Toward Sustainable Peace: Review of Training and Capacity Building Programs in Sri Lanka

The Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust (NTT), a returning workshop client, is a local grant-making organization in Sri Lanka that actively supports organisations that promote peace, reconciliation and human rights. A team of SIPA students was asked to conduct an assessment of Training and Capacity Building Programmes (T/CBPs). Capacity building is understood as an enhancement of existing knowledge through the learning of new skills and techniques. As such, a capacity building framework can be divided into three components: its inputs (priorities and capacities of donors / NGOs and collaboration), the process of utilising these inputs (programmes, needs assessment, monitoring, programme challenges) and the resulting outputs (programme evaluation and unmet needs). In Sri Lanka, this capacity building framework operates within a specific institutional and political context. This context is comprised of: 1) global and international socio-economic realities, 2) the highly regulated and controlled policies of the Sri Lankan government regarding NGO activity, and 3) the specific actions and reactions of the donors and NGOs. The final report strives to identify the main programming trends of the recovery and development process, the perceived impact of the T/CBPs being implemented and their inherent gaps.