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92-434: RWSN operates on the principles of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building among its members. The network is organized into various thematic groups, such as sustainable groundwater development, self-supply , and the professionalization of community water management. RWNS runs webinars, facilitates online discussion communities and publishes peer-reviewed guidelines and case studies. Funding for RWSN comes from

184-449: A UN-Water Partner since 2020. RWSN is also a strategic partner of UNICEF on providing guidance for water supply, sanitation and hygiene programmes on practical implementation of topics like Leave No-one Behind and water well drilling professionalization. In 2021, RWSN became one of the implementing partners in the programme "Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water)" which is funded by USAID and led by Aquaya. Since 2022 RWSN

276-554: A "vibrant online community within the sanitation sector". One of the achievements of RWSN is that it strengthens the skills of professionals in the rural water sector. An independent evaluation of RWSN in 2017 found that: "The RWSN is a highly competent, advanced community-building network which connects people who would likely not have been connected before and disseminates valuable knowledge to its members, which can be applied to practice." It also stated that "the RWSN has been described to be

368-587: A capacity development response, implement a capacity development response, evaluate capacity development. Since about 2005, the capacity development agenda has also been adopted beyond the traditional aid community. This is particularly true for Africa: for example the African Union has developed a Capacity Development Strategic Framework and is using capacity development as one of three themes to structure its Development Effectiveness internet portal. Trends in development cooperation shape how capacity development

460-528: A clear policy framework, institutional development and legal framework , citizen participation and oversight, human resources improvements including education and training, and sustainability . Some of these overlap with other interventions and sectors. Much of the actual focus has been on training and educational inputs where it may be a euphemism for education and training. For example, UNDP focuses on training needs in its assessment methodology rather than on actual performance goals. The pervasive use of

552-507: A clear policy framework, institutional development and legal framework, citizen/democratic participation and oversight, human resources improvements including education and training, and sustainability . The United Nations Development Group Capacity Development Guidelines presents a framework of capacity development comprising three interconnected levels of capacity: Individual, Institutional and Enabling Policy. Thinking of capacity building as simply training or human resource development

644-605: A combination of membership fees, grants from international donors, and contributions from partner organizations. The RWSN secretariat had income for the period 2018-2020 from 15 sources of partner contributions and project funding. The largest single contribution (30%) was from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The secretariat complements its core funds with project based work. The RWSN networking activities focus on rural people most in need of safe access to drinking water, which means its geographic focus by default

736-533: A document is submitted directly for approval as a draft International Standard (DIS) to the ISO member bodies or as a final draft International Standard (FDIS), if the document was developed by an international standardizing body recognized by the ISO Council. The first step, a proposal of work (New Proposal), is approved at the relevant subcommittee or technical committee (e.g., SC 29 and JTC 1 respectively in

828-530: A government's capacity whether at the local, regional or national level can improve governance and can lead to sustainable development and political reform. Capacity building in governments often targets a government's ability to budget, collect revenue, create and implement laws, promote civic engagement. International donors often include capacity building as a form of interventions with local governments or NGOs working in developing areas. A study in 2001 observed that "the act of resetting aspirations and strategy

920-442: A long process that commonly starts with the proposal of new work within a committee. Some abbreviations used for marking a standard with its status are: Abbreviations used for amendments are: Other abbreviations are: International Standards are developed by ISO technical committees (TC) and subcommittees (SC) by a process with six steps: The TC/SC may set up working groups  (WG) of experts for

1012-533: A proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the International Organization for Standardization. The organization officially began operations on 23 February 1947. ISO Standards were originally known as ISO Recommendations ( ISO/R ), e.g., " ISO 1 " was issued in 1951 as "ISO/R 1". ISO

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1104-415: A publication by OECD-DAC stated in 2006 that capacity development was the preferable term. Since the 1950s, international organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and communities use the concept of capacity building as part of " social and economic development " in national and subnational plans. The United Nations Development Programme defines itself by "capacity development" in

1196-429: A quarter of donor aid, or more than $ 15 billion a year, has gone into "Technical Cooperation", the bulk of which is ostensibly aimed at capacity development". One of the most fundamental ideas associated with capacity building is the idea of building the capacities of governments in developing countries so they are able to handle the problems associated with environmental protection, economic and social needs. Developing

