This study aims to develop strategies and measures to help participants build capacity in rural development projects. Decentralization and diffusion of bottom-up approach in rural development projects are the main contextual factors in this study.
This study is composed of four parts. First part is to review the definition of capacity building and the three dimensions of capacity building in rural development policy. Second part is to review the governmental efforts and practices relating to the capacity building in rural development projects. Third part is to assess participants' needs for capacity building in rural areas. Through some case studies and Q-methodology, we discuss which activities the participants do and which supports they need in order to build their own capacity at each steps of rural development project cycle. Fourth part is to envisage several strategies and measures to build the participants' capacity in rural development projects.
Rural community's capacity and participants' capacity in particular development projects should be distinguished according to the context of discussion. A rural community's capacity can be built when various actors involved in different development projects successfully build their own capacity and when they are well organized and networked in the community. Therefore, three dimensions of capacity building should be considered in developing rural development policy; human resource development, organizational development and institutional improvement.
With the emphasis of bottom-up approach in rural development, the human and financial inputs for capacity building have increased drastically in the field of rural development policy. However the governmental investments in capacity building area seem to have been inefficient in that resources have been used in one-way manner. For example, the central and local governments preferred consulting and training to organizing self-directed learning groups and forums. This strengthened dependency on external professionals with the result that local actors were obstructed to build their own capacity.
Four types of capacity building activities were identified in this study; training, consulting, organization of learning units, and forum activity. Through the survey we conducted, the effectiveness of these types of activities was evaluated by local actors. According to the fields of development projects and the steps of a development project cycle, the effectiveness of four capacity building activities was differently perceived.
Based on the results of preceding analyses, we proposed several strategical orientations to build the local participants' capacity as followings. First, the government's effort to strengthen leadership in rural areas should be continued. Secondly, it is needed that the existing governmental training programs for capacity building include more diverse range of clients such as local governments' officers. Thirdly, actions for capacity building should be focused on the needs of participants in the fields. Especially organizing learning units is very important. Fourthly, rural development policy should establish a proper systemic process in which local actors are able to prepare to plan and implement their projects with enough period of time and opportunity of 'learning by doing'. Finally, local partnerships or networks should be supported by the central and local governments.