Today, the world is interconnected that most countries cannot solely address their social and economic challenges.
This is more so for the developing countries that still suffer lower levels of human resource capacity in fields like medicine, education, agriculture, ICT, and engineering, and have over the years become increasingly dependent on external development assistance.
While development assistance has traditionally come in the form of infrastructure and equipment, seldom has it been complemented with technical capacity enhancement to ensure their sustainable use and management. The consequence of this has been a quick breakdown and dilapidation, minimal impact, and a widening income gap between the developed and developing countries.
Uganda recently attained lower middle-income status, and according to the Human Development Report 2023/24, also moved to the category of medium human development. These developments indicate an improvement in the economic and social situation of the country as reflected in improved average incomes, life expectancy, access to health and education services, among other indicators.
This is a commendable feat attributed to constructive interventions by Government, Development Partners, Civil Society Organizations and Private sector, but it is not the limit of Uganda’s potential.
Some have argued that the full potential of Uganda will be unlocked by commercialization of agriculture and stronger trade relations with the developed and developing countries, rather than external aid.
However, stronger trade relations and commercialized agriculture alone may not be sufficient with low human resource capacity, which not only limits innovation but also comes with low quality goods and services, and ultimately, lower competitiveness, relative to the more developed countries. This calls for a paradigm shift in international development cooperation if the objectives of donors and partner governments are to be realized.
Capacity development, usually aided through training, refers to the process of learning the skills one needs to perform specific jobs or activities. Though usually overlooked, it is an important component for the sustainability of development cooperation interventions. The modalities of training can be structured differently, depending on the implementing partner.
The commonest approach is direct training as part of a development project – in this case, facilitators are engaged to directly administer trainings to the intended beneficiaries while also following up to ensure that the trainees are applying techniques imparted.
On the other hand, technology transfer where Experts from developed or South-South Cooperation partners are dispatched to developing countries to train service providers from public and private sectors, contributes to institutional capacity development. Other forms include short-term and long-term trainings organized by funding partners, and third countries as part of South-South cooperation.
For instance, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has fronted knowledge co-creation as a means of facilitating mutual learning while jointly formulating and implementing development cooperation interventions that suit partner countries.
Through JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Program, a wide array of training courses (short-term and long-term) and packages have over the years been customized and conducted. Usually, short-term category includes Group and region-focused as well as third-country Training Programs conducted in Japan and other countries, respectively.
Long-term trainings through the African Business Education (ABE) Initiative, Agriculture Studies Network for Food Security (Agri-Net), SDGs Global Leaders and, the Local Governance with Community Participation in partnership with Yokohama University, have been designed for master’s and/or PhD studies.
Relatedly, the JICA Development Studies Program offers an opportunity to future leaders in developing countries to appreciate Japan’s modernization and development experience, especially after World War II.
Short-term trainings, on the other hand, have been carried out as a form of technology transfer through firsthand experiments and experiences in Japan and Third Countries, thereby building reciprocal relationships amongst representatives of participating countries, and subsequently facilitating knowledge co-creation.
These training programs have not only built institutional technical capacity for the sustainability of development interventions, but also strengthened linkages for technical exchange among professionals from the developed and developing countries.
Sustainable social-economic development and trade competitiveness of African countries, and Uganda in particular, can be determined by the quality of human resources. Therefore, training as a component in all international development cooperation interventions is indispensable.
The author is Program Officer, JICA Uganda