Intelligence

Step 5 - Capacity Analysis

• Without capacity, the most innovative and brilliant interventions will not
be implemented, won’t be effective and commonly fail to achieve aims

• A failure to assess capacity increases the chances that existing

resources, ideas, skills, commitment etc will not be identified nor
utilised, compromising intervention effectiveness and public health
nutrition (PHN) practice

Capacity Analysis
Capacity Analysis
 What is Capacity?

• Capacity is term of jargon commonly used in the health promotion

literature. Put simply capacity
‘is the ability to carry out stated objectives’

• In PHN practice, capacity is the ability of individuals, groups,

organisations, communities, workforce and systems to perform
effective, efficient and sustainable action to achieve nutrition-related
health outcomes

Capacity Analysis
 What is Capacity?
• Capacity building is the process by which individuals, groups, organisations
and societies increase their ability to understand and solve problems in a
sustainable manner

• Capacity building is an essential and central component of PHN practice

• There are several key attributes of capacity building in practice:

 a continuous process
 contributes to better performance and the achievement of objectives
 works towards the establishment of a sustainable local health system where the
community are competent to address health problems
 operates at numerous levels (individual, organisational and systematic level

Capacity Analysis
 A Capacity Framework
• The domains of capacity building in PHN practice provide a focus for
assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating capacity building
strategies in practice

• These domains are presented in a tiered framework:

• Foundation: leadership, resourcing and intelligence
• Core strategic domains: partnerships, organisational development,
project management quality, workforce development and
community development
• Pinnacle: capacity and sustainable PHN outcomes

Capacity Analysis
Capacity building framework Sustainable Public Health outcomes

CAPACITY

Core strategic domains:

- Partnerships
- Organisational development
- Project management quality
- Workforce development
- Community development

Leadership
Intelligence
Resourcing

Capacity Analysis
 Assessing Capacity for Capacity Building
• Effective capacity building links local community experts with
practitioners with technical and capacity building expertise

• The exchange of identified and valued knowledge between groups aids

the development of trust and enhanced community engagement.

• Capacity analysis can, in itself, lead to capacity building by engaging

and empowering community stakeholders

• Capacity analysis enables capacity building strategies to be integrated

into existing structures, positions and accountability processes that are
more likely to be sustained

Capacity Analysis
 Challenges in Measuring Capacity
• The key issues and challenges in measuring capacity include:

 Multiple understandings of terms - shared terminology cannot be assumed

when working at multiple levels or across sectors → data collection and
analysis issues
 Evolving understanding of capacity – the definition and nature of capacity
is evolving → measurement tools can be lengthy and complex
 Invisibility of capacity building - Community empowerment is explicit in
health promotion creating a culture of invisibility around capacity building →
difficulty in recognising, describing and measuring capacity building
 Dynamic contexts - contextual aspects can influence the measurement of
capacity: staff turnover, health system renewal, conflicting perspectives,
conflicting personalities etc

Capacity Analysis
 Challenges in Measuring Capacity
 Time course for change – enhanced capacity is a long-term outcome
 Building and trust and dealing with sensitive issues - The relationships
underlying these multiple connections depend on trust → appropriate
questions and sharing of sensitive information without breaching confidentiality
or trust poses a measurement challenge
 ‘Snap-shot’ measurements – quantitative measurements provide only single
account in time
 Validity and reliability of quantitative measures – no gold standard to
measure capacity – the external validity, generalizability of findings is difficult
 Attribution for change in capacity – difficulty identifying successful elements
of the capacity building strategy independent of other intervention strategies

Capacity Analysis
Strategies to address key capacity measurement issues

Strategy Measurement issue addressed

Utilise participatory processes as
intervention
Acknowledge the context
Incorporate mixed methods (qualitative
and quantitative)
Multiple understandings of terms
Evolving understanding of capacity
Building trust and dealing with sensitive issues
Invisibility of capacity building
Dynamic context
Invisibility of capacity building
Dynamic contexts
Time course for change
Building trust and dealing with sensitive issues
‘Snap-shot’ measures
Validity and reliability of quantitative methods
Attribution for change in capacity

Capacity Analysis
Strategies to address key capacity measurement issues continued
Build on previous phases of community
and stakeholder engagement
Establish validity of quantitative
measures
Establish trustworthiness of qualitative
intelligence
Be flexible and adaptable
Identify intervention contributions
i.e. intervention specific evaluations
Capacity Analysis
Multiple understandings of terms
Building trust and dealing with sensitive issues
Validity and reliability of quantitative methods
Multiple understanding of terms
Evolving understanding of capacity
Time course for change
Building trust and dealing with sensitive issues
‘Snap-shot’ measures
Dynamic contexts
Multiple understanding of terms
Building trust and dealing with sensitive issues
Attribution for change in capacity
 Tools for Analysing Capacity
• Deciding the analysis approach and the tools to be applied requires an
initial examination of the contextual factors that impact on tool selection

• Many of the tools used in capacity analysis can draw upon intelligence
already collected from the previous steps in the intelligence stage of the
public health nutrition intervention management bi-cycle

• Some useful capacity analysis strategies include:

 Document analysis
 Focus group discussion
 Force field analysis

Capacity Analysis
 Tools for Analysing Capacity
• There are a number of tools available to assess and discuss the
capacity of an organisation including:
• Participatory, results-oriented self-evaluation (PROSE) - compares
capacities across a set of peer organisations for benchmarking and
networking among the organisations
• Organisational capacity assessment tool (OCAT) - identifies an
organisation’s strengths and weaknesses creating a baseline for capacity
strengthening interventions
• Scorecards - a list of characteristics or events against which a Yes/No
score or a numerical score is assigned

• These tools are best completed by organisational members and an

external assessment to balance subjective perceptions

Capacity Analysis
 Assessing Training Needs
• Up-skilling health and community-based professionals in nutrition
(workforce development) is one of the most common capacity building
strategies used in PHN

• Assessing training needs can identify gaps in competency amongst

front-line health workers to focus the capacity building effects of
continuing education

• Training needs can be examined by various techniques including

knowledge surveys, interviews etc

Capacity Analysis
Capacity building strategies are central and continuous to PHN practice, where many
intervention strategies that can be used are capacity building strategies (such as workforce
development, intelligence gathering etc).

One of the most important initial and formative strategies (that has a critical role in
capacity assessment and evaluation) is the Project Management Committee.

Forming a Project Management Committee formally includes key stakeholders in

assessment, decision making and accountability, and aids capacity assessment/building:
Engages the stakeholders
Helps identify and mobilise community resources
Shares responsibility
Increases access to intelligence
Helps organise stakeholder so that they “pull together” rather than in different directions.

Capacity Analysis