Capacity Building at IDRC

IDRC’s Evaluation Unit (EU) is conducting a strategic evaluation to investigate the Centre’s contributions to the development of capacities of those with whom the Centre works. The evaluation aims to provide IDRC’s own staff and managers with an intellectual framework and a useful common language to help harness the concept and document the experiences and results that the Centre has accumulated in this domain. Specifically, the strategic evaluation focuses on the processes and results of IDRC support for the development of capacities of its southern partners – what capacities have been enhanced, whose, how, and how effectively. Universalia was commissioned by the Evaluation Unit to: 1) produce a paper that elaborates, builds on and synthesizes the existing background documentation to the study as well as to place IDRC’s approach to capacity building activities in a wider context in relation to what other organizations are doing in this area; 2) examine the results achieved by IDRC interventions in a sample of projects, identify what had worked in developing research capacities, and sets out key gaps and deficiencies for consideration. 3) Develop 2 of the 6 organizational case studies which were envisaged to better ground the findings of the previous phases in specific, in-depth experiences. Universalia’s case studies focused on IDRC’s collaboration with the University of Makerere, Uganda, and with the Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social (CIES), Peru.