This document summarizes a Partner's Participatory Capacity Assessment (PPCA) conducted with two civil society organizations in Laos, the Green Community Alliance (GCA) and Social Development Alliance Association (SODA). The PPCA was conducted to identify capacity needs and develop two-year action plans for capacity building. It involved assessing capacities in several areas including strategic planning, governance, monitoring and evaluation, finance, and human resources. The assessment identified strengths and gaps for each organization. It provided direction for future improvements and concrete action plans. The facilitators learned that involving stakeholders and making the assessment process participatory are important.

1. Food Quality and Standards Service
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Partner’s Participatory
Capacity Assessment
(PPCA) with CSOs
Recently applied for GCA and SODA
Phetsoulaphonh N. Choulatida, Phommachanh
Phothichanh, and Bharat Raj Gautam,
Participation of remote ethnic groups for Good Forest
Governance (Go-FOGO)
Sayabouli, Lao PDR
28 September 2014

2. Reasons why we decided
to do PPCA
 Refer to Go-FOGO project document (LAO 171) and annual
plan 2014
 Expected Result 1: Improved capacity of civil society
organisations to engage in policy dialogue with government on
forest governance (Right to Land, Right to Adequate Food,
Gender Rights)
 Two CSOs will be capacitated during two years project of Go-
FOGO
 Green Community Alliance (GCA)
 Social Development Alliance Association (SODA)
 Therefore, the PPCA employs into ER1.

3. Objectives of PPCA
To identify the key elements for capacity
needed of two CSOs namely GCA and SODA
To test the capability of our partners
To test the methods and tool
To develop the two years mutual action plan for
each CSO

4. Target Audience
1. Civil Society Organisation officials involved in good forest
governance:
 Presidents/Co-president
 Field staffs
 Directors
 Administrative officers
 Coordinators
 Financial officers
 Sector experts
 Volunteers, etc.
2. External agency (CARE Lao PDR )and consultants (Sector
expert) supporting CSO’s capacity building activities.
 Program Quality team
 Go-FOGO team
 Financial team

5. Date, Time, and Venue
1. Date:
 GCA: 3-4 September 2014
 SODA: 8-9 September 2014
2. Venue:
 CSO’s office for GCA
 CARE Lao PDR’s office for SODA
3. Organisation:
 Apply participatory and adult learning approach (3Hs)

6. Agenda (day-1)
Date & time Program details Facilitators
8:00-8:30 Register and welcome
8:30-9:30 Introduction with an activities Bharat (PQ)
9:30-9:45 Purpose of Partner's Participatory Capacity Assessment Bharat (PQ)
9:45-10:00 Introduction of two days schedule Phet (Go-FOGO)
10:00-10:15 Tea/Coffee break
10:15-11:00 Structure of tool and capacity assessment areas Bharat (PQ)
11:00-11:15 Discussion All
11:15-12:00 Practice tool - program Phet (Go-FOGO)
12:00-13:00 Collective lunch
13:00-14:30 Continue to practice tool - program Phet (Go-FOGO)
14:30-14:45 Tea/Coffee break
14:45-16:00 Continue to practice tool - governance, M&E Phommachanh
16:00-16:30 Review day 1 Phet (Go-FOGO)

7. Agenda (day-2)
Date & time Program details Facilitators
8:00-8:30 Welcome and review day-1
8:30-10:00 Continue to practice tool -finance Tity & Bualaphanh
10:00-10:15 Tea/Coffee break
10:15-12:00 Continue to practice tool - HR Tity & Bualaphanh
12:00-13:00 Collective lunch
13:00-14:30 Analyze findings Bharat (PQ)
14:30-14:45 Tea/Coffee break
14:45-16:00 Action plan Phet (Go-FOGO)
16:00-16:30 Review the whole process of capacity assessment Bharat (PQ)

8. Methodology application
1. Adult learning approach (Hands, Heart, Head)
2. Partnership introduction uses pictures for setting the scene
3. Doctor references
4. PPCA tool introduction
5. Sector expertise involvement
6. Partners take lead process as doctor to X-ray their own CSOs
7. Critical, constructive and consensus aspect employ all sessions
8. Reflection of whole process for two days program

9. Partnership introduction

10. Partnership introduction

11. Example of health check-up

12. Structure of tool and
capacity assessment areas
 PPCA detailed format
 Summary of key findings and spider
 Capacity improvement plan
 Guidance note
 PPCA tool

