Structured thematic training and capacity building exercises have been a regular feature for enhancement of Knowledge, skills and practice of development professionals and volunteers in development co-operation and humanitarian aid projects, globally.
The knowledge and skills of staff can be enhanced through systematic mentoring, exposure visits and providing thematic trainings. However, most of the times, there is limited budget available with grassroots NGOs for these capacity-building initiatives. Also, there is a dearth of good trainers in the development sector.
Also, there is a great need of training and capacity building of community representatives, especially women and children in remote rural hinterlands. Very few thematic trainings and capacity building initiatives are actually being organized for the targeted communities by most development support organizations like NGOs, CSR Foundations and even by the Government.
Investing in staff can go a long way in the project sustainability and overall organizational efficiency. Investing in people from the targeted communities will also have a similar effect and long-term impact. The main issue is consciously allocating budgets for training and capacity building initiatives across all projects and campaign issues.
An annual Training Calendar needs to be in place in all development support organizations. This would be immensely useful to plan and co-ordinate the thematic trainings and capacity building initiatives. It will also be prudent to identify the best training/ resource institutions within and outside the State and country. A database on such institutions will be useful to co-ordinate thematic trainings and exposure.
Time needs to be allocated for training and capacity building initiatives for both staff and community representatives. Some of the big NGOs and Government do have training facilities to house structured in-house trainings. These need to be utilized optimally.
The demand and supply gap for accredited trainers is ever widening. Some of the donors and CSR Foundations do organize such thematic trainings and exposures for their partners, which have proved to be quire inspiring to the project staff to facilitate such similar interventions in their respective operational areas.
Donor requirements for compliance has become more professional since the last decade. Grassroots level development organizations like NGOs are increasingly finding it challenging to comply with all the donor requirements for project compliance. This can be attributed towards a few factors like staff with limited technical knowledge and skills on project cycle management including planning, implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, reporting and documentation, budget constraints, time, availability of certified trainers, priorities of the organizations being more towards implementation rather than capacity enhancement of staff, availability of appropriate training materials and IEC materials, etc.
It is important to understand the requirements of the donors and Government on the various components of project compliance on programmatic, financial and human resources related. Staff need to be prepared so that they are confident regarding the proper implementation, documentation and reporting as per the donor requirements and standards.
Most donors have reporting requirements in English, which continues to remain a challenge for grassroots NGOs to comply with. Most often than not, external experts and Consultants are hired for ensuring proper reporting in English language. This amounts to incurring a significant cost for the local NGOs.
Production of training materials and IEC materials is important and these have to be customized to the specific needs and requirements of the target groups and their associations. These reading materials need to be developed in local languages for better outreach to the targeted clientele. Most of the times, one finds such training and IEC materials stocked up in the NGO offices. These need to be disseminated to the community in their respective operational areas.
Pre-Kharif and Pre-Rabi trainings need to be planned for staff and community representatives in advance. This will enable all stakeholders to implement the project smoothly, ensuring quality.
Follow up on thematic trainings and capacity building initiatives is important by the local development support NGOs and donors. This is a missed component in most projects and programmes.
Thematic Training Methodologies
There are multiple training methodologies. Offline training or physical trainings seem to be the best with face to face interactions among the resource person and participants. Virtual trainings have also started of late post COVID. However, the efficacy of the trainings is limited.
Some Challenges in Thematic Training in 2025
- Availability of technical resource persons/ development practitioners: The availability of technical resource persons/ development practitioners remains limited. Very few good resource persons are active to provide their services to development support organizations and Government development projects. Most of them are ex-Government staff or retired Government employees. Some operate as independent freelancers while others are attached with consulting firms. The fees of the resource persons varies considerably in the sector depending on their experience and expertise and the ability of the client to pay. Other technical resource persons are from international donor agencies and few of them are development practitioners, who are closely engaged with the grassroots and field operations. Since most agricultural activities are linked with the growing seasons, the availability of technical resource persons to facilitate technical training sessions prior to the agricultural interventions id important and crucial. Most times than not, the timely availability of the resource persons is a challenge for most development support organization.
- Allocation of budgets for trainings and exposure: It is important to budget for the thematic trainings and exposure visits for both staff and community leaders by the implementing partners. Refresher trainings should also be budgeted. These should be discussed with the respective donors/ Resource agencies and agreed.
- Training infrastructure and facilities: Good training infrastructure and facilities are necessary to organize training programmes. The training infrastructure should have the necessary training aids like LCD projector, white boards, marker pens, stationery, chart papers, carpets, repository of documentaries and short films, reasonable lodging and boarding facilities, canteen/ mess, recreational facilities such as indoor games, demonstration plots, etc.
- Exposure visits: Exposure visits to successful projects/ initiatives to NGOs and other development support organizations. “Seeing is believing” – it will be good to take staff and volunteers for exposure programmes to successful (and failure) projects to see and understand the community engagements and processes which have resulted in positive changes and impacts. Staff and volunteers get motivated by seeing the results and discussing with the staff of the host organizations. They feel renewed after the exposure visit and feel more confident to roll out similar interventions with targeted communities and stakeholders.
- Follow up to trainings: It is important to follow up on what has happened post the training programmes. Has the staff taken any actions in co-ordination with the target audience and key stakeholders based on their new knowledge and skills or nothing much has happened. These tracking processes would be useful to understand the progress or no progress of the project interventions and their efficiency and effectiveness.
- Trainings for staff and volunteers: Training of staff and volunteers is required as per the training needs assessments. There are specific training and capacity building needs for each and every staff and volunteer. Staff and volunteers need to be oriented on the thematic issues and implementation issues on a regular basis, facilitated by thematic resource persons/ development practitioners. These are especially important for the new staff who have joined the organization recently. Trainings on vision, mission and goals of the organization, helps to align the staff and volunteers with the organization work and priorities.
Thematic trainings will be required for in-depth understanding of the thematic issues, challenges, gaps in implementation and possible solutions for addressing them in due course of time through the projects is a vital requirement. Participatory trainings have proved to be successful to engage the participants and motivate them to learn better and upgrade their knowledge and skills.
It is also sometimes challenging to training new staff who have joined in new projects. If the staff have potential they pick up fast, once oriented… But if any person is hired then it becomes challenging to improve their capacity. Implementing partners should not compromise on the salaries/ honorariums of staff and capable staff should be hired. Also, good technical resource persons should be paid adequately and taken care of which includes their fees, accommodation, travel and food during the training assignments.
Some of the Thematic Training Modules in High Demand in the Sector:
- Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)/ Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools and techniques
- Research methodology and sampling
- Baseline Surveys
- Results Based Management (RBM)
- Results based Documentation and Reporting
- Collection of Case Studies/ Case Stories
- Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) management
- Digital Ethnography
- Child Rights including Child Protection
- Safeguarding Policy
- Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR)
- Gender equity and equality – Gender policy, Anti-Sexual Harassment at Workplace
- Organizational Development and Fundraising
- Leadership trainings
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- Biodiversity and impacts on Climate change
- Landscape management
- Kitchen gardening
- Integrated Watershed Management
- Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)
- Natural farming
- Soil and Water conservation methods and practices
- GIS applications
- Value addition and Marketing
- Renewable energy technologies
- Farm mechanization
- Book Keeping
- Financial inclusion and Bank linkages
- Social protection
- Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
- Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006
- Household level Food and Nutritional Security – National Food Security Act, (NFSA), Daily Dietary Diversity (DDD) and balanced diets.
- Right to Information Act (RTI)
- MGNREGA
- Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016 (RPWD)
- Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (also Land Acquisition Act, 2013
- Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Acts (PESA), 1996
- Inter-State Migration Act
- Right to Education Act (RTI)
- Media advocacy – electronic, print and social media
- Access to Government development Schemes and Flagship programmes
- Community-owned and managed Grain banks and Seed banks
- Community/ Public health, especially for Mother and Child
- Participatory Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Climate change
- Anti-Trafficking
- Disability rights and Government benefits, etc.
- Community-led Policy & Advocacy.
- Communication training.
- Road safety.
- Rural Livelihoods.
- Participatory Water Management.
- Common Property Resources (CPRs).
Community Capacity Building (CCB)
Community leaders especially women and youth are trained on thematic issues and areas of work. These are best organized at a place closer to the targeted/ local communities. Trainings imparted in local language has a better impact on the participants. Participants feel at ease and their attendance in the training programme is better. Demonstration plots close to the training venue can aid the training process, where the participants can practice the practical methods and systems of planting, manure preparations, field testing of IPM technologies, etc.
Community level documentation and record keeping is important as these information can be useful for the local communities. One can also see the transparency and accountability aspects at various levels. Transfer of knowledge and skills (including traditional knowledge systems and practices) need to be transferred to the next generations.
Also, information regarding Government development schemes and the practicalities for accessing the benefits and services need to be discussed and disseminated among all key stakeholders, especially the poor and most marginalized households and individuals. Display of information in the form of wall paintings can be useful for the entire community to understand the Government schemes and programmes. Participatory development of rules and regulations, roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders, Do’s and Don’ts, process conflict resolution mechanisms, etc. can be developed and operationalized in the region. This is a continuous process and needs conscious efforts and engagements between key stakeholders. These may also lead to ownership of the development interventions and sustainability of the projects and programmes.
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