Some emerging principles and issues
"Capacity" to undertake high-quality and effective research includes "Tangible Capital" - physical infrastructure, operational budgets, and institutional mechanisms etc, and "Human Capital" - people, skills, motivation etc (DANIDA 2000). DFID (and other donors) stress that research should have practical relevance to poor people, i.e. should be "policy-relevant", despite increasing evidence that policy processes are rarely linked closely to research results. There is a danger that an over-emphasis on "policy-relevance" may result in a neglect of more fundamental research. (Killick 2001). Capacity gaps in South are location and sector specific, and capacity-building needs tailor-made approaches, based on a good understanding of local context (Newman & de Haan 2001). There are some fears that the devolution of control to southern organisations, and a focus on capacity-building may reduce the quality and usefulness of the research - is DFID prepared to be a "risk-taker" (Newman & de Haan 2001)? Research capacity building is long term and expensive, and requires donors to become better at bending policies and procedures to the needs and circumstances of the countries they serve, and allow southern research institutions greater control over and ownership of the results (Schacter 2000). Capacity-building in information and knowledge management and training is also needed, but the technology must be locally appropriate, and the information locally useful, especially for policy-makers (de Kadt 1995).  INASP seems to be doing useful work in this area (INASP 2001).

Organisations involved in capacity building
This study revealed 49 organisations with "strengthening southern research capacity" described in their mission-statements or high-level objectives.  These include six UN agencies, four Foundations, three CGIAR agencies, five co-ordinating agencies, four bilateral programmes, seven research institutes, 11 international NGOs and nine regional NGOs. These do not include bilateral or multilateral donor agencies, but do include operational agencies they have set up to help them manage their programmes.  In addition to those listed here, there are innumerable other development and research organisations working collaboratively with southern research partners who are, de-facto involved in capacity-building.

They range from very large, resource-rich UN and CGIAR agencies with budgets of over US$500 million to small regional NGOs, and networks.  Some have no budget at all, and  rely on member organisations paying for joint activities individually (IAP). Capacity building is the main activity for some (eg ISNAR, INASP, ACBF and SISERA), whereas it is a secondary objective for others (eg UNRISD). Thirty eight (77%) are based in developed countries and eight (22%) in developing countries.  Half (25) describe their work as worldwide, and eight (16%) as in developing countries.  Of the remainder, 14 (44%) work in Africa (mainly Anglophone), nine (28%) in Asia, three (9%) in Central and Latin America, and two each (6%) in the Middle East, Central Europe and the Pacific.  The dominance of northern agencies, and small number of agencies identified based, or working, in Latin America and Francophone Africa may be at least in part because the study was based largely on an internet search. Fifteen (32%) support research in development policy and management, 15 (32%) in social sciences and economics, 11 (23%) in biodiversity and the environment, 11 (23%) in industry, technology and communications, 10 (23%) in agriculture and food, six (12%) each in health, basic sciences, infrastructure and education and culture, three (6%) in governance, two (4%) in management, and one (2%) in international co-operation.

It is difficult from information on web-sites and in annual reports to assess accurately how much capacity-building work many of the organisations do, and especially how effective it is.  It is also difficult to compare such widely differing organisations. Some organisations however clearly have useful capacity and expertise and would be worth further study:

• Among the United Nations Agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) seems to have invested more effort than the others in strengthening southern research capacity, especially in information systems, learning and knowledge management. While the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) aims to "strengthen national university capacity in teaching and research, it was difficult to understand how from the materials available in this study.

• The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was established in 1971 to improve agricultural research world-wide.  While most CGIAR centres adopt a capacity-building approach within their collaborative research programmes (eg the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology), the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) was established explicitly to strengthen southern agricultural research capacity.  Although its budget is relatively small, ISNAR has developed a wide range of practical tools, a participatory approach, and an interesting "Capacity Development Project" focusing on evaluation as a tool for capacity building.

• The Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships (KFPE) was set up by the Council of Swiss Scientific Academies to promote research partnerships with southern research organisations.  KFPE has coordinated much international thinking on how to strengthen southern research capacity over the last few years, most of which is captured in their recent book "Enhancing Research Capacity in Developing Countries" (KFPE 2001). Similar organisations, the Federation of Institutes for International Education in the Netherlands (FION) and the SAIL Foundation (SAIL), perform a similar function in the Netherlands as does the Norwegian Council for Higher Education's Programme for Development Research and Education (NUFU) in Noway.

• The Netherlands Development Assistance Research Council (RAWOO) - set up by the Minister for Development Cooperation, performs a wider function - to ensure that research funded by the Dutch government to foster development is attuned to the needs of developing countries, and has formulated a number of policies governing Dutch development research programmes.

• The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has established the bilateral Programme for Enhancement of Research Capacity in Developing Countries (ENRECA) to co-ordinate and broker research partnerships between Danish and Southern Universities for development-related research programmes in Danish universities.

• The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)'s Department for Research Cooperation (SAREC) directly funds bilateral research partnerships, and allocates one third of its resources specifically for support rather than research activities.

• Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been working to strengthen southern research capacity since 1970.  Its approach, based on direct expert contact with southern researchers seems to be very effective but is extremely labour intensive (Earl & Smutylo 1998).

• The recently disbanded Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) seemed to approach its collaborative research programme with more emphasis on capacity building than others.  How this expertise and approach is, or isn't continued, now the programmes are being managed out of separate university departments may provide useful pointers for support to the university-based development research community in the UK.

• The Global Development Network (GDN), established within the World Bank in 1998, but now an independent not-for-profit organisation, has an explicit mandate to strengthen southern research capacity and research-policy linkages.  The emphasis during the first phase is to establish the network and provide support to individual researchers through competitive research grants.  Once established, the focus will shift to institution-building, knowledge-sharing, and bringing researchers and policy makers together.

• Established by the International Council for Science (ICSU) in 1992, the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) has shifted from ensuring southern research agencies has access to northern research publications, to strengthening the capacity of southern research institutions to produce, manage and use knowledge derived from their own research work.

• There are also a number of specialised networks of scientists including the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the International Union of Nutritional Science (IUNS) and the Third World Network of Scientific Organisations (TWNSO) - which seem to have established effective networks of scientists in developing countries with relatively few resources and a focus on science rather than development.

• A number of specialised agencies have been established specifically to support southern research capacity, especially in Africa.  Some of these, for example the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and Secretariat for Institutional Support for Socio-Economic Research in Africa (SISERA) are large, well funded (by World Bank, UN and Bilateral Donors), and have substantial programmes, though there is little easily available information about their effectiveness.  Others, for example the Africa Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and Association of Development Research and Training Institutes of Asia and the Pacific (ADIPA) are smaller, often networks of southern researchers rather than operational programmes.  All may offer opportunities to strengthen southern research capacity in their regions.