13. Approach to identify
capacity building needs
Current
situation
Desired
future improved
situation
Capacity
building
needs

14. Analytical framework: levels
and dimensions of capacity
Framework Level
Organization Level
Individual Level
1. Strategic Planning, Programme Development,
Management & Service Delivery
2. Good Governance and
Accountability
3. Participatory Monitoring
and Evaluation
4. Gender and Social
Inclusion
5. Finance Compliance
and Financial System
6. Human Resource and
Logistics Management

15. Analytical framework (2)
Level Dimensions of Capacity
1. Strategic
Planning,
Programme
Development,
Management &
Service Delivery
(84)
 1.1 Strategic plan / Programme
development/design, planning (22)
 1.2 Program Management & service delivery (24)
 1.3 Coordination and communication with
concerned stakeholders (16)
 1.4 Coordination with provincial / central (and
District) authorities / organizations (12)
 1.5 Advocacy / working together for impact at scale
(10)

16. Analytical framework (3)
Level Dimensions of Capacity
2. Good Governance
and Accountability
(64)
 2.1 Standard organisational systems, policies and
procedures exist (18)
 2.2 Inclusive leadership exists (10)
 2.3 Decisions are made in a participatory way (8)
 2.4 Accountability policy/system or mechanism exist
and is functional (12)
 2.5 Zero tolerance policy exist and operationalized
(8)
 2.6 Clarity on roles and responsibility of staff and
board members (8)

17. Analytical framework (4)
Level Dimensions of Capacity
3. Participatory
Monitoring and
Evaluation (30)
 3.1 Monitoring and evaluation policy/mechanism
exists (10)
 3.2 Monitoring and evaluation policy/mechanism
operationlized (10)
 3.3 Documentation and dissemination practice
exists including M&E reports are shared with
concerned stakeholders (10)
4. Gender and Social
Inclusion (20)
 4.1 Policy exist and opeational (10)
 4.2 Putting women's issues at the centre of our
work (10)

18. Analytical framework (5)
Level Dimensions of Capacity
5. Finance Compliance
and Financial
System (82)
 5.1 Policy (6)
 5.2. Accounting System and Financial Report (10)
 5.3 Bank Account (12)
 5.4 Cash Management (14)
 5.5 Procurement (12)
 5.6 Internal Control (24)
 5.7 Shared Program Costs (4)

19. Analytical framework (6)
Level Dimensions of Capacity
6. Human Resource
and Logistics
Management (46)
 6.1 Qualified project staff (finance plus programme)
recruited through competitive/transparent process
(8)
 6.2 Staff Personal file maintained (appointment
letter, salary provision, leave, performance) (14)
 6.3 Proper mechanism/system for procurement
exists and practiced (6)
 6.4 Staff Skills and Competences (18)

20. Reflection

21. What we achieved
Having an appropriate tool to assess the
capacity of CSO
Knew the area of strengths and gaps for each
CSO
The CSOs have clear direction of their
organization for future improvement
CSOs have a concreted action plan for
capacity building
CSOs probably use our approach to apply
with their clients and stakeholders

22. PPCA result of GCA

23. PPCA result of SODA

24. Benefits of use
Support formulation of short, medium, and
long-terms goals and objectives.
Increase focus on CSO’s capacity building.
Identify areas for inter-agency cooperation
and coordination.
Help to attract new sources of funding.

25. Challenges/difficulties
Participatory approach is time consuming
Language speaking is one barrier of
assessment
Standard setting up should be careful and
representing whole organization type
Zero score does not mean weak, that is an
opportunity to improve, less attention of CSOs
Accurate information is very crucial, useless
capacity building plan, if data given is not
SMART

26. What did we learn
Ahead informing the partners is good advantage
The PPCA is good initiative and helpful
The PPCA tool could customize the standard
according to organization type
It’s important and helpful to involve board,
senior staff, and sector experts
Learning opportunity from partners
Better confidence to support self assessment
The PPCA itself as an opportunity for capacity
building

27. Next steps
The Go-FOGO extensively pursues to work in
close collaboration with program quality team in
four key elements of missions:
Support implementation of the PPCA action plan
Work on gender profile
Go-FOGO baseline survey
Set up M&E system

28. Food Quality and Standards Service
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Thank you
Contacts:
Phetsoulaphonh Choulatida
Phommachanh Phothichanh
Bharat Raj Gautam
Phetsoulaphonh.Chaulatida@careint.org
Phommachanh.Phothichanh@careint.org
Bharat.Gautam@careint.org