Capacity Development Plans Trialling New Ways of Working Together in the Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID) Program

Capacity Development Plans (CDPs) are part of Australian Volunteers International’s effort to employ a more strategic partnership approach with overseas partner organisations under the Australian Volunteers for International Development program. CDPs aim to outline an intended way of working together, based on the partner organisation’s capacity development priorities, over a three-to-five-year period. Most importantly, they indicate how AVI volunteer assignments are expected to contribute to specific long-term capacity development outcomes. In 2013, AVI developed a set of tools to trial a CDP approach using two trial models across seven different countries. This report presents key benefits and challenges of the tools and process, and recommendations for future practice.