Capacity Strengthening
World Vision has implemented capacity-strengthening initiatives across multiple regions, empowering local organizations to lead and manage projects, transition responsibilities, and secure sustainable funding, ultimately fostering long-term resilience and local ownership in humanitarian and development efforts.
Strengthening Partners, Sustaining Change
World Vision is committed to strengthening communities’ capacity to achieve and sustain child well-being, both within and beyond formal partnerships. We work to equip local organizations to advance child well-being, recognizing that they are often best positioned to respond to local needs — despite facing increasingly challenging environments and complex grant compliance requirements.
Our capacity strengthening approach is grounded in complementarity and mutual accountability. We actively listen, learn, and grow together with our partners. Where we have relevant expertise, we share it to support their mission and sustainability goals — while also recognizing and valuing the unique insights, resources, and strengths that local partners bring to our shared work.
Examples of this at work
- The Community-led Capacity Strengthening for Fragile Contexts (C4FC), one of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)’s first localization pilot programs, strengthened the capacity of frontline local humanitarian organizations to respond to and prepare for crises. C4FC co-created a community-driven resilience curriculum with 31 Local Non-Governmental Organizations (LNGOs) across Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia. A tiered approach to tailored capacity strengthening supported LNGO staff in areas like community-based targeting, community action plans, gender and climate assessments, and contingency planning. The project also strengthened LNGO organizational capacities, including prepositioning and proposal development, partnering and stakeholder engagement, finance policy and internal controls, grant finance management, record retention and audit, and USAID’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach.
- From 2010 to 2016, World Vision led the USAID-funded Sustainable HIV Prevention, Care, and Support Services program (STEPS OVC) in Zambia, providing grant management and capacity-building for 380 small, local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs). By the third year of the project, World Vision successfully transitioned 100% of grant implementation and leadership responsibilities to 13 top CBOs. Through a comprehensive organizational capacity-building curriculum, approximately 85% of program activities were executed by local organizations, with nearly 10% securing external funding. This success led USAID to direct subsequent awards to some of these CBOs, highlighting the impact of capacity-strengthening efforts in leadership, financial management, and monitoring and evaluation, and marking a successful transition from international consortium members to Zambian NGOs.
- In Zambia, the Organizational Capacity Building Project (2022) strengthened the organizational and technical capacity of three local partners. To hear partner testimonies about this project, see this video.
- The Enhancing Nutrition Stepping Up Resilience and Enterprise (ENSURE) program in Zimbabwe was recognized for improving the effectiveness of local NGO partners. From 2013 to 2020, the ENSURE project worked with local organizations, government institutions, communities, and the private sector to build their capacity by helping local organizations develop and achieve clear goals and objectives through improved individual and institutional capacity. The project’s strategy included embedded technical support, participant training, and financial support, resulting in notable achievements such as the establishment and improvement of good practices and systems for managing human, financial, and information resources. ENSURE used problem-based, participatory, and supportive strategies to address key capacity needs.
- The APHIA program in Kenya, implemented from 2011 to 2017, built the capacity of 22 CBOs, helping them become the organizations of choice in their sub-counties. This USAID-funded program included capacity assessments, mentoring, and small grant awards, enabling these CBOs to secure local government funding and grants from other NGOs and central government funds.
