Reforming Technical Cooperation for Capacity Development

Glossary

This page presents working definitions of some of the key terms related to the study:

• Capacity Development is the process by which individuals, organizations, institutions and societies develop abilities (individually and collectively) to perform functions, solve problems and set and achieve objectives. Source: UNDP, Management and Governance Division, Technical Advisory Paper 2, 1997. This is different to capacity building, which implies an engineering approach to the creation of new capacity.
• Capacity Development also refers to developing new kinds of capacities which includes utilization capacity (retention, retraining, conditions of service, empowerment, management skills and strategic planning); process capacity (participatory methods, process consulting, new forms of reporting, negotiation skills, feedback); connectivity capacity (networking, web capacity, appropriate IT solutions, knowledge-based systems, organizational systems adaptation); resource mobilization capacity (new partnerships, new packaging, new formulas for funding, new actors). Source: Carlos Lopes, Globalization, Human Development and their implications for Capacity, 1999.
• Technical Cooperation: Activities whose primary purpose is to augment the level of knowledge, skills, technical know-how, or productive aptitudes of the population of developing countries, i.e., increasing their stock of human intellectual capital or their capacity for more effective use of their existing factor endowment. Source: Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries, OECD, Paris, 1991.
• Technical Assistance: Financing of services with the primary purpose of contributing to the design and/or implementation of a project or programme aiming to increase the physical capital stock of the recipient country. Source: Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries, OECD, Paris, 1991.
• Technical Assistance is defined as the transfer or adaptation of ideas, knowledge, practices, technologies, or skills to foster economic development. The purposes of Bank technical assistance are classified as follows: (a) Policy development, (b) Institutional Development, (c) Capacity building, and (d) Project or programme support. Source: "Managing Technical Assistance in the 1990s, "Report of the Technical Assistance Review Task Force, World Bank, October 1991.

Other definitions of technical cooperation

Broadly speaking, any activity aimed at enhancing human and institutional capabilities through the transfer, adaptation and utilization of knowledge, skills and technology, can be considered as TC. It refers to ODA financed expatriate personnel (experts, volunteers, consultants), students and trainees and a wide range of activities and services (feasibility studies, engineering and construction services for capital projects, institution building efforts, transfer of managerial skills, research related to development, equipment and supplies, etc). Source: European Center for Development Policy Management, New Avenues for Technical Cooperation in Africa, Maastricht, 1991.
A range of activities that enhance and/or complement human and institutional capabilities through the development, transfer, adoption and the use of skills and technology from sources external to the government/recipient agency. Source: Beatrice Buyck, The World Bank's Use of Technical Assistance for Institutional Development. A Review of Issues and Lessons of Experience, 1989.