A systems approach to capacity building : lessons from Sanitation Capacity Building Platform (SCBP), India

This paper addresses capacity building challenges for urban sanitation, with specific focus on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM). It places the experience and lessons learnt from the project Sanitation Capacity Building Platform (SCBP) in a systems perspective. The system here is defined as national, state governments, para-state technical agencies, urban local bodies, development partner agencies, academia and researchers. The SCBP, anchored at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is an organic and growing collaboration of credible national and international organisations, universities, training centres, resource centres, non-governmental organisations, consultants and experts. A major challenge for building capacity for FSSM is how to improve the knowledge and skills of stakeholders to address an immediate challenge and, how to ensure that the larger context and longer-term priorities are not neglected. The paper addresses the following lessons of capacity building in the FSSM sector: is capacity building more than just training programmes; the challenges of developing training material content; how to ensure integration of theory and practice (field experience and lessons becoming part of the capacity building training); dissemination and adoption of learning at scale and so on. The paper is a critical review of the opportunities, challenges, outcomes of and considerations for the next phase of FSSM capacity building (author abstract).