Talking about capacity building

Capacity development is often one of the main things we do in development work. It basically means that you train local people to do things better and be self-reliant. It is often compared to "teaching someone to fish rather than giving fish."

Anyway, today I received an e-mail from my government counterpart, who has become a friend. She told me that she has learnt many things from me, (nice of her to say) and one of the good habits she learnt from me is to acknowledge and respond to each e-mail (!!). Apparently for her me saying something like "thank you. I will review the document and revert back." was special.   

I thought it was funny that she thought it was a good habit, because I take that for granted. She is a very responsible and competent person, but in many countries, something as basic as this may not always be a "common sense." It may be hard to believe for you, right? 

I remember I used to write in e-mails to local implementing partner NGOs "please acknowledge this message" in Nepal. It was one of my ways of "capacity building", but I was quite frustrated that they didn't respond to e-mails and I had to call them to follow-up. It can be a bit condescending, but you also need to keep them accountable without being too bossy. I guess it is much better to show a good example.          

I found an old entry on capacity building.