1288-436: A relatively small number of standards, ISO standards are not available free of charge, but rather for a purchase fee, which has been seen by some as unaffordable for small open-source projects. The process of developing standards within ISO was criticized around 2007 as being too difficult for timely completion of large and complex standards, and some members were failing to respond to ballots, causing problems in completing

1380-467: A report on its approach to monitoring and evaluating the capacity building. According to the report, USAID monitors program objectives, the links between projects and activities of an organization and its objectives, a program or organization's measurable indicators, data collection, and progress reports. USAID noted two types of indicators for progress: "output indicators" and "outcome indicators." Output indicators measure immediate changes or results such as

1472-637: Is "to develop worldwide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) standards for business and consumer applications." There was previously also a JTC 2 that was created in 2009 for a joint project to establish common terminology for "standardization in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources". It was later disbanded. As of 2022 , there are 167 national members representing ISO in their country, with each country having only one member. ISO has three membership categories, Participating members are called "P" members, as opposed to observing members, who are called "O" members. ISO

1564-462: Is a voluntary organization whose members are recognized authorities on standards, each one representing one country. Members meet annually at a General Assembly to discuss the strategic objectives of ISO. The organization is coordinated by a central secretariat based in Geneva . A council with a rotating membership of 20 member bodies provides guidance and governance, including setting the annual budget of

1656-464: Is abused, ISO should halt the process... ISO is an engineering old boys club and these things are boring so you have to have a lot of passion ... then suddenly you have an investment of a lot of money and lobbying and you get artificial results. The process is not set up to deal with intensive corporate lobbying and so you end up with something being a standard that is not clear. International Workshop Agreements (IWAs) are documents that establish

1748-508: Is an abbreviation for "International Standardization Organization" or a similar title in another language, the letters do not officially represent an acronym or initialism . The organization provides this explanation of the name: Because 'International Organization for Standardization' would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French), our founders decided to give it

1840-971: Is an independent, non-governmental , international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Article 3 of the ISO Statutes. ISO was founded on 23 February 1947, and (as of July 2024 ) it has published over 25,000 international standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing. It has over 800 technical committees (TCs) and subcommittees (SCs) to take care of standards development. The organization develops and publishes international standards in technical and nontechnical fields, including everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, transport, IT, agriculture, and healthcare. More specialized topics like electrical and electronic engineering are instead handled by

1932-512: Is approved as an International Standard (IS) if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC is in favour and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. After approval, the document is published by the ISO central secretariat , with only minor editorial changes introduced in the publication process before the publication as an International Standard. Except for

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2024-405: Is because "capacity building" would imply starting from a plain surface and a step-by-step erection of a new structure - which is not how it works. The European Commission Toolkit defines capacity development in the same way and stresses that capacity relates to "abilities", "attributes" and a "process". It is an attribute of people, individual organizations and groups of organizations. Capacity

2116-672: Is defined as a long-term continual process of development that involves all stakeholders as opposed to practices which limit oversight and involvement in interventions with governments. The list of parties that it defines as "community" includes ministries, local authorities, non-governmental organizations, professionals, community members, academics and more. According to the Committee, capacity building takes place at an individual, an institutional, societal level and "non-training" level. The term "community capacity building" (CCB) began to be used in 1995 and since then became popular for example within

2208-463: Is developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa , Latin America and Asia . However, in principle anyone living in a rural area anywhere in the world could benefit from the network's activities. The underlying problem that a network such as RWSN is trying to solve is that millions of people in rural areas of developing countries have no access to safe drinking water . For example, an estimate in 2016 put

2300-506: Is discussed. These include for example: new forms of financing and less of a North–South dichotomy ; more in-country leadership and less donor power; resilience as a framework in fragile environments; increasing private sector engagement. The UNDP integrated this capacity-building system into its work on reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. The UNDP states that it focused on building capacity at

2392-552: Is facing challenges with regards to innovation and sustainability of water supply interventions. For example, the sustainability of handpump technologies or of community-led water supply initiatives is a continuous challenge. The network was founded as the Handpump Technology Network (HTN) after The International Handpump Workshop in Kakamega, Kenya in 1992. It was initially a working group for hand pump technology. HTN

2484-522: Is funded by a combination of: International standards are the main products of ISO. It also publishes technical reports, technical specifications, publicly available specifications, technical corrigenda (corrections), and guides. International standards Technical reports For example: Technical and publicly available specifications For example: Technical corrigenda ISO guides For example: ISO documents have strict copyright restrictions and ISO charges for most copies. As of 2020 ,

