Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) Program, Year 1 Outcomes

The first year of ICB has provided many useful lessons ASEC can use for capacity building with future institutions.

Through the SLDI program, sisters develop skills to positively impact their congregations and ministries. However, there remains a need to further develop internal systems within the larger institutions to which sisters belong, such as their congregations and their national conferences/associations.

With this in mind, ASEC initiated a pilot Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) program. In Year 1 of the pilot, ASEC staff engaged with the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious in Ghana (CMSRGH), with the help of local consultants on the ground. As a result, CMSRGH achieved several significant milestones, including the legal registration of CMSRGH with the government.

Although ASEC was unaware of CMSRGH’s lack of legal status when the ICB process began, this was a key piece of the capacity building process. Without properly registering with the government, CMSRGH was not a legally recognized institution in the country.

CMSRGH obtained legal status and, as a result, established a database of congregation members and also obtained land rights. CMSRGH also revised their constitution to include a newly created executive body and created a new 5-year strategic plan. Some other outcomes include new financial assets, a new website and a search for a new Secretary General.

ICB Learnings from Year 1 Implementation

ICB Program Year 1 (PDF) highlights the key learnings and timeline of events from the first year of the ICB program. These learnings come from the capacity building work done with the leaders of the CMSRGH, in collaboration with the AdviseWise consultants based in Ghana. During the capacity building process, there were several discoveries, unintended outcomes and key learning points which are noted in the timeline along with benchmark dates and expected outcomes.

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ASEC would like to thank the leaders of CMSRGH and the AdviseWise consultants for their tireless, thoughtful and dedicated work within the ICB program this past year.

While each capacity building process with an institution will be different, the first year of ICB has proven more productive and fruitful than anticipated and provided many useful lessons for continued capacity building with CMSRGH and future institutions.

You can learn more about the program at asec-sldi.org/icb.

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