External and internal factors contributing to outcomes. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... urban development are in place in Ethiopia and the government has developed a strategy in which decentralization and urban development play an important role. From the Prime Minister of the country, through the Minister of Works and Urban Development to the president of the Ethiopian Civil Service University there was the conviction that this was the way to go. In fact, they were interested in accelerating the capacity development process, to scale up to high student numbers and to achieve quick results. Water-related and sanitary problems are not just technical problems but improved water governance is one of the key factors in solving these problems (Van Dijk, 2012: 139). The dilemma of this capacity development effort was whether to focus on one issue, which, for instance, looked at a crucial issue at a particular moment (for example, dealing with unemployment or housing, or water, sanitation of environmental issues), or to promote thinking about such issues in an integrated way from an urban management perspective as proposed in Van Dijk (2006). The institutional and political economy scan resulted in the picture of the governance structure given in Table 1. This table brings out the weaknesses in sector capacity in particular in the field of urban development and water supply and sanitation and the need to work with other institutional structures in the Ethiopian situation. The institutional and political economy scan shows that the hierarchical approach to urban and water management still needs to evolve to a more participative model where adaptive management and addressing ecological issues (from the consequences of climate change to increased pollution) play a more important role. 5.2.1. An actor assessment matrix . The development of the ECSU and the Masters programme was guaranteed by several actors on the supply side, who recognized the need for funds and political commitment to capacity development. During the programme, the ECSU was accountable to the Ministry of Capacity Building (MoCB) of Ethiopia which provided substantial support. In addition to MoCB, GTZ, the World Bank and the MoWUD provided support: the World Bank and GTZ in the form of financial and material support. The MoWUD helped in the recruitment of participants for the programme and facilitated the process of ensuring that participants would still be employed after completion of the programme. All organizations provided different forms of support; their input was essential and complementary in the process of strengthening capacity at the ECSU (Mengistu, 2012). An analysis using the actor assessment matrix resulted in the identi- fication of the important role of leadership in this project. Not only at the level of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Works and Urban Development, but also at the level of the president of the ECSU, who had good relations with the EPRDF, the governing party, where consensus has been reached on the importance of capacity development and the road to follow to achieve the formulated goals. This helped very much in win- ning political support to launch and fund the programmes. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Works and Urban Development provided the legitimacy required for a rapid expansion of the ECSU and the rapid increase of its number of students, in particular in the field of urban management. What internal factors influenced outcomes in the ECSU Masters programme? Interviews revealed that a combination of internal factors, including leadership on the part of the management of the ECSU, the combination of various types of capacity development interventions over a long period, and investment in staff and facilities, led to a programme of quality (Mengistu, 2012). The first key internal factor related to the fact that the ECSU and its Masters programme were headed by a professional who exhibited strong leadership qualities. The success was the joint effort of important per- sonalities such as the President and Academic Vice-President of the ECSU, and the programme manager. They knew when and how to deal externally with the government and donors, were open to new ideas, and dared to take on the challenges of educating 400 students per year, a number that was too high. In 2013, there are more than 250 participants who will complete their masters study in the summer from five different urban programmes. This type of individual was necessary for the sustainability of the programme, to maintain support for the programme, as well to keep focus amongst staff on achieving institutional goals. The long-term presence of these leaders and their consistency were essential. Another factor was the consistency and sequencing of, variety in and long-term nature of the capacity development support. Capacity development was provided over a number of years, in what ended up taking the form of different phases (see Box 2), each of a different nature and adjusted to the context and the needs of the ECSU (see Figure 1 on the variety of interventions). Taking on 400 students per year required substantial scaling up of the number of staff members and continued support from the IHS to maintain consistency and quality in the level of education in the various modules. Interviews revealed that this resulted in a programme that is now running with a consistent level of quality. One aspect of this factor was the sequencing and mix of capacity support. One respondent mentioned the fact that the first two Masters programmes provided with the IHS in the lead were identical to the Masters programme offered by the IHS in Rotterdam. In this phase, the IHS also trained the trainers (during a Training of Trainers, or ToT, programme and on the job). Testing this programme out in Ethiopia was essential for institutional learning. As a follow up, the design of the third Masters programme, which the IHS and ECSU delivered together, was based on a training needs assessment and was adjusted to local circumstances, making it more relevant. The sharing of tasks resulted in a very important experience for the local staff and the full-time programme manager facilitated the ‘ handover ’ to ECSU staff. Accord- ing to the respondent, the quality, quantity and variety of the support of the IHS were good, but also the fact that the nature of the support was adjusted and provided incrementally over time (Mengistu, 2012). Finally, the ECSU was also provided with the funds to make substantial investment in facilities and technology. This allowed the programme access to facilities that are more