2576-523: Is in a partnership with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The aim is "to support networking and knowledge sharing within Latin America and South-South exchange with Africa and Asia". This is part of a project called "Sustainable and Innovative Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene" (SIRWASH). The African Water Facility (AWF) counts RWNS as one of its partners as well. The AWF has a governing council with 13 members that are appointed by AMCOW , donors to

2668-452: Is insufficient. The discourse on and concept of capacity development has traditionally been closely associated with development cooperation . The UNDP was one of the forerunners in designing international interventions in the category of capacity building and development. In the early 1970s, the UNDP offered guidance to its staff and governments on what it called "institution-building" which

2760-546: Is often the first step in improving an organization's capacity". Secondly good management is important (committed people in senior positions to make capacity building happen). Thirdly, patience is required: "there are few quick fixes when it comes to building capacity". Some methods of capacity building for NGOs might include visiting training centers, organizing exposure visits, office and documentation support, on-the-job training, learning centers, and consultations. For private sector organizations, capacity building may go beyond

2852-436: Is one of 13 that is part of the treatise of international development law and can be applied with the other indicators for specific sectors and development principles, as well as assurance of quality of evaluation systems. Critique of capacity development has centered on the ambiguity surrounding it in terms of its anticipated focus, its effectiveness, the role of infrastructure organisations (such as empowerment networks), and

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2944-400: Is one of the pillars of its current work and is part of a category of "public administration reform". In the 1970s, international organizations emphasized building capacity through technical skills training in rural areas , and also in the administrative sectors of developing countries . In the 1980s they expanded the concept of institutional development further. "Institutional development"

3036-425: Is produced, for example, for audio and video coding standards is called a verification model (VM) (previously also called a "simulation and test model"). When a sufficient confidence in the stability of the standard under development is reached, a working draft (WD) is produced. This is in the form of a standard, but is kept internal to working group for revision. When a working draft is sufficiently mature and

3128-590: Is restricted. The organization that is known today as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations ( ISA ), which primarily focused on mechanical engineering . The ISA was suspended in 1942 during World War II but, after the war, the ISA was approached by the recently-formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with

3220-533: Is shaped by, adapting to and reacting to external factors and actors, but it is not something external — it is internal to people, organizations and groups or systems of organizations. Thus, capacity development is a change process internal to organizations and people. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) , formerly the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), defines capacity development in

3312-869: Is to "By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies". Similarly, Sustainable Development Goal 8 Target 8.10 states "Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all". As of 2009, some $ 20 billion per year of international development intervention funding went for capacity development; roughly 20% of total funding in this category  The World Bank committed more than $ 1 billion per year to this service in loans or grants (more than 10% of its portfolio of nearly $ 10 billion). A publication by OECD-DAC in 2005 estimated that "about

3404-640: Is to "Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development". Target 9 of that goal is formulated as "Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through north–south, South-South and triangular cooperation." Sustainable Development Goal 6 also includes capacity building in its Target 6a which

3496-410: Is understood as the process whereby people, organizations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt and maintain capacity over time." Capacity is understood as "the ability of people, organizations and society as a whole to manage their affairs successfully". The OECD-DAC stated in 2006 that the term "capacity development" should be used rather than the term "capacity building". This

3588-630: The International Electrotechnical Commission . It is headquartered in Geneva , Switzerland. The three official languages of ISO are English , French , and Russian . The International Organization for Standardization in French is Organisation internationale de normalisation and in Russian, Международная организация по стандартизации ( Mezhdunarodnaya organizatsiya po standartizatsii ). Although one might think ISO

3680-531: The World Bank and RWSN ran their first joint webinar series in 2012. WHO and RWSN had a joint "Launch webinar for WHO guidelines and tools to enhance small water supplies" in February 2024. RWSN provides a platform for raising awareness around chronic failures in water supply systems . The platform also supports activities around research and drilling professionalisation and new service delivery models. Every year at

3772-545: The World Water Week in Stockholm that is organised by Stockholm International Water Institute , RWSN is convener and co-convener of several sessions to advance the debates around rural water supply. When organisations specify handpumps in contracts, there are often questions around specifying the pipes and rods. To help with this problem, RWSN has published international standard specifications for some handpumps, for example

