entire community, including people of non-English speaking backgrounds and
- be based on accurate, scientific and technical information.
Identifying short-term change targets
A capacity building programme logic should identify the changes needed in behaviour to achieve sustainable NRM outcomes. Changes may include:
- the use and management of private and public land
- local planning systems
- types of recreational behaviour
- the way regional planning processes are undertaken
- disposal of waste products in industry
If no change is required, then a direct investment in on-ground works and not capacity building may be more suitable.
Solutions to resource conditions ultimately rest with people. One approach to capacity building may be effective in one area, with a particular sector of the community, but totally ineffective in another. Development of capacity building activities in a region must consider the social and economic as well as the environmental factors in the region to ensure the most appropriate solution is found.
Questions to consider when developing capacity building activities
Consider the following questions to help identify key activities that will contribute to capacity building in your area:
- what specific changes in attitude, behaviour and practice are required to achieve priority regional NRM outcomes?
- where is the change required?
- which targeted capacity building activities will most effectively support the achievement of these changes, and what is the justification for their choice?
- are there prerequisite and corequisite activities required to successfully undertake these capacity building activities?
- what has already been done and is the proposed activity building on this?
- should capacity building activities be targeted geographically or demographically within the region, according to socio-economic or biophysical characteristics of the region to achieve the priority regional NRM outcomes?
- who in these areas should be specifically targeted for involvement in capacity building?
- when should specific capacity building activities be undertaken and in what order?
- have capacity building activities been prioritised and if so, which are time critical and which cannot be undertaken until other have been completed?
- should the capacity building activities be delivered at a local, regional, state or national level?
- should the capacity building activities by delivered by government, a regional body, community support network, educational institution or other organisation or group?
- in addition to the strategic and systematic process for identifying capacity building needs for a region, how much information should be included in the INRM plan in order to substantiate the capacity building decisions, assumptions and proposed actions?
- how much will it cost?
Publications
The Guide for integrating capacity building into regional NRM planning supports the development of a strategic and systematic approach to planning NRM capacity building activities for regions. The guide is based on the principles outlined in the NRM capacity building framework and was endorsed by the Programmes Committee of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council on 25 July 2002.
Related sites
Key
Links to another web site
Opens a pop-up window