CAPBUILD

User's Guide

 

 

 

 

(Second BETA version)

Steve Glovinsky

16 Jan. 98

capbld-u.doc

What is CAPBUILD?

 

Institution-building projects are common in most UNDP country portfolios. They are usually complex undertakings, and often produce mixed results. With what UNDP knows about institutional development, this does not have to be! By putting the experience and technical know-how of UNDP experts into a software programme, it is possible to provide persons designing institution-building projects with professional guidance. In theory, anyone who can use this computer program can produce a well-designed project.

 

CAPBUILD is a Project Design Assistant. It combines the templates and instructions for preparing the documentation with expert guidance and commentary. CAPBUILD is not just a tool for producing a project document, it is also a tool for designing a high-quality project.

CAPBUILD takes a user through each step in the process of designing a project to strengthen an organization's institutional capacity - an "institution-building project." Each aspect of the design process is addressed - identifying the feasibility of a project request, assessing the existing capacity of the organization, and determining the project elements.

 

CAPBUILD is a useful tool for:

 

What should CAPBUILD be used for?

 

CAPBUILD is primarily geared to institution-building projects. An institution-building project is called for if the need identified is to improve the capacity of an organization to serve its purpose as part of an institution of the society. For this purpose, the software can be used to produce three self-contained documents, following the three steps in project preparation:

 

To ensure sound design, it is recommended that all institution-building projects follow this format, and include a Feasibility Report and a Capacity Assessment as part of this design process. However the Project Document templates are self-standing, and can be used for all types of projects sponsored by UNDP (in a later development stage, CAPBUILD will be adapted for Programme Support Documents.)

 

 

CAPBUILD Programme elements

CAPBUILD is organized in two formats:

Each document drafting section contains five User Aids buttons:

 

 

The CAPBUILD User’s Guide

 

The CAPBUILD User's Guide consists of two parts:

In addition, the individual user aids, created as ASCII text files, can be obtained by printing the relevant section from the Help menu.

 

 

User's Guide Part I - A CAPBUILD Primer

Conceptual elements of an Institutional Capacity-Building project

To understand the concepts behind CAPBUILD requires an understanding of

AN INSTITUTION

INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY-BUILDING

AN INSTITUTION-BUILDING PROJECT

A PROJECT DOCUMENT

THE PROJECT PREPARATION PROCESS

 

An institution is a system of rules and structures evolved to serve a purpose in society.

Institutional capacity-building is the process of providing the organizations of an institution with the capabilities and the resources necessary for each to satisfactorily serve its purpose within the institution.

A project is a set of inter-related tasks amenable to unified management which is aimed at achieving specific objectives within a given budget and a given period. An institution-building project is one whose primary objective is institutional capacity building - i.e., improving the efficiency, effectiveness and/or responsiveness of an organization to better enable it to serve its purpose within an institution.

A project document is the documentation required to describe and justify the project, to obtain the agreement by the participating parties to the project contents, and to authorize the commitment of expenditures against the project's budget.

The project preparation process is the series of tasks carried out by the three concerned parties - sponsoring agency programme officer, director of the client organization, and technical specialist - to identify, examine the elements of, and design an institution-building project, and to prepare the project documentation.

CAPBUILD's approach to these five elements are explained in the following sections.

 

WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION?

For the purposes of CAPBUILD, an institution is a system of rules and structures evolved to serve a purpose in society. "Institution" is an amorphous term because it has no limitation on scope. A health care delivery system can be said to be an institution made up of many interrelated organizations. There are financial institutions; educational institutions; democratic institutions. Government itself is an institution comprised of political, legislative and executive parts.

Institutions are linked with governance, as the instruments through which a nation’s governance functions are carried out. The ability for a nation to effectively manage its affairs is closely related to the maturity of its institutions. Since sound governance is necessary for attaining a nation’s development priorities, it becomes essential to concentrate on building strong, sustainable and adaptable institutions. The critical role of institutions in bringing about sound governance is the reason why institutions receive so much attention from the point of view of development assistance.

Institutions can be defined in terms of the organizations they are comprised of, and the set of rules which hold these organizations together. The rules are an institution's parameters, defining the relationships between the players. The organizations are the institution’s tangible features delineating, as it were, the game board and playing pieces.

There can generally said to be seven defining aspects to an organization:

An organization functions within a wider environment of external factors which effect its operations. Four aspects of this environment are:

Two internal environmental factors also affect the operations of an organization:

WHAT IS INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY-BUILDING?

