Emerging Patterns in the Capacity Development Puzzle

Many capacity development (CD) programs and processes aim at long‐term sustainable change, which depends on seeing many smaller changes in at times almost invisible fields (rules, incentives, behaviours, power, coordination etc.). Yet, most evaluation processes of CD tend to focus on short‐term outputs focused on clearly visible changes. This paper will offer some ideas on how to deal with this paradox, by examining how monitoring and evaluation (M&E) does, or could, make a difference to CD.  It explores whether there is something different and unique about M&E of CD that isn’t addressed by predominant methods and ways of thinking about M&E.