Virtual capacity-building isn’t going anywhere. Here’s how to make it more effective.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of our capacity-building trainings have shifted online. We’ve learned that when you identify clear regulatory goals, engage a cross-section of stakeholders, support internal champions, and invest in your team, capacity-building can accelerate policy change.
What we’ve learned
1. Work with partners to identify clear regulatory goals from the start and sequence our engagement accordingly
Capacity-building is more than just a tool for relationship-building and individual professional development; it can help build institutional momentum and conditions for regulatory change.
For example, we have been working with the BCEAO to provide technical assistance on Fintech and financial innovation, areas that we identified together as emerging regulatory concerns in the region, especially as they relate to consumer protection. We then collaborated to identify their specific learning needs, provided scholarships for staff to take Digital Frontiers Institute courses on consumer protection, digital identification, and financial inclusion, and recently layered on a Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance course that focuses more intensively on regulation of Fintech and financial innovation.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made getting everyone into a (virtual) room easier. But keeping people engaged once they’re present requires clear goals, relevant coursework, and direct connections back to their day-to-day responsibilities.”
Going forward, we will continue to support the BCEAO in applying what they learned to their regulatory plans for 2022.
2. Bring a cross-section of stakeholders together
Lasting regulatory success does not rest with a single team or institution.
Increasingly, we see trainings as opportunities for stakeholders to co-create the frameworks, policies, and plans that they will use “outside of the classroom” to accelerate the regulatory changes they hope to make.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made getting everyone into a (virtual) room easier. But keeping people engaged once they’re present requires clear goals, relevant coursework, and direct connections back to their day-to-day responsibilities.
For example, our collaboration with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Tufts University’s Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) brought together participants from 14 institutions at the end of 2021. They worked collaboratively online over an eight-week period to design specific policy solutions based on elements of Egypt’s upcoming National Financial Inclusion Strategy. Participants provided very positive feedback about the approach and their experience, and we’re excited to support them as they take their work forward in 2022.
For the trainings we convene in 2022, we plan to build on this approach to include the private sector, civil society, and additional public-sector stakeholders.
3. Cultivate internal champions and actively support them
The success of the FLPFI/CBE training demonstrates another lesson in our capacity building engagement: the importance of identifying the right individuals who can serve as champions and conveners to drive further initiatives.
The FLPFI/CBE training was led in large part by a CBE alum of the FLPFI program who not only understood the value of the training and the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach but could also help inform the timing of the intervention.
“With a clear focus, engaged stakeholders, committed champions, and world-class partners, we believe our capacity-building model will help our partners enact the regulatory changes to which they are committed to.”
We’ve also seen the critical role of internal champions in our work in The Gambia and Ethiopia. Not only can an internal champion increase completion rates by providing informal monitoring and encouraging active participation, they are typically well-positioned to take the work forward once the training ends.
4. Invest in our team and partners
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt our ability to travel and engage with policymakers in person, virtual capacity-building and development have become even more crucial.
In 2021, we made two strategic investments to strengthen the quality of our training approach:
We partnered with several leading capacity-building and academic organisations to provide more in-depth learning opportunities for regulators and policymakers; and
We created a new role on our team to strengthen relationships with partners and participants and to support our team in designing capacity-building plans with their counterparts that deepen the impact and relevance of the trainings.
With a clear focus, engaged stakeholders, committed champions, and world-class partners, we believe our capacity-building model will help our partners enact the regulatory changes to which they are committed.
Final thoughts
With more reliance on virtual support during the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned quickly that what works in person does not always translate online. And that virtual collaboration can unlock new opportunities that were not available before.
Since training and capacity-building are a key part of many technical assistance programs offered by development organisations to governments, we hope that what we’ve learned can be useful to others. Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to discuss further.
Authors
Carlo Guicherit
Alexis Ditkowsky