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3864-423: The disaster risk reduction domain as "the process by which people, organizations and society systematically stimulate and develop their capability over time to achieve social and economic goals, including through improvement of knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions – within a wider social and cultural enabling environment." Outside of international interventions, capacity building can refer to strengthening

3956-453: The Bank noted again in its evaluations that business practices to its capacity building work are not as rigorous as they are in other areas. For example, standard quality assurance processes were missing at the design stage.  Similar problems were reported by UNDP in 2002 when they reviewed their capacity building projects. In 2007, specific criteria for effective evaluation and monitoring of

4048-573: The Global Water Center, a US-based NGO founded in 2020, will serve on the Executive Committee of RWSN. The two organisations share a vision of "a world where everyone has access to safely managed water". A statement by World Bank in 2012 explained how World Bank is related to RWSN: "The World Bank and WSP are executive partner organizations of RWSN" along with others. There is ongoing cooperation between World Bank and RWSN. RWSN has been

4140-744: The India Mark II and III handpumps. These specifications have to be regularly updated and maintained, and RWSN facilitates this process. This can be done for example by leaning on international standards bodies, in particular ASTM and ISO . Every five years since 1992, RWSN has organised a global conference dedicated to rural water supply, called the RWSN Forum . So far, there have been seven RWSN Forums. All of them, except for one in India, took place in Sub-Saharan Africa : The secretariat has been hosted from

4232-580: The U.N. Declaration Against Corruption and Bribery, Articles 15, 16, 18, and 19. Below are examples of capacity building in developing countries: International Organization for Standardization Early research and development: Merging the networks and creating the Internet: Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet: Examples of Internet services: The International Organization for Standardization ( ISO / ˈ aɪ s oʊ / )

4324-572: The arrival of capacity building as a dominant subject in international aid, donors and practitioners have struggled to create a concise mechanism for determining the effectiveness of capacity building initiatives. An independent public measurement indicator for improvement and oversight of the large variety of capacity building initiatives was published in 2015. This scoring system is based on international development law and professional management principles. A "good practice paper" by OECD-DAC defined capacity development as follows: "Capacity development

4416-597: The backbone functions of the network". In 2020, financial and in-kind support to RWSN came for example from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UNICEF, The United Kingdom DFID, NERC and ESRC through the UPGro programme and the REACH programme (with Oxford University), Skat Consulting Ltd and about a dozen others. In general, there is significant in-kind support of the network through its governance structures, such as

4508-693: The capacity building of NGOs were proposed, though only in generalities without clear measures for the tool. The proposal suggested only that evaluating the capacity building ability of NGOs should be based on a combination of monitoring the results of their activities and also a more open flexible way of monitoring that also takes into consideration, self-improvement and cooperation. Other wishes were that monitoring for capacity building effectiveness should include an organization's clarity of mission, an organization's leadership, an organization's learning, an organization's emphasis on on-the-job-development, an organization's monitoring processes. In 2007, USAID published

4600-479: The case of MPEG, the Moving Picture Experts Group ). A working group (WG) of experts is typically set up by the subcommittee for the preparation of a working draft (e.g., MPEG is a collection of seven working groups as of 2023). When the scope of a new work is sufficiently clarified, some of the working groups may make an open request for proposals—known as a "call for proposals". The first document that

4692-418: The central secretariat. The technical management board is responsible for more than 250 technical committees , who develop the ISO standards. ISO has a joint technical committee (JTC) with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to develop standards relating to information technology (IT). Known as JTC 1 and entitled "Information technology", it was created in 1987 and its mission

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4784-408: The challenges faced by rural communities, such as inadequate infrastructure and limited financial resources. Since around 2021, RWSN is also explicitly working on aspects that are related to the impacts of climate change , such as climate resilient water services in rural areas . The aim of RWSN is "to improve the quality of rural water services and their management". Key activities of RWSN include

4876-480: The codification of international development law, capacity building is a "cross cutting modality of international intervention". It often overlaps or is part of interventions in public administration reform, good governance and education in line sectors of public services . The consensus approach of the international community for the components of capacity building as established by the World Bank , United Nations and European Commission consists of five areas:

4968-421: The confidence people have in the standards setting process", and alleged that ISO did not carry out its responsibility. He also said that Microsoft had intensely lobbied many countries that traditionally had not participated in ISO and stacked technical committees with Microsoft employees, solution providers, and resellers sympathetic to Office Open XML: When you have a process built on trust and when that trust