modern than those of most universities, and usually not available for institutions in poorer countries. The ECSU now has the best infrastructure and facilities in Ethiopia and is therefore primed to lead the capacity development process. Staff remain somewhat critical, indicating that certain internal factors created challenges and put at risk the achievements sought. For one, the programme was forced to undergo an unprecedented rate of growth. The increase of student numbers to 400 participants per year occurred in the fourth year, as staff were only beginning to apply the capacity developed. The decision to do so was a result of external political pressure to go to scale. The sheer scale of the teaching load was a difficult challenge to meet, with potential implications for success in terms of the quality of the programme. The sheer magnitude of the teaching load put pressure on the quality of the teaching and had some effects on the motivation levels of a significant number of staff and participants. Participants perceived that individual attention has been difficult to get and that they ‘ get lost in the shuffle ’ . Lecturers are assessed on the number of courses they provide, rather than on the quality of the courses provided. This did not encourage a stimulating environment in which to study. One of the qualities of adult education and the development of effective urban managers is using methods to stimulate debate and critical thinking. There are some hindering factors to creating such an academic environment. One of the most critical issues is the motivation of the students/participants. Firstly, recruitment of students for the yearly intakes was not through competition. Entrance exams were conducted in the IUDS only recently. Students were civil servants drawn from public organizations in the regions and city administrations who had to meet some qualification standards. Participants do not apply by themselves. They certainly know that their former positions or even better positions are guaranteed after they have completed their studies. Expectations (from both the government and society) were another source of motivation for graduates. There was an ambiguity, were they just filling the vacant positions or expected to solve critical urban development issues? This ambiguity did not help to create a stimulating environment in which to study. This has hindered ‘ real success ’ (Mengistu, 2012). This poses a challenge to the development of critical professionals who are capable of dealing more innovatively with the enormous urban problems that Ethiopian cities face. With specialized Masters programmes on urban land development and management, urban planning and development, infrastructure provision, environment and climate change along with a parallel programme on urban management, participants are anxious about their future career. Participants often do not receive a warm welcome when they get back to their former organizations. Their anxieties arise from two factors. First, they are often considered as a threat to the existing status quo in terms of reallocation of positions held and vacancies. Their other anxiety arises from the lack of mainstreaming of the various specialization programmes in the career structure. Architects, planners, engineers and currently urban managers have become familiar professions. What is a land manager ’ s, an ...

Context 2

... the level of education in the various modules. Interviews revealed that this resulted in a programme that is now running with a consistent level of quality. One aspect of this factor was the sequencing and mix of capacity support. One respondent mentioned the fact that the first two Masters programmes provided with the IHS in the lead were identical to the Masters programme offered by the IHS in Rotterdam. In this phase, the IHS also trained the trainers (during a Training of Trainers, or ToT, programme and on the job). Testing this programme out in Ethiopia was essential for institutional learning. As a follow up, the design of the third Masters programme, which the IHS and ECSU delivered together, was based on a training needs assessment and was adjusted to local circumstances, making it more relevant. The sharing of tasks resulted in a very important experience for the local staff and the full-time programme manager facilitated the ‘ handover ’ to ECSU staff. Accord- ing to the respondent, the quality, quantity and variety of the support of the IHS were good, but also the fact that the nature of the support was adjusted and provided incrementally over time (Mengistu, 2012). Finally, the ECSU was also provided with the funds to make substantial investment in facilities and technology. This allowed the programme access to facilities that are more modern than those of most universities, and usually not available for institutions in poorer countries. The ECSU now has the best infrastructure and facilities in Ethiopia and is therefore primed to lead the capacity development process. Staff remain somewhat critical, indicating that certain internal factors created challenges and put at risk the achievements sought. For one, the programme was forced to undergo an unprecedented rate of growth. The increase of student numbers to 400 participants per year occurred in the fourth year, as staff were only beginning to apply the capacity developed. The decision to do so was a result of external political pressure to go to scale. The sheer scale of the teaching load was a difficult challenge to meet, with potential implications for success in terms of the quality of the programme. The sheer magnitude of the teaching load put pressure on the quality of the teaching and had some effects on the motivation levels of a significant number of staff and participants. Participants perceived that individual attention has been difficult to get and that they ‘ get lost in the shuffle ’ . Lecturers are assessed on the number of courses they provide, rather than on the quality of the courses provided. This did not encourage a stimulating environment in which to study. One of the qualities of adult education and the development of effective urban managers is using methods to stimulate debate and critical thinking. There are some hindering factors to creating such an academic environment. One of the most critical issues is the motivation of the students/participants. Firstly, recruitment of students for the yearly intakes was not through competition. Entrance exams were conducted in the IUDS only recently. Students were civil servants drawn from public organizations in the regions and city administrations who had to meet some qualification standards. Participants