The most progressive mayors and governors invest in capacity building. Equipped and empowered people multiply the impact of their initiatives.
Good leaders invest in people.
We can build good leaders when we invest in capacity building. It is a choice that we must make. And it is easier than imagined.
The Problem with Traditional Leaders
Traditional leaders often waste money on short-term projects and PR activities. Local leaders who refuse to invest in people empowerment perpetuate poverty.
Filipinos often say that we deserve the leaders we elected to office. Poor communities remain poor because they choose corrupt and incompetent leaders who want them to stay poor while enriching themselves.
Nobody deserves an ineffective leader.
But make no mistake. I am not blaming our leaders. They have their faults, but they do not deserve all the blame. And blaming cannot help us build communities.
We can have a progressive and disciplined community. There is a better alternative to wishing and blaming.
Invest in Capacity Building
Invest in the future strength and sustainability of our communities through capacity building. Every leader in every community needs our help.
We can work together to improve the ability of every barangay, town, or city to fulfill its mission through sound management, good governance, and commitment to making positive change happen.
Community leaders risk focusing all their efforts and energy on providing social services and expanding projects without capacity building. Instead, they do same-same programs that do not inspire ownership and have zero sustainable impact.
With capacity building, leaders maintain focus and find ways to make the community vision real. They are strategic, inclusive, creative, and adaptive.
What is capacity building?
Capacity building refers to the process of developing the actual and optimum potential abilities of people in an organization or community to perform. Capacity building includes interventions that strengthen knowledge, skills, processes, strategies, and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive.
Capacity building proactively creates the future that individuals, organizations, and communities care about.
An essential ingredient of capacity building is transformation. Leaders transform their communities by equipping people, providing resources, and creating an environment that encourages growth.
