Does Capacity Building Work: Quantifying the Organizational Development of CSOs Providing HIV services in Ethiopia

Background: There is a reliance on CSOs to deliver services in low income countries. To support these organizations, significant sums of money are spent on capacity building; but there is little published evidence that these efforts are effective. Objective measurement of organizational development is required to replace current subjective assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of capacity building and prioritize areas for capacity building assistance.

Methods: 44 Ethiopian CSOs providing services to OVC were enrolled. Assessments were conducted using a tool, developed in India and refined in Ethiopia, which measures across 11 organizational domains, 43 sub-domains, and uses 220 indicators.  Data was collected in 2012, 2013, with the final round in 2014. Performance and outcome data is collected in 2012 and 2014.

Results: From 2012 to 2013 the average total organizational development score increased from 53% to 63% (p<.05) and scores significantly increased in 8 domains (p<.05)(Figure 1). Information management, linkages and communication, and operational planning are the highest priority areas to direct capacity building assistance. These priorities differ from the established donor capacity building priorities. 2014 data will be incorporated into the final presentation.

Conclusions: Organizational development is quantifiable and changes can be measured. By identifying priority areas for development, we note that donor priorities focused on financial management, strategic planning, and program management do not coincide with organizational needs. As donors move to fund CSOs directly, reliable measurements of an organization’s development, and effectively targeted capacity building is needed to efficiently use the limited resources available.