5060-558: The development of technical guidelines and standards, the dissemination of research findings, and the promotion of innovative technologies and approaches. RWSN participates in the creation of peer-reviewed guidelines and case studies which are hosted in the RWSN virtual library on their website. RWSN regularly runs activities around knowledge sharing and networking, such as online discussion groups and webinars in English, French and Spanish on topics relating to rural water supply and WASH (water supply, sanitation and hygiene). For example,

5152-413: The document, the draft is then approved for submission as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC are in favour and if not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. ISO will then hold a ballot among the national bodies where no technical changes are allowed (a yes/no final approval ballot), within a period of two months. It

5244-437: The effectiveness of capacity building initiatives. Recognition of problems in capacity building interventions in evaluations funded and managed by international organizations dates back to the year 1999. A World Bank review in the year 2000 found many examples where capacity building interventions undermined public management efforts. In these cases, public sector reform and institution-building were hindered.  In 2005,

5336-551: The executive steering committee. Many of the executive committee organisations also provide cash support. The secretariat complements its core funds with project based work. One sellable service is that of being a knowledge broker . RWSN also collaborates with the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance . For example, in 2020, RWSN had a project funded by WSSCC to run and improve the SuSanA Discussion Forum,

5428-669: The figure at 300 million people without safe drinking water in rural Africa. The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF said in 2022 that 411 million people in Africa (3 out of 5 people) still lacked basic drinking water services in 2020. The situation is worse for rural areas in Africa where only 22% had access to basic drinking water services in 2020 compared to urban areas with 59%. Target 6.1 of Sustainable Development Goal 6 is: "By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all". Through its work, RWSN aims to address

5520-401: The five recognized principles of capacity building, analyzing their application in diagnosis and design of an intervention (7 questions), sustainability of reform (2 questions), and good governance (2 questions), and second, with 9 questions to assure professionalism and safeguards against conflicts of interest, unintended consequences, and distortion of public and private systems. This indicator

5612-544: The fund, the African Development Bank, the African Union and UN-Water/Africa. For many years, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) was providing core funding to RWSN. As of 2023 this is no longer the case and their support to RWSN is now only indirect and project based. SDC provided core funding during four phases: The first phase was 2012 to 2014 followed by Phase 2 from 2015 to 2017, Phase 3 from 2018-2020, and Phase 4 from 2021 to 2022. During

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5704-399: The improvement of services for public organizations and include fund-raising and income generation, diversity, partnerships and collaboration, marketing, positioning, planning and other activities relating to production and performance. Capacity development of private organizations involves the build-up of an organization's tangible and intangible assets.  Organization development (OD) is

5796-416: The institutional level because it believed that "institutions are at the heart of human development, and that when they are able to perform better, [...] they can contribute more meaningfully to the achievement of national human development goals." The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals mention capacity building (rather than capacity development) in several places: Sustainable Development Goal 17

5888-501: The interventions as a form of "soft power". One common problem of interventions that focus on education and training of foreign government officials is that they are akin to trying to "teach elephants to fly" or to "teach wolves not to eat sheep" while avoiding the actual changes needed for impact. Under international development law, there is also concern that much of the implementation of capacity building has been and continues to be in violation of existing international treaties such as

5980-466: The invisible visible" where RWSN was a chapter lead agency for Chapter 4 on "Groundwater for human settlements". The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation , one of the funders of RWSN, provided a snapshot of the work of RWSN as follows: "The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is the only global network to offer powerful, effective mechanisms to share expertise and collaborate with local and global partners to trial and scale up innovation and to raise

6072-421: The most difficult areas of international development practice. Capacity development has been one of the least responsive targets of donor assistance, lagging behind progress in infrastructure development or improving health and child mortality". Since the arrival of capacity building as a dominant subject in international aid , donors and practitioners have struggled to create a concise mechanism for determining

6164-708: The necessary steps within the prescribed time limits. In some cases, alternative processes have been used to develop standards outside of ISO and then submit them for its approval. A more rapid "fast-track" approval procedure was used in ISO/IEC JTC 1 for the standardization of Office Open XML (OOXML, ISO/IEC 29500, approved in April 2008), and another rapid alternative "publicly available specification" (PAS) process had been used by OASIS to obtain approval of OpenDocument as an ISO/IEC standard (ISO/IEC 26300, approved in May 2006). As

