In our review of in-depth platforms for European planning, we cannot miss what is probably one of the most active and comprehensive: Capacity4Dev.
Created in 2009 and managed by DG DEVCO, its usefulness goes far beyond the purpose for which it was designed: to connect and capitalize on the knowledge of all actors active in development cooperation.
Many of the tools used by Europlanners, such as the Logical Framework, have been developed in this area, which is a veritable laboratory for ideas and approaches of a more general scope.
Let’s explore Capacity4Dev together.
- A first section, “Voices and Opinions,” features weekly articles and authoritative “pills” useful to those working in the field of cooperation and europlanning: new developments, best practices, projects and policies. Years of work and updating have enriched this section with hundreds of articles, videos and insights proposed by experts and carefully selected by the platform’s curators. Contributions can be searched by sector, geographic area, and keyword.
- The “Themes” section represents a “gateway” to the (very large) set of thematic topics analyzed by the platform: 45 sub-sections, 30 of which are sectoral and 15 cross-sectoral to visit and fully available to all, insiders and outsiders alike. Some examples: agriculture, culture, youth, education, environment, health, justice, enterprise and private sector, public administration, transportation, Urban development (between the sectoral pages); design, innovative finance, knowledge sharing, learning, monitoring and evaluation (among the cross-cutting pages)… just to name a few, but that’s just a taste! By accessing each page, whether sectoral or thematic, you can view the working groups on Capacity4Dev and the names of leading experts in the field active on the platform.
- The “Groups” and “Projects” sections provide direct access to more than one hundred thematic working groups active on the platform and a sere of specific projects promoted by Capacity4Dev, both searchable by keyword, sector, and geographic area;
- Sections “Training” and “Events” present additional and very interesting insights: a specific link to the documents with a more educational slant uploaded to the platform; the list of events (online and offline) offered and sponsored by Capacity4Dev as moments of mutual exchange and learning; and a dedicated link to a parallel, Capacity4Dev-related platform, the “DEVCO Academy“: a collection of specific tools dedicated to training, organized by tools (courses in e-learning, webinars, videos, documents, and podcasts) and by subject area.
- Also very interesting is the “People” section, which allows you to browse the list of registered users on Capacity4Dev, searching by keyword, type of organization, organization name, area of experience, and country.
Registered users can actively participate in working groups, publish articles and contact other members of the platform. Not bad, right? Good consultation and (why not?) good participation!
