Community capacity building: a practical guide

Developing the capacity of communities has become an important part of the broadening role of many state and NGO agencies. Rowland Atkinson and Paul Willis report on a review of the community capacity-building literature and give a plain language introduction to the do’s and don’ts of approaching the development of skills and abilities in communities. The guide stresses that there is a need to engage communities to identify their own needs, rather than parachuting pre-conceived ideas of what might work best.