6256-416: The network in the future (a common challenge for many networks): "RWSN should continue looking to diversify its funding from a diverse range of sources, including donor, public and private funds and potentially in the future, from upgraded services". Specific and direct criticisms of the RWSN are not documented in the public domain. However, like many organizations involved in international development , RWSN

6348-489: The next stage, called the "enquiry stage". After a consensus to proceed is established, the subcommittee will produce a draft international standard (DIS), and the text is submitted to national bodies for voting and comment within a period of five months. A document in the DIS stage is available to the public for purchase and may be referred to with its ISO DIS reference number. Following consideration of any comments and revision of

6440-447: The number of people trained. Outcome indicators measure the impact, such as laws changed due to trained advocates. Both the "numbers of people trained" and "laws changed" are, however, just inputs or intermediate inputs and do not measure actual improvements in "performance" in terms of measurable outcomes of public agencies that are the definition of capacity building. Despite these claims of existence of these evaluation approaches, there

6532-645: The period 2018-2020, the RWSN secretariat had income from 15 sources of partner contributions and project funding. The largest single contribution (30%) during that time was from the SDC. The second biggest source of funding (25%) was from the UPGro programme ("Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor"), followed by 14% from the ZH2O Drink and Donate program. Member organisations make "substantial annual financial contribution to

6624-606: The policy literature in the United Kingdom, particularly in the context of urban policy, regeneration and social development. It is, however, difficult to distinguish it from the practice of " community development ". It is "built on a deficit model of communities which fails to engage properly with their own skills, knowledge and interests". Therefore, it does not properly address structural reasons for poverty and inequality. The World Bank , United Nations and European Commission describe capacity building to consist of five areas:

6716-411: The preparation of a working drafts. Subcommittees may have several working groups, which may have several Sub Groups (SG). It is possible to omit certain stages, if there is a document with a certain degree of maturity at the start of a standardization project, for example, a standard developed by another organization. ISO/IEC directives also allow the so-called "Fast-track procedure". In this procedure,

6808-503: The prime network that supports scale up of rural water supply for practitioners". RWSN often collaborates on joint publications with large organisations such as the World Bank. For example, in 2019 there was a World Bank–Skat Foundation collaboration for the RWSN on the topic of "Innovations in rural water supply sustainability". Another example is the collaboration of RWSN with the 2022 UN World Water Development Report "Groundwater: Making

6900-471: The quality and professionalism in rural water supplies." The African Development Bank values the conferences (forums) that RWSN organises and stated at the RWSN forum in 2016: "the Rural Water Supply Network forum is a unique opportunity for global and regional players to exchange knowledge and identify practical solutions" An independent evaluation in 2017 highlighted challenges with funding

6992-547: The sense of "'how UNDP works" to fulfill its mission. The UN system applies it in almost every sector, including several of the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. For example, the Sustainable Development Goal 17 advocates for enhanced international support for capacity building in developing countries to support national plans to implement the 2030 Agenda .   Under

7084-468: The short form ISO . ISO is derived from the Greek word isos ( ίσος , meaning "equal"). Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of our name is always ISO . During the founding meetings of the new organization, however, the Greek word explanation was not invoked, so this meaning may be a false etymology . Both the name ISO and the ISO logo are registered trademarks and their use

7176-425: The skills of people and communities, in small businesses and local grassroots movements. Organizational capacity building is used by NGOs and governments to guide their internal development and activities as a form of managerial improvements following administrative practices. The United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration in 2006 offered an additional term, "community capacity building". It

7268-828: The start and until now by Skat Foundation in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It coordinates and runs the network activities, in partnership with theme leaders and under the supervision and guidance of the executive steering committee. Membership for individuals and organisations is free and not time-limited. RWSN has over 13,000 members in 168 countries (as of 2021) from government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions, and private companies. There are currently six themes, each with one or several team leaders from various organisations. Theme leaders are either volunteers or are paid by their employers to carry out RWSN networking, training and knowledge exchange activities. Theme leaders are very important to RWSN’s activities. As of 2024,

7360-469: The steering committee have changed over time and currently (in 2023) consist of the following nine organisations: African Development Bank , BGR ( Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources ), Global Water Center, One for All Alliance (IRC, Water for Good, Water for People), Skat Foundation, UNICEF , WaterAid , Welthungerhilfe , World Bank. As of March 2024 Lisa Mitchell and Benjamin Filskov from