do not apply by themselves. They certainly know that their former positions or even better positions are guaranteed after they have completed their studies. Expectations (from both the government and society) were another source of motivation for graduates. There was an ambiguity, were they just filling the vacant positions or expected to solve critical urban development issues? This ambiguity did not help to create a stimulating environment in which to study. This has hindered ‘ real success ’ (Mengistu, 2012). This poses a challenge to the development of critical professionals who are capable of dealing more innovatively with the enormous urban problems that Ethiopian cities face. With specialized Masters programmes on urban land development and management, urban planning and development, infrastructure provision, environment and climate change along with a parallel programme on urban management, participants are anxious about their future career. Participants often do not receive a warm welcome when they get back to their former organizations. Their anxieties arise from two factors. First, they are often considered as a threat to the existing status quo in terms of reallocation of positions held and vacancies. Their other anxiety arises from the lack of mainstreaming of the various specialization programmes in the career structure. Architects, planners, engineers and currently urban managers have become familiar professions. What is a land manager ’ s, an infrastructure planner ’ s, or an environment manager ’ s task description and salary scale? Therefore, participants are repeatedly requesting the management to mainstream their graduate profile to the career structure. Figure 1 stresses the importance of the interaction between internal and external factors. The key message behind the figure is that, in many cases, the internal factors were dependent on the existence of external factors, and vice versa. One example of such an interaction is in the existence of leadership both internally and externally. While internal leadership was necessary to keep the Masters programme developing and evolving, long-term leadership within the national government in the form of support for urban and for capacity development was also essential. Another example relates to the fact that structural and long-term capacity development support was only possible, in the context of Ethiopia, because of the political support and commitment from the national government to capacity development for urban managers. This political support also ensured that there was long-term donor and financial support to the programme and to investment in staff training and professional growth. In addition, as a public university mandated with the task to build an effective public service, the ECSU has benefited from the political value attached to this mandate; this has allowed it to obtain access to a substantial amount of long-term funding, and to gain easy access to global networks. The thematic focus of the ECSU is guided by the MoWUD of Ethiopia. The MoWUD functions as a client of the ECSU. The focus of the MoWUD is guided by the interests and priorities of the Minister of Works and Urban Development in power. In the past, the Ministry focused on integrated housing programmes, currently it is focused on land management issues. The focus is expected to change, poss- ibly to transport. Independently, the ECSU has identified key thematic areas in which to cooperate with the IHS: namely in urban renewal and participation, land value capture and land resource mobilization. The future relationship has yet to be defined. One of the greatest measures of success is when offspring become independent, competitors and/or partners in provision. Has the relationship with the ECSU taken on these characteristics? The current mode of cooperation between the IHS and the ECSU has changed and moved more towards a partnership. Even though this process has not yet fully crystallized, new conditions for capacity development have emerged. The relationship between the IHS and the ECSU can be defined as somewhere between a client – consultant relationship and a partnership. One characteristic of a partnership is evident in the willingness of the IHS to cover its own expenses while carrying out common research. However, there are some elements missing. The respondent pointed out: ‘ Partnership involves identifying joint cooperation areas that could be initiated by either party. ’ This implies that partnership involves running joint programmes, running common activities, searching for funding together and sharing the benefits and risks. Currently the IHS and the ECSU are undertaking no structural efforts to identify joint cooperation areas (Mengistu, 2012). At the moment there is a tendency from the ECSU to focus more on using local resources and foster- ing local capacity. The IHS ’ s involvement is slowly fading. Looking at this objectively, perhaps this is the clearest sign of positive outcomes: that the ECSU no longer requires capacity support, although it remains interested in strategic partnerships with other educational institutions. There is still a willingness on the part of both parties to work together in conferences, research programmes, publishing books, etc. For a successful partnership, it seems crucial to keep the momentum of cooperation going. Ethiopia faces the challenge of dealing with a rapidly growing population, a high level of urbanization and an agricultural sector with low productivity. The analysis of the ECSU and IHS relationship shows a positive effect of capacity development at the institutional level and that capacity development can lead to institutional development. In Ethiopia, the institutions appear to increasingly operate successfully and independently. Capacity development was identified by respondents as one of the key factors making this possible. What stands out in this case is the role of leadership. At the national level, at the sectoral and at the university level there were champions for this type of capacity development and structures were envisaged to be reinforced by the people trained in the project. Existing capacity was leveraged by bringing in foreign expertise. It is necessary to increase the adaptive capacity of water and urban governance structures and to satisfy at the same time the criterion of good governance, a key to sustain- able development. A partnership developed between the ministry, the ECSU and the IHS in which the local coordinator of the IHS and some of the academic staff members played an important role by teaching regularly, by undertaking joint research or through ...