Institutional capacity-building is the process of providing an organization or group of organizations with the capabilities and the resources necessary for each to satisfactorily serve its purpose within the institution. Specifically, an organization's capabilities and resources are the systems, structures, staff, facilities and equipment, and operating budget it needs to perform the functions related to serving its purpose. An organization can be said to be satisfactorily serving its purpose if it produces its deliverables in an effective, efficient and responsive manner.

Institutional capacity-building can be measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness, which are the three components of "cost-effectiveness." Cost-effectiveness is defined as the relative expense of providing a specific deliverable to the intended target group at a particular level of quality. To measure cost-effectiveness the deliverable units, target group and quality levels must be defined in advance, so that they can be compared with the end result of the capacity-building effort.

There are generally two approaches to building institutional capacity. One approach - more common with aid agencies (but more difficult and therefore less successful) - focuses on upgrading an organization's capabilities and resources. This approach emphasizes staff recruitment and training, provision of more or better facilities and equipment, and increasing the operating budget to improve the quality or scope of service. Problems typically arise when staff trained seek other jobs, or when the operating budget is not increased as needed to maintain the new equipment purchased.

The other approach (more common with the private sector, and typically more successful) - applied here - focuses on the organization's systems, re-designing them to suit the capabilities and resources which can realistically be expected to exist by the end of a project period. This approach emphasizes systems development, and its success criteria are based on the ability of the staff to satisfactorily apply the systems to produce the required deliverables by the end of the project.

The two approaches vary in terms of emphasis. The traditional approach is "input-oriented" since it adjusts the capabilities of the staff and the tools they work with to produce deliverables of a given quality or scope. The systems approach is "output-oriented" since it adjusts the quality or scope of the organization's deliverables to the given potential capabilities of the staff, facilities/equipment and budget.

The two approaches also vary in terms of perspective - the traditional approach, in focusing on the organization's staff instead of its operating systems, might only produce more highly qualified but still frustrated staff. The systems approach, in addressing the organization's operating systems, conforms the work which the staff have to do to the staff's capabilities, thereby reducing frustration. In other words, the systems approach says: if an organization isn't serving its purpose then its systems aren't working properly, and if its systems aren't working properly then the answer is not to "fix" the people; the answer is to fix the systems.

 

 

 

Often an institution-building effort will extend beyond one organization to all of the institution's components. In this instance capacity-building is carried out through an institution-building programme which focuses on both dimensions - the component organizations, and the rules which enable these organizations to serve the purpose of the institution as a whole.

Like the director of an organization, there is normally one entity which governs the rules of the institution - setting the policy and legislative framework and coordinating the work of the individual organizations to produce the desired overall result. For institutional capacity-building, it would be the responsibility of this entity - the "lead organization" - to direct the programme for strengthening the component organizations and to improve the cross-organizational policies and systems.

To strengthen the capacity of a whole institution through a programme, the lead organization also applies a systems approach. In this instance the lead organization designs cross-organizational systems which are geared to the potential capacity of the organizations applying them. The design work normally involves the participating organizations so that the relevance and appropriateness of the product can be assured. The effort may also include national legislative and policy changes, and individual capacity-building projects for the component organizations which the lead organization would support.

 

External factors affecting the success of an institution-wide capacity-building programme relate to the wider environment of the society as a whole. The unique combination of cultural, physical and historical characteristics of a particular society at a given point in time determines the most appropriate configuration for a particular institution. This configuration may or may not resemble the one in place. For example, service delivery traditionally carried out by a government agency may, upon close examination, turn out to be less appropriate to the national circumstance than service delivery carried out by non-governmental agencies or the private sector. The key to successful institutional capacity-building is a correct understanding of the environment.

 

WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION-BUILDING PROJECT?

Institutional capacity-building is carried out in the context of a project, which is a set of inter-related tasks amenable to unified management aimed at achieving specific objectives within a given budget and a given period. Inter-related projects can be organized to form a programme, which is aimed at achieving a national development goal mandated by policy or legislation.

The tasks are arranged in a hierarchical fashion: a set of inputs applied in a series of activities produces an output; completion of a set of outputs achieves a project objective; completion of a set of project objectives achieves a development goal. Each level - goal, objectives, outputs, activities, inputs - is called a project component. The following sections illustrate individual project components.

A Development Goal ("Programme Objective"; "Development Objective") is a statement of intended development impact - increased growth; reduced poverty - indicating the change in the beneficiary's situation as a result of programme efforts. In contrast to a project objective, achieving a development goal can involve more than one organization, and is not necessarily time-bound.