7452-458: The study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify an organization's performance and/or culture. The difficulties with achieving results from capacity development projects have regularly been described in a range of publications. For example, in 2006, a document by OECD-DAC stated that: "evaluation results confirm that development of sustainable capacity remains one of

7544-501: The subcommittee is satisfied that it has developed an appropriate technical document for the problem being addressed, it becomes a committee draft (CD) and is sent to the P-member national bodies of the SC for the collection of formal comments. Revisions may be made in response to the comments, and successive committee drafts may be produced and circulated until consensus is reached to proceed to

7636-408: The term for these multiple sectors and elements and the huge amount of development aid funding devoted to it has resulted in controversy over its true meaning. There is also concern over its use and impacts. In international development funding, evaluations by the World Bank and other donors have consistently revealed problems in this overall category of funding dating back to the year 2000. Since

7728-600: The themes of RWSN include: Leave no-one behind (realisation of human rights to water and sanitation for the most marginalised people), Data for action, Multiple use water services (water for livelihoods as well as for households), Self-supply of water and sanitation , Sustainable groundwater development, Sustainable services. The network is governed by an executive steering committee. This committee consists of organisations that are "significant global actors in supporting rural water supply and that have demonstrated their commitment to RWSN activities". The organisations that make up

7820-414: The typical cost of a copy of an ISO standard is about US$ 120 or more (and electronic copies typically have a single-user license, so they cannot be shared among groups of people). Some standards by ISO and its official U.S. representative (and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission ) are made freely available. A standard published by ISO/IEC is the last stage of

7912-463: The underlying problems are solved, and refraining from asking whether there may be hidden agendas to buy influence, subsidize elites, and continue dependency. An independent public measurement indicator for improvement and oversight of the large variety of capacity building initiatives was published in 2015, with scoring, and based on international development law and professional management principles. This comprehensive indicator for capacity building

8004-775: The unwillingness or inability of public agencies to apply their own principles and international law . Capacity building has been called a buzzword within development which comes with a heavy normative load but little critical interrogation and appropriate review. The term capacity building is usually "loaded with positive value". Despite some 20 years recognizing the problems, practitioners continue to note that some capacity development projects are just "throwing money at symptoms with no logic or analysis". Others are "disguised bribes to government officials and attempts to undermine entire government structures by setting up foreign run Ministries and foreign influenced political parties or civil society to lobby for foreign interests" using

8096-456: Was little more than lists of inputs and outputs without use of professional management standards or any kind of real oversight, and a report for the World Bank in 2009 noted that the failures were deep and systemic, where the measures used are "smile sheets", asking beneficiaries if they are "happy" or "better off" and measuring things like "raised awareness", "enhanced skills", and "improved teamwork" that are "locally driven", rather than on whether

8188-410: Was proposed as part of the elements codifying international development law in a treatise. It consists of 20 specific elements that apply law, administrative principles, social science concepts, and education concepts, to troubleshoot the actual problems that occur and to promote public oversight and accountability. The indicator has two sections: one with 11 questions to assure proper application of

8280-736: Was renamed the Rural Water Supply Network in 2004. At the Fourth RWSN Forum in Durban in 2003 a decision was made that RWSN would focus its work on three key areas: self-supply, cost-effective boreholes and sustainable handpumps. Capacity building Capacity building (or capacity development, capacity strengthening ) is the improvement in an individual's or organization's facility (or capability) "to produce, perform or deploy".  The terms capacity building and capacity development have often been used interchangeably, although

8372-513: Was suggested at the time by Martin Bryan, the outgoing convenor (chairman) of working group 1 (WG1) of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 , the rules of ISO were eventually tightened so that participating members that fail to respond to votes are demoted to observer status. The computer security entrepreneur and Ubuntu founder, Mark Shuttleworth , was quoted in a ZDNet blog article in 2008 about the process of standardization of OOXML as saying: "I think it de-values

8464-607: Was viewed as a long-term process of interventions in a developing country's government, public and private sector institutions, and NGOs.   Under the UNDP 's 2008–2013 "strategic plan for development", capacity building is the "organization's core contribution to development". The UNDP focused on building capacity at an institutional level and offers a six-step process for systematic capacity building. The six steps are: Conducting training need assessment, engage stakeholders on capacity development, assess capacity needs and assets, formulate

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