Capacity Building Unit

As early as the introduction of decentralization, the Government had identified capacity as a key question for effective local governance, and noted that, stakeholders in the decentralization process; especially Local Governments can add little value unless they have the skills as well as managerial and professional competencies to execute effectively the responsibilities and functions devolved to them. It also believes that managing decentralization and sustaining decentralized governance for effective delivery of services needs adequate capacities in terms of institutions, networks, organizational structures, facilities and equipment, human resources, data and information, networks and alliances, as well as supportive conducive legal and policy environment. In recognition of the fact, the Government established the Capacity Building Unit within the Decentralization Secretariat to lead the capacity development effort in support of the decentralization programme.

The following fall within the remit of this Unit:

• Review the existing capacity building strategy to support the on-going decentralization programme with the view to aligning it to present day demands for capacity enhancement of the Local Councils, Chiefdom Administrative Units, Ward Committees, devolving MDAs and other relevant actors.
• Provide demand-driven capacity building support to the relevant stakeholders in the decentralization process especially the Local Councils and the MDAs to effectively perform their mandates.
• Continue to support the activities of service providers in the training of local government actors.
• Facilitate the provision of basic logistics and equipment required by the Local Councils and other relevant stakeholders to perform their mandates effectively and efficiently.
• Strengthen the organizational and institutional development systems of Local Councils for improved efficiency and effectiveness.
• Collaborate with the Civil Works Unit to facilitate the provision of physical infrastructure for Local Councils to ensure that the appropriate physical environments are in place.

The Unit is headed by a Capacity Building Manager with two assistants (Capacity Building Officers) with defined responsibilities. The Unit has field staff referred to as Resident Technical Facilitators assigned to the Local Councils who are providing technical backstopping support to them. The Unit was responsible for the implementation of Component 1 of the just ended DSDP2 and Component 1 of the on-going JSDF funded Project.