Capacity 21 and Capacity 2015

Capacity Development has been at the heart of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) activities since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil gave UNDP the mandate to assist countries in creating capacities to fulfill their commitments for the implementation of Agenda 21, the Summit’s blueprint for action. This task was assigned to Capacity 21, a trust fund created immediately after the Earth Summit.

In the last nine years, Capacity 21 has worked with more than 75 developing and transition countries, to help them develop highly effective methodologies and other capacities for sustainable development. An independent global evaluation of Capacity 21 in 2001 recommended the launch of a new capacity development platform –“Capacity 2015”– to assist countries in meeting the sustainable development challenges of the 21st century. The evaluation found that Capacity 21 had garnered extensive and impressive experience in helping countries develop capacities for sustainable development, and that many of its features remain vital for meeting countries’ needs over the next decade.

A New Capacity Development Paradigm

The experiences of Capacity 21 and other development initiatives, including recent UNDP work on “Reforming Technical Cooperation”, underline the need for systematic, long-term approaches that address the capacity development needs at individual, institutional and societal levels. With capacity development at the centre of most UNDP programmes, there are some gaps, particularly at local level and in the links between local and other levels, especially related to the new challenges of globalization, that need to be more effectively addressed.

The Capacity2015 platform is therefore built upon this new capacity development paradigm. It assists communities in developing their capacities to nurture healthy local economies, societies and environments; to effectively face the challenges of globalization; and to derive the greatest possible benefit from actual and emerging global trends, such as rapid changes in information technologies. The platform encourages and empowers people to take ownership of the processes and decisions affecting their lives.