A Project Objective ("Immediate Objective"; "Target") is a statement of the intended enhancements by or to an organization - expanded services; improved capacity; etc. - towards achieving a Development Goal as a result of project efforts. Achieving a project objective involves a time-bound effort of a single organization. Projects can be components of a wider programme effort, or a self-standing strategic intervention. There are five broad types of project objectives:

An institution-building project is one whose primary project objective is institutional capacity building – i.e., to improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of an organization to serve the purpose for which the institution was created. In CAPBUILD, the institution-building objective is a standard text:

To implement this objective, a project manager would determine the potential capabilities of the human, physical and financial resources he or she has to work with, and design operating systems which would allow the organization to satisfactorily carry out the functions required within the project time period available. If by the end of the project the staff can satisfactorily perform their functions with the facilities/equipment and operating budget available to them, the project has succeeded. The variable with this approach is the quality of the organization's deliverables -- if a higher quality deliverable is required then greater potential human, physical and financial resources have to be available from the start.

In CAPBUILD, outputs to achieve the institution-building objective are also standard:

These five outputs, when successfully produced, will result in the sustained level of organizational performance desired. The definition of what "appropriate" would mean for each of the five components of an organization and what would be a "satisfactory" performance of an organization's functions is left to the project design team to determine as project success indicators.

 

Institution-building projects rarely have only one objective. Normally while a project is going on an organization will also be required to produce its deliverables, which would include such things as:

The CAPBUILD approach recognizes this fact, and for this reason adds the following standard direct support objective to an institution-building project:

and the production of each specific deliverable represents a specific output towards the achievement of this objective.

Thus, if over the project period the organization has been able to produce its deliverables in a timely manner and to a satisfactory level of quality, this aspect of the project will have been successful. For this objective, the definition of "timeliness" and "quality" of the deliverables is left to the project design team to determine as project success indicators.

These two project objectives are closely interrelated. The institution-building objective is designed so that by the end of the project period the staff of the organization will be capable of producing the deliverables required of it. To produce these deliverables in the interim period, technical support will be provided under the project's second objective before the organization's capacities have been fully established. As the institution-building efforts under Objective 1 progress, the direct support activities correspondingly diminish. In practice, Objective 2 is a by-product of Objective 1 - staff gain the required capacities by producing the organization's deliverables in a "live" training situation (Output 1.3) using the operating systems developed (Output 1.2).

Many projects have additional objectives, and CAPBUILD allows the addition of up to two more objectives. With more than four objectives, an institution-building project normally becomes too complex to manage effectively, and should be broken into separate efforts.

 

Project activities represent the discrete tasks carried out applying the project inputs to produce project outputs. Activities cover all tasks required to produce an output, including tasks done by unit staff without the involvement of project personnel.

CAPBUILD provides activity statements which are structured generically for each output:

When designing detailed project interventions these statements can be made more task-specific by the technical specialist in order to more clearly refine the level of effort and inputs required.

 

 

Project inputs represent the "ingredients" - the personnel, administrative support, facilities, equipment, training and capital - which, when applied through activities, produce the project outputs. Inputs cover all the internal and outside resources required to produce the project outputs, including contributions of the organization's staff time, office facilities and other elements for which special budget allocations may not be required. Project inputs would typically be from both the sponsoring agency and the client organization, with the sponsoring agency contracting technical specialists or specialized agencies to supply the inputs foreseen.

Inputs are organized by client organization and by sponsoring agency(ies), and cover:

CAPBUILD allows the organization of both project activities and inputs according to the specific output they relate to. This arrangement facilitates treating each output as a discrete, budgeted and managed task.

 

Other Project elements. In addition to project components, the following project elements are normally included in project documents:

CAPBUILD provides standard formats for these annexes.

 

WHAT IS A PROJECT DOCUMENT?

A project document is the documentation required to describe and justify the project, to obtain the agreement by the three parties to the project contents, and to authorize the commitment of expenditures against the project budget. A project document places the project elements within the context of a development programme, and becomes the operational instrument through which the project is carried out. As such, it serves several purposes, each calling for a particular feature in the document's structure or text:

A project document is divided into four sections:

CAPBUILD organizes the four sections of a project document according to their position in the project design process. The cover page is first prepared at the identification stage as the "Project Data" summarizing the basic project identification information. The project setting, together with the project's objective and output components, becomes a "Project Framework" describing the project's objectives and strategy in the context of the broader development setting. The remainder of the project components, together with the implementation arrangements, is added to the Project Framework to become the full "Project Document".

 

The Cover Page/Project Data

A project document cover page serves two purposes. One, it is the part of the document which provides the basic information elements of a project for classification purposes. In other words, all parts of a cover page - project number, title, sector classification, financing source, etc. - goes into a data base which can be sorted, aggregated or analyzed across projects. The cover page of a project would normally become an element of a sponsor's management information system.

The second purpose of the cover page is the signatures - the legally binding instrument which signifies acceptance to the terms of the document by the concerned parties. Procedures of some agencies call for the signatures of the national and international sponsoring agencies, the client agency and the agency providing technical support; others only require the signatures of the national and international sponsoring agencies and call for separate agreements with the client and the technical agencies.

 

The information contained in the cover page is normally known early in the project design process. Certain elements may be amended over the course of the project, but earmarkings are required right from the conception of the project for use in forward planning. CAPBUILD therefore creates a project document cover page first as the "Project Data" sheet, which is prepared by the project sponsor during the project identification stage, upon acceptance of the project. The purpose of this form is to initiate the project formulation process by entering the basic information about the project into the records of the sponsoring organization.

CAPBUILD provides a template for the Project Data based on the UNDP information requirements, but the information categories are generically designed in order to allow any sponsoring agency to enter basic information required for its own particular purposes.

A Project Data sheet becomes a project document cover page at the Project Framework stage, and may again be revised when finalizing the draft project document. Depending on the circumstances, each section would be re-examined and redrafted according to the feedback received from the reviewing parties. Particular items meriting reconsideration at the project framework stage are: project execution arrangements; estimated duration; financial earmarkings; suggested formulation, appraisal and approval arrangements.

At the Project Document preparation stage, the section on formulation, appraisal and approval suggestions are converted into a record of the formulation, appraisal and approval steps undertaken, and included in the sponsor's programme management data base to chronicle the project preparation process.

The following template is a Project Data sheet suitable for UNDP:

The Project Setting/Project Framework

The Project Setting is the part of the Project Document linking the project components to the development programme of which the project is a part. It describes how the project fits into the wider development effort. Its purpose is primarily for information and, in the preparatory stage, for appraisal.

The Project Setting provides a reviewer with the overall description of the programme features intended to address the development goal, and how the project fits within this framework. It is comprised of a series of increasingly focused descriptions, flowing from the bigger picture down to the specifics of the project: from the sector's characteristics, to the purpose of the institution serving the sector, to the structure of the organizations within the institution, to the constraints of the institution meriting a development programme, to the goal of the development programme addressing these constraints, to the development programme's strategy, contents, and organization, to the objectives of its individual project components, to the funding and implementation status for these project components, to the specifics of the referenced project itself. CAPBUILD addresses each of these topics in one or two paragraphs each, organized into five chapters:

3. Organizational Setting: the structural framework for addressing the problem

The information contained in the project setting is normally known at the stage of the design process when the features of the programme are accepted and the project objectives and outputs are known. CAPBUILD puts this information into a "Project Framework," which consists of the Project Setting, the Project Objectives and Outputs, and the other elements of the Project Document required by the sponsoring agency to ensure the project conforms to its policies, priorities and design prerequisites.

The Project Framework is used to give reviewers an opportunity to offer project designers feedback on projects in similar settings elsewhere and on relevant experiences to take into account. It also allows appraisers to confirm a project's priority, relevance to sponsor concerns, and appropriateness for fitting into an overall programme effort. Subsequently the same information, adjusted on the basis of feedback obtained, constitutes the respective elements of the Project Document.

The following describes the contents of a Project Framework:

The Implementation Arrangements/Project Document

A project's implementation arrangements are the mechanisms put in place for carrying out the project tasks. They are negotiated elements, agreed between the sponsor, the client and the technical specialist designing the project, setting out the way in which the project will operate to achieve its objectives in the given situation. As such, the purpose of this section is to spell out the agreements reached on the roles and responsibilities of each of the concerned parties in project implementation and, through the signature on the Project Document, ensure commitment to these agreements. There are six implementation arrangements for all parties to reach agreement on:

  1. Operating arrangements: the persons responsible for managing the project, for producing the outputs and for administering the inputs.

  2. Steering arrangements: the guidance and coordinating mechanisms to direct, advise or inform project management

  3. Supporting arrangements: the agencies responsible for providing project financing, technical support and backstopping

  4. Prior conditions: the prior obligations and pre-requisites to satisfy before procuring inputs or beginning activities

  5. Reporting arrangements: monitoring, evaluation and public information mechanisms

  6. Legal context: the framework for project operations between the sponsor and the host country government

The information contained in the implementation arrangements is normally known at the last stage of the design process, once t