Context 3

... support lasted from 2002 to 2008, but there is still an on-going cooperation in research activities. The IHS remained involved in four of the five urban development conferences prepared by the ECSU, but the last conference was a solo effort by the ECSU. In general, one notes the positive outcomes of the support provided, but we will now analyse the factors contributing to its success, using the methodological framework developed below. The programme attached importance to sectoral issues, such as supplying drinking water in Addis Ababa (Van Dijk, 2006: chapter 6) or improving solid waste management (Mesfin & Van Dijk, 2012). Environmental issues were dealt with by Ethiopian staff members (Lirebo & Seyum, 2012), or through combinations of local and international teachers (Mesfin & Van Dijk, 2012). Each time, however, emphasis was placed on the importance of an integrated approach where these issues are not looked at in isolation, but linked to broader drivers such as urbanization, industrialization, population growth, economic growth and climate change. Stakeholder perspectives are also important: the identi- fication of the problems takes place with the stakeholders; they are involved in finding appropriate solutions and where possible make a contribution to achieving the solution (Fenta, 2007). The model of capacity development was based on developing long-term relations, not just through joint education, but also through staff members receiving their MSc in Rotterdam, joint research resulting in three jointly organized conferences and subsequent publications (Van Dijk & Fransen, 2008; Akola et al ., 2010; Kassahun et al. , 2012) and in the PhD supervision of ECSU staff members, two of whom have defended so far (Belay File, 2012; Mengistu, 2013). Ethiopia was facing the challenges of decentralization and the roles of cities in making this process a success. These cities were facing challenges of water management, supplying drinking water, sanitation and other services and faced major environmental challenges. As a landlocked country, water problems are linked to the rains, and are apparent in polluted rivers and lakes. The challenges faced relate to how to ensure a proper supply of drinking water and the improvement of sanitary services. The Masters course was established to train leaders who could deal with these issues. The paper analyses the outcomes of capacity development efforts in Ethiopia, and the factors leading to these. This is a case study of one project which ran over a decade (Yin, 1994). It was chosen for this paper because it was a major capacity development project, running for a long period, allowing us to gain certain insights into the factors determining its success. This case of capacity development in Ethiopia on urban management began with a series of apparently unrelated initiatives. The Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS of Erasmus University Rotterdam) was working in Ethiopia as early as 1997 on different urban projects. The intensity of the work grew in 2000, and continued for the next 10 years. Different relevant sources of information were used to draw conclusions. The results of a survey amongst IHS alumni in 2010 were a consistent and reliable source; this was complemented with feed- back from alumni, (former) staff, partners and clients. A document search provided triangulation in sources. These sources provide an idea of the long-term effects of training and capacity development efforts. In addition, information was taken from the documents, which monitored the progress and assessed to what extent the objectives were achieved. Interviews were held with all the major stakeholders (Mengistu, 2012), and the authors themselves participated in the planning and execution of the project in different modalities. Box 2 provides an indication of the type of capacity development interventions that took place over time. Figure 1 shows the factors that potentially contribute to the success of the interventions, while the results of the analysis will be discussed in detail in the next section. This section assesses to what extent capacity development resulted in structural improvements in the performance of the staff, the institution and in the services that the ECSU provides. In assessing outcomes, the research looked at changes at the individual level, for both staff of the ECSU and alumni working as urban managers (on performance on the job in terms of improved competences and the ability to apply methods, and in career development); and at the organizational level (whether the ECSU as an organization managed to provide improved outputs and continued to attract clients) (see Figure 2). Change at the level of cities was too difficult to assess at this point. It could be argued that it is difficult to isolate to what extent change occurred due to the intervention of the IHS. We argue, however, that in the case of establishing the Masters programme at the ECSU, the IHS was involved almost exclusively in the provision of support in the setup and initial execution of the Masters programme in Urban Management, thus it is easier to filter how much the IHS influenced ...