The Evaluation forms part of the "Joint Scandinavian evaluation of support to capacity development" involving Danida, and the Norwegian and Swedish development agencies Norad and Sida.

Capacity development has been an essential issue in most donor supported development interventions over the last couple of decades - the perception being that supported organisations would have acquired a sufficient level of capacity to execute their mandated functions at a satisfactory level at the time of the donor's exit. While there are positive examples of well performing organisations, experience has shown that many supported organisations continue to encounter problems with having adequate capacity to perform - despite substantial donor support and their own efforts to develop and maintain capacity.

The purpose of the Evaluation is to improve decision-making and strategy development in Danida regarding support to capacity development in developing countries. The purpose includes learning and accountability elements, viz: a) With regard to learning, the evaluation will aim to produce knowledge that enables policy, strategy and decision makers to design good strategies for support to capacity development and to review, adjust or discard planned and ongoing interventions based on previous experience with support to capacity development; and b) With regard to accountability, the evaluation will aim at assessing results of support to capacity development and to what degree it represents value for money in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency.


This Evaluation attempts to unpack the causes for and learn from successful capacity development interventions. Based on a long list prepared by Danida, a sample of selected Danida development interventions has formed the basis for the Danish part of the Evaluation, in which capacity development was an explicit intention, whether alone or as part of broader objectives (see Evaluation approach below). The thrust of the sample has been on public sector institutions, some of which have interacted with civil society organisations (CSOs) and the private sector as a means of increasing the capacity and effectiveness of public service delivery.