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Stakeholder Review and Finalising the Plan - Capacity Development Process

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Stakeholder Review and Finalising the Plan

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To ensure country ownership and clear leadership of the capacity development process going into the implementation stage.

The draft plan provides the basis for review by all stakeholders identified during the scoping stage. Stakeholders should review, prioritise and add more detail to the suggested interventions, which will enable relevant timelines, and the final budget to be agreed. The review should also finalise the capacity objectives and indicators and who will monitor and evaluate the plan.

Scoping & Design
Capacity Assessment
Preparing a Plan
Stakeholder review
Implemen
tation
Evaluation

UNDP's Offer

UNDP facilitates review workshops, bringing together all groups and provides template agendas for review workshops which can guide the discussions. UNDP also enables links to other donor groups working in the country to ensure a coordinated plan and access to additional resources.

Activities

1. Assessment verification

Verify the assessment results and the proposed activities with appropriate stakeholders and partners.

2. Prioritise and schedule interventions and finalise the budget.

It is important at this stage to prioritise capacity development objectives and activities, given the available resources may not cover the full plan, and certain activities may be more crucial than others to the achievement of national strategic goals. Following the verification and the prioritisation the budget may need to be revised. Funds for capacity development management activities should be included in the overall budget. This should cover all coordination/management costs, monitoring and evaluation processes, and costs associated with capacity development staff.

3. Draft the capacity development plan report.

It may be helpful at this stage to document the elements of the plan, to share with in-country partners and other donors.

4. Sign-off from national leaders.

Capacity development is nationally owned and the final approval for the plan should lie with the organisation(s) that is being strengthened. The final approval to proceed should be obtained by the senior management of the organisation(s) involved.

5. Launch the plan.

It may be useful to hold a launch of the plan to ensure all relevant stakeholders are aware of the final focus and activities of the plan. This also contributes to the buy-in and coordination of the plan. If funds are still required (both financial and human resources) this may be an opportunity to approach donors.

Key Considerations

The following points should be considered when carrying out the stakeholder review and finalising the capacity development plan.

A plan is only of use if it is implemented.

An important consideration of the stakeholder review is to ensure on-going ownership and responsibility, in order to move the plan from the assessment and planning stage to implementation. Implementation will only take place if a majority of stakeholders feel ownership of the plan’s activities and objectives.

Considering supporters and resisters

In defining a plan of change for any organisation, there will be supporters and adversaries; the objective should be to engage both parties in a joint effort to agree on prioritised activities.

Define realistic schedules and timelines

Consideration should be given to the time required to review by all country stakeholders. In addition, obtaining funding for the plan may take time. This can impact the start of implementation by six months to a year after the completion of a capacity development plan.

Donors may be able to offer in-kind resources as well as financial.

Some donors may be able to offer in-kind support instead of money; this could include providing consultants or technical experts to carry out training or mentoring; or computer hardware or software packages to improve systems.

Cross-organisational activities can help reduce costs.

If multiple organisations are included within the plan, consider identifying cross-organisational activities. Often a capacity need is required by all implementers. Sharing activities across organisations may help to lessen overall costs; for example, only one set of training tools will be required for multiple trainings.

